Role
Postdoctoral Researcher
Biography
Prateek Tripathi is a postdoctoral researcher with the Planetary Sciences Group at the University of Central Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in Geomatics Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in 2023. He utilizes advanced spectroscopic techniques, including near-infrared, thermal, Raman spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging, to study planetary surfaces. He has analyzed data from lunar missions such as Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and worked with Earth observation datasets like PRISMA, DESIS to map minerals. As an Exploration intern at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, he contributed to planning astronaut traverses in support of the Artemis missions. He has also conducted experiments on lunar samples and meteorites at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and collected spectra from impact craters in India. As a member of the Lunar-VISE team at UCF, he works in the Dr. Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Dr. Dove labs, using FTIR and ASD spectrometers to build spectral libraries in support of the Lunar-VISE mission.