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Candice Joy Hansen-Koharcheck is a planetary scientist. She is responsible for the development and operation of the
JunoCam JunoCam (or JCM) is the visible-light camera/telescope onboard NASA's ''Juno'' spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. The camera is operated by the JunoCam Digital Electronics Assembly (JDEA). Both the camera and JDEA were built by Malin Space ...
, for which she received the NASA's Outstanding Public Leadership Medal in 2018.


Education and career

Hansen received her Bachelor of Science in Physics from
California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...
in 1976. While here she was taught by Dorothy Woolum, who had worked on the Apollo program. This led her to pursue a career in planetary science. After graduating Hansen started graduate school at the University of Arizona, but left to work NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA ...
(JPL). Here, she worked on the Voyager mission as part of the Voyager Imaging Team. She designed the imaging sequences for the flybys with
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...
,
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...
,
Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronu ...
and
Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...
. From 1981 to 1984, when the Voyager was between Saturn and Uranus, Hansen worked at German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen. While working at JPL, Hansen completed a Master of Science in planetary physics (1989) and her PhD in Earth and Space Science (1994) at UCLA. In 1990 Hansen started working on the
Cassini mission Cassini may refer to: People * Cassini (surname) * Oleg Cassini (1913-2006), American fashion designer :Cassini family: * Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712), Italian mathematician, astronomer, engineer, and astrologer * Jacques Cassini ...
as part of the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) investigation team, where she is still co-investigator. She received the 2002 JPL Exceptional Leadership Award for her involvement in the planning of the Jupiter flyby. Hansen is part of the team within the Cassini mission that studies the plumes on
Enceladus Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ...
, one of Saturn's moons. This research has confirmed the idea that there are subsurface bodies of water on Enceladus. For her work on the water vapor plumes on Enceladus, Hansen received the Edward Stone Award in 2007 and the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2009. Hansen retired from the JPL in 2010, but continues her work as senior scientist at the
Planetary Science Institute The Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research institute based in Tucson, Arizona, focusing on planetary science. , its director is Dr. Mark V. Sykes. PSI, along with Space Science Institute (SSI) Southwest Research ...
in Tucson, Arizona. Hansen is currently deputy Principal Investigator for the
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is a camera on board the '' Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' which has been orbiting and studying Mars since 2006. The 65 kg (143 lb), US$40 million instrument was built under the direction ...
(HiRISE) on the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, a ...
. As part of HiRISE, Hansen studies the seasonal carbon-dioxide ice on Mars. She ran experiments on earth using dry ice to study the possibility of carbon dioxide ice to be responsible for the gullies that were seen in the HiRISE images. She also co-authored a book titled '''Mars: The Pristine Beauty of the Red Planet''', a collection of HiRISE images. Hansen is a collaborator on the
Juno mission ''Juno'' is a NASA space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter. It was built by Lockheed Martin and is operated by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011 UTC, as part ...
, and she is responsible for the
JunoCam JunoCam (or JCM) is the visible-light camera/telescope onboard NASA's ''Juno'' spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. The camera is operated by the JunoCam Digital Electronics Assembly (JDEA). Both the camera and JDEA were built by Malin Space ...
, the first interplanetary outreach camera. The camera has produced the first close-up images of Jupiter's polar region. It was also used to capture images of volcanic plumes on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. For her work on the JunoCam, she received the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership medal in 2018.


Awards

* 2002 JPL Exceptional Leadership Award for her involvement in the planning of the Jupiter flyby in the Cassini mission. * 2007 Edward Stone Award for work on the water vapor plumes on Enceladus. * 2009 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for work on the water vapor plumes on Enceladus. * 2018 NASA Outstanding Public Leadership medal for work on JunoCam.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen-Koharcheck, Candice Year of birth missing (living people) Living people NASA people Women planetary scientists Planetary scientists California State University, Fullerton alumni UCLA Department of Earth Planetary and Space Sciences alumni