March+14-15

March 14th:

-Scanned a ample of graphite on tape with the portable AFM -Exposed from Thursday until today at about 3:45

-Becky is also looking into what other elements could be used instead of the current Polonium-210 -The idea is that the Polonium-210 is old and has gone through several half-lives -Therefore, the mass of the Polonium and amount of output of alpha-particles could be significantly less than what we would prefer or expect



March 15th:

I did not scan today; instead, Becky and I, along with Dr. Loughran went to Penn High School's Planetarium and gathered samples of lunar dust from the rock bag from the Apollo 15 mission. The plan is to sample the dust, which was collected on strips of tape, on various types of microscopes, starting with optical and going through the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). I will likely be doing the AFM work and Becky will likely do the STM working. We will collaborate with the other members of the group on using the other microscopes. In all likelyhood, I will also be presenting the results of our research to the School Board at Saint Joe and be using this material in a future Science Fair.