January Tip Sheet from Los Alamos National Lab

ILLUMINATING HOT GASES FOR A COOLER FUTURE Could carbon dioxide removed from industrial emissions be used to produce methanol? If so, efforts to reduce greenhouse gases could be linked with production of alternative fuels. Los Alamos scientists are exploring whether solar energy acting on a high-temperature carbon dioxide gas stream can create an essential chemical step for methanol production. That step is to liberate one of the carbon dioxide's two oxygen atoms, turning the gas into carbon monoxide, from which it is a simple matter to convert it to methanol. The researchers are exploring newly discovered states of carbon dioxide in which the molecule's internal energy structure makes it more conducive to shedding an oxygen atom. They will be using lasers to measure the light absorption and oxygen production of carbon dioxide in a hot cell. Favorable data from these measurements could lead to an effective process for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and decreasing oil imports. Gary Kliewer, 505- 665-2085 / [email protected]

HOT GASES FOR A QUICK TRIP TO MARS Los Alamos scientists are using computer codes developed for nuclear weapons to model a gas core nuclear rocket that could be used for a manned mission to Mars. The rocket would use nuclear energy to heat hydrogen gas that, when exhausted, would propel the rocket. The higher speeds achieveable with a nuclear rocket would cut the round-trip travel time from three years to one year, which would provide for greater safety to the crew by minimizing their time in space and also make the flight more economical because it would require fewer supplies and a shorter duration for ground support on Earth. The Los Alamos study is being conducted with funding from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Los Alamos scientists hope to extend the collaboration and take advantage of advanced computing capability being developed at Los Alamos. James Rickman, 505-665-9203 / [email protected]

ACE IN PLACE, SOLAR DATA FLOWS Measurements of the solar wind from Los Alamos' instruments aboard NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer are flowing in, giving researchers a detailed view of the solar wind as it advances toward Earth and feeding directly into realtime forecasts of space weather. ACE was successfully inserted into an orbit around a gravitationally stable point about a million miles away from Earth. From its upstream location, ACE samples the solar wind before it arrives at Earth and can provide advance warnings of solar wind disturbances that can affect the near-Earth space environment. The Los Alamos team powered up its instruments shortly before Christmas and has fine-tuned them for ongoing data collection. Jim Danneskiold, 505-667-1640 / [email protected]

AND FOR ANOTHER SOLAR VIEW... NASA's Ulysses spacecraft recently completed its first polar orbit around the sun, and Los Alamos researchers developed a compelling graphic that displays the solar wind experienced along this journey. The graphic shows the solar wind speed and magnetic field orientation as a function of solar latitude overlaid on images of the sun's surface and corona. The graphic immediately conveys the highly variable wind speed seen near the sun's equatorial region and the smooth, high-speed wind that flows at high latitude. The image and instructions on how to download a postscript version of it can be found at http://nis-www.lanl.gov/groups/nis-1/ Jim Danneskiold, 505-667-1640 / [email protected]

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