Crystallography for Space Sciences

A COSPAR Capacity Building Workshop
INAOE and BUAP, Puebla, Mexico

April 17-29, 2016

The first International School/Workshop on Crystallography for Space Sciences organized as a collaboration of COSPAR, the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) and the International Astronomical Union in Puebla, Mexico in April 2016 was a great success.

The opening ceremony of Crystallography for Space Sciences Workshop [from the left Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz (venue director, CSIC, University of Granada, Spain), Ygnacio Martínez Laguna (Autonomous University of Puebla), Guillermo Tenorio-Taglio (INAOE). Hanna Dabkowska (IUCr), Mariano Mendez (COSPAR)].



More details and photographs in the IUCr photo gallery.

The aim of the Workshop - stellarly directed by Juanma García-Ruiz (CSIC-University of Granada) was to prepare a selected number of participants for the next generation of projects in search of a deeper knowledge and understanding of extraterrestrial minerals and rocks, either large solid bodies or interstellar dust particles, using in-situ and remote analytical techniques.

27 PhD students, postdocs and young staff members took part in the workshop, mostly from Latin America. They learned about modern crystallographic techniques in the fields of diffraction, imaging, spectroscopy and remote sensing. They also learned about the formation of mineral growth patterns in the early Earth, our Moon, Mars and other planets and moons, meteorites and interstellar dust, as well as about the relevance of crystals to the origin of life and detection of primitive life forms. During this workshop the students were also taught about sample preparation techniques. They analyzed their own data, and also data from the missions Discovery and Curiosity, and they learned about data collection on the forthcoming Exomars mission. Portable difractometers and spectrophotometers designed for these missions were used during the field trip for remote analysis of volcanic rocks. Last but not least, all the participants learned about COSPAR (presentation by Mariano Mendez) and the IUCr (by Hanna Dabkowska).

The detailed program of the workshop, with the most important talks included, can be found at the Workshop website.

On the first day of the venue the nearby Popocatepetl volcano erupted, providing the students with ample amount of volcanic ashes to be analyzed - just on their doorsteps! The planned excursion to this volcano, led by the vulcanologist Claus Siebe, was moved to less dangerous locations, though still at the lava deposits (from previous eruptions).

The crystallographic and crystal growth lectures (presented by Jim Britten, Juan Rodriguez Carvajal, Hanna Dabkowska, Yuki Kimura, Jose Antonio Manrique, Chris Mavris, Maria Eugenia Mendoza, Teresa Pi Puig, Juan Manuel Garcia Ruiz and Fernando Rull) were at a very high level and were very much enjoyed by the students. So were the inspiring talks about the Mars missions (presented by Dave Blake on Curiosity, Jorge Vago on Exomars and Pablo Sobron on future missions), about the Hayabusa mission (by Tomoki Nakamura), about meteorite investigations, (by Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez, Fernando Ortega and Jaime Urrutia), about early minerals (by Mark van Zuilen) and about some interesting crystals (by Wulf Depmeier and David Page).

In the afternoons the students worked with the instructors, preparing samples, analyzing them using a portable diffractometer, Raman and infrared spectrophotometer and optical microscopy, and applying methods discussed earlier during the lectures.

The local organizers team, led by Guillermo Tenorio Tagle, Maria-Eugenia Mendoza, Raul Mujica, Teresa Pi Puig and Ulises Salazar, went out of their way to have the group entertained, well fed with delicious food and taught about the impressive local historical sites. We visited Puebla City, ancient pyramids in Cholula and Teotihuacan and we had the opportunity to participate in two very active public events, one the lecture of Jorge Vago in Puebla about the Exomars mission, and the other a round-table discussion on Life on Mars in the Museo UNIVERSUM. We also had opportunities to observe the crystal growth competition organized by Raul Mujica and Maria-Eugenia Mendoza for Puebla schoolchildren, accompanied by the public lecture of Juanma Garcia-Ruiz on Giant Crystals of Naica, to watch the movie The Martian, to discuss it with the experts involved in Mars exploration, and to participate in the concert performed by the very professional, young Esperanza Azteca orchestra.

The school ended with the presentation of the practical works performed by the students on their own samples or samples provided by the organizers.

All the participants - students and teachers alike - found this workshop very educational and very effective. The expectation is that this very successful COSPAR-IUCr collaboration will be repeated in the near future.