The Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST) represents a collaboration between USRA, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in partnership with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The USRA component of CRESST also operates a program with two scientists within the Naval Research Laboratory's Space Sciences Division.

The CRESST mission is to conduct space science research and to develop leading-edge instrumentation and technology; to enable research by the space sciences communities; and to expedite the effective dissemination of space science research, technology, data and information to the education community and the general public. In fulfillment of this mission with its CRESST colleagues, USRA maintains a staff of scientific researchers, organizes scientific meetings and workshops, supports visiting scientists and colloquium speakers, and encourages various interactions with students and university faculty members. Designated CRESST personnel also devote themselves to outreach efforts directed at U.S. students and the general public.

Research activities under CRESST fall within three major categories:

1. Analysis and interpretation of data obtained as co-investigators or collaborators on missions managed within NASA's SMD and from competitive guest investigator awards utilizing operational satellites and public archives;
2. Development of flight hardware and software for future orbiting and suborbital missions; and
3. Theoretical and/or modeling investigations.

USRA scientists have recently been involved with:

• Development of an X-ray polarimeter for determining the polarization in the emissions from gamma-ray bursts
• Development, operation, and analysis of data from the highly successful SWIFT Medium Class Explorer mission
• The development of gas microwell detectors for medium- and high-energy gamma-ray observations
• Cosmic ray observation with a balloon-borne superconducting magnet experiment from the Antarctic to search for antimatter in cosmic rays
• Analysis of data and publication of results from NASA's RXTE mission, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL missions, and the Japanese Suzaku X-ray mission
• Development of the GLAST Anticoincidence Detector and preparation for the analysis of GLAST data following the 2008 launch
• Maintenance and user support for the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archival Research Center (HEASARC), the repository for archival data from all high-energy astrophysics missions

Dr. Michael Corcoran, CRESST Director (acting)

CRESST Director Dr. Mike Corcoran received his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. Mike came to the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1988 to work with Dr. Sara Heap on ultraviolet spectral line analysis, and was later awarded a National Research Council post-doctoral appointment at the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics. In 1991 Mike joined the Universities Space Research Association as lead archive scientist for ROSAT, a German-US X-ray satellite observatory which performed the first X-ray imaging all sky survey. In 1993 Mike joined the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) at GSFC, where he now serves as the manager of the HEASARC Calibration Database and as archive scientist for the GLAST mission. Mike is also an adjunct faculty at the George Washington University. His research interests are focussed on high energy emission from extremely massive stars. A particular object of his interest is Eta Carinae, perhaps the Galaxy's most massive and unstable star.

Visit the CRESST web site »