Kayla McKiski
5 dispatches · Potrillo Volcanic Field
For Some Earth Scientists, Flying to the Moon is the Ultimate Dream
Several members of the RIS4E team had applied to NASA’s astronaut corps, some more than once, and each reached the first round of interviews, a threshold fewer than one percent of applicants clear. As a new class of 12 astronauts was announced during the 2017 Kilbourne Hole expedition, the scientists reflected on a grueling process where talent alone was never quite enough.
ReadKilbourne’s Volcanic Confetti
Kilbourne Hole’s 24,000-year-old eruption did more than carve a crater into the New Mexico desert. It flung mantle minerals to the surface. The coarse green crystals scattered across the volcanic field are olivine, ripped from deep inside the earth and coated in basalt as they exited. Some are gem-quality peridot, though few visitors know it, and fewer still find them.
ReadThe Professor of Potrillo
Jose Hurtado, a geology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, brought his students to Kilbourne Hole every year before the RIS4E team ever arrived. His encyclopedic knowledge of the Potrillo volcanic field made him a natural collaborator on the 2017 field test, where he and his students served as informal hosts, handing out water bottles and geological context in equal measure.
ReadOut in the Desert, Watching the Universe is a 24/7 Job
Keeping the Very Large Array’s 27 radio antennas trained on the sky is a round-the-clock job, and the operators who do it arrive by unlikely routes. Blythe Guvenen, who dropped out of a physics and astronomy program at the University of Arizona, found his way to the VLA through public outreach at Kitt Peak and landed the job on the strength of his problem-solving instincts alone.
ReadSearching for Hints of Extra-Terrestrial Life in the Hard Rock of Earth
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) are complementary handheld tools that read a rock’s elemental chemistry in under a minute. At Kilbourne Hole in 2017, NASA scientists Kelsey Young and Amy McAdam deployed them in simulated spacewalks alongside astronaut Butch Wilmore, hunting for chemical signatures, like carbon concentrations and clay-mineral layers, that could point toward environments where life once existed.
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