http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/aboutlpi.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) was established in 1968 as the Lunar Science Institute. The LPI is now a focus for academic participation in studies of the current state, evolution, and formation of the solar system. The Institute is housed in the USRA Center for Advanced Space Studies (CASS) , a facility located on nine acres adjacent to the campus of the University of Houston-Clear Lake and near the NASA Johnson Space Center.
The Institute includes a computer center, extensive collections of lunar and planetary data, an image processing facility, a scientific visualization facility, an extensive library, publishing services, and facilities for workshops and conferences. Over 100 workstations are connected to the LPI local area network, which consists of HP 735 workstations, SUN SPARCstations, and DEC MicroVAX computers and a combined on-line disk storage of over 40 gigabytes. The computers are connected via a T1 (1.544 mbps) link to the NASA Science Internet. LPI facilities are available for use by members of the lunar and planetary science community and other qualified users. The LPI Center for Information and Research Services (CIRS) is a node on the NASA Regional Planetary Image Facility .
Current major LPI research topics include:
o The origin and early evolution of the solar system
o Studies of the Moon, meteorites, and the Earth
o The outer solar system with emphasis on studies of icy satellites
LPI manages a wide variety of workshops, conferences, seminars, and working groups during the year, and has been effective in leading large scale interdisciplinary study projects. The types of events supported include scientific topical conferences and workshops, NASA proposal review panels, teacher in-service programs, and exhibits. Conferences and workshops sponsored or cosponsored during 1994 included the 25th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the Conference on New Developments Regarding the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History, a Workshop on Physics of Accretion Disks Around Compact Objects and Young Stars, the Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Workshop, 57th Annual Meteoritical Society Meeting; Lift-Off '94; the Conference on Deep Earth and Planetary Volatiles, the Conference on Chondrules and the Protoplanetary Disk, the Workshop on Star-Forming Regions, the 26th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.
Institute researchers and academic colleagues in the United States and Mexico recently found that the Chicxulub Impact basin in Yucatan is larger than previously estimated and was formed 65 million years ago. Efforts are underway to institute a joint drilling program in the near future.
In 1994, the scientific staff of the LPI consisted of nine staff scientists and seven long-term visitors. In addition, there were twenty-four participants in the LPI summer intern and visitors program.