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People: Astrobiology Faculty

Adam Bruckner
Professor and Chair
Aeronautics and Astronautics
211E Guggenheim Hall
University of Washington Box 352400
bruckner@aa.washington.edu
Phone: (206) 543-6143
Research Activities
Professor Bruckner's
research has encompassed hypervelocity accelerators, planetary in situ resource utilization, space propulsion,
space power systems, energy conversion, and laser applications in biology and medicine. He has published more
than 175 papers and reports on these topics. He is a co-inventor of the ram accelerator, a chemically propelled
ramjet-in-tube hypervelocity projectile launcher, and is also co-inventor of the liquid droplet heat exchanger,
a promising approach to thermal management in space power systems which has found near-term application in the
development of chemical oxygen-iodine lasers for missile defense. In addition, Professor Bruckner has worked on
the development of enabling technologies and architectures for manned and unmanned Mars missions based on
in situ resource utilization. His particular interest in this area is the extraction of water from the
Martian atmosphere and regolith for the production of rocket propellants and life-support consumables.
His current research is focused on developing the ram accelerator as a hypersonic research tool and on the
understanding of water adsorption and desorption processes in the Martian regolith. Professor Bruckner has
five U.S. patents in the areas of ram accelerators, launch vehicles, and heat exchangers. He has been a
member of the UW's Astrobiology Program since its inception in 1997.
Please visit Professor Bruckner's website.

Relevant Publications
Wood, S. E., Schneider, M. A., Cardell, G., Hecht, M., Knowlen, C., Bruckner, A.P.,
Catling, D. C., Cobos, D., and Zent, A., "Characterization and Calibration of the Phoenix TECP Relative
Humidity Sensor in a Mars Atmospheric Simulation Chamber," Fourth International Conference on Mars
Polar Science and Exploration, Davos, Switzerland, Oct. 2-6, 2006.
Schneider, M.A., and Bruckner, A.P., "Extraction of Water from the Martian Atmosphere,"
Space Technology & Applications International Forum – STAIF-2003, Albuquerque, NM, Feb. 2-5, 2003,
M.S. El-Genk, ed., American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings, Volume 654, pp. 1124-1132.
Polkko, J., Harri, A-M., Lehto, A., Tillman, J., Bruckner, A.P., and Siili T., "Digihum: Humidity
Transmitter for Harsh Martian Environment, Construction and Performance Assessment,"
Poster PS037, XXVII General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society, Nice, France,
April 21-26, 2002.
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