Dr. John Weirich

Dr. John Weirich specializes in constructing hi-resolution topography of various small bodies such as asteroids, planetary satellites, the Moon, and Mercury. He uses spacecraft images to construct Digital Terrain Models (DTM) with the software suite Stereophotoclinometry (SPC) written by PSI’s Dr. Robert Gaskell. He is part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, which collected regolith from asteroid Bennu in 2020. In addition to certifying SPC as NASA Class B software, his DTMs guided the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in orbit around Bennu and during its descent to Bennu's surface. He also has extensive experience with geochemistry of shocked extraterrestrial materials, age dating of impact melt using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar chronometer, and Ar diffusion, though is no longer active in this field.