Below you will find examples of MSc projects that I offer as lecturer at the TU Delft. If you are enrolled at TU Delft, please have a look at the Brightspace page of the Space Exploration profile of the Master track Spaceflight. There you will find the full summary of each available project.
Ongoing projects
- Lithosphere unloading and subglacial volcanism near the north pole on Mars. (MSc thesis)
- Aerodynamic behaviour of meteorites during their dark flight. (MSc thesis)
- Morphometrics of regmaglypts based on 3D models of fusion-crusted ordinary chondrites (Honours programme)
- Booming dunes: acoustic emissions from sand avalanches on active dunes on Mars (MSc thesis)
- Erosion from rainfall on Titan based on analogue laboratory experiments. (MSc thesis)
Available MSc topics offered at BrightSpace
- Rootless volcanic cones on Mars and Icelandic analogues (Europlanet)
- Orientation of sand grains by wind flow using close-up cameras. Wind tunnel in Denmark, field campaign, image processing, atmospheric density. (Europlanet)
- Design of the planetary wind tunnel ‘ALPACA’.
- Using 3-D models of meteorites to explore asteroid rock densities.
Other topics that can be discussed (not listed on BrightSpace)
- Comparing spectral signatures of Dutch meteorites using imaging spectroscopy and powdered integrating-sphere reflectance spectroscopy.
- Using drones for the search and recovery of meteorites on ice and land.
- 4D study of soil disturbance created by meteorite impacts.
- Protoplanetary aeolian accretionary phenomena.
Outreach and visibility
Outreach and visibility of your MSc research project is valuable. So, students can receive a page on this webpage (www.planeetonderzoeker.nl/namestudent) to help showcase their ongoing work. (note, ‘planeetonderzoeker’ is ‘planetary scientist’ in Dutch).
Academic (guest-) lectures:
- Planetaire grenzen: Op zoek naar een reserveplaneet voor de aarde? Part of the course: Toekomstige uitdagingen en innovatieve oplossingen, BSc Future Planet Studies, University of Amsterdam (2016)
- Impact cratering: physics, geology and associated Hazards. Part of the course: Natuurrampen en toekomstige bedreigingen, BSc Future Planet Studies, University of Amsterdam (2012-2017)
- Gone with the wind: aeolian landforms and phenomena. Part of the course: Soil and Landscape Degradation, MSc Earth Sciences, University of Amsterdam (2018-2019)
- Terrestrial inspiration for understanding Mars. WUR lectures, Wageningen University. (Watch video)
Last edited: June 2021