It wasnt all rocket science for a West Virginia University physics student who spent two months in Australia collaborating on research that might one day send humans to Mars.

Amy Keeseea 26-year-old graduate student from Louisville, Ky.also got to see kangaroos, go snorkeling, taste the local cuisine and talk American politics.

I enjoyed it,said Keesee, who stayed in Canberra, the commonwealths capital.We spent a lot of time in the lab, and I also did my share of sightseeing.

Keesee worked with scientists at the Australian National University as part of the National Science Foundations East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Program for U.S. Graduate Students. The program gives advanced science and engineering students an opportunity to collaborate on research in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwain. This was the first year Australia participated.

Keesees visit was a natural outgrowth of an ongoing collaboration between researchers at WVU and ANU , said Earl Scime, chairman of the Department of Physics in WVU s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. He spent two weeks in Australia assisting Keesee and ANU s Christine Charles and Rod Boswell on their project.

The research centers around plasmathe fourth state of matter. As substances are heated from a low temperature, they go through a succession of states: solid, liquid, gas and, finally, plasma.

In the 1970s, Boswell developed a helicon plasma source, which happens to be the centerpiece of research in Scimes Plasma Physics Laboratory.

In fact, Scime said, WVU physicists have developed a laser-based device to measure the speed of particles in plasma gas.

It was this piece of equipment that Keesee took with her to Australia.

When produced in a lab, helicon plasma can spontaneously generate a strong electric field that accelerates the plasma out of the source, Scime explained.

It is this acceleration quality that has caught the attention of spacecraft propulsion experts, who see helicon plasma as a possible rocket engine for long-range missions such as those envisioned for Mars, Scime added.

These kinds of engines dont have enough thrust to let you leave the Earth, but if you leave them on the whole time, you can build up speed for a long mission,he said.

Using WVU s equipment, researchers were able to measure more accurately the high-speed ion flows from the plasma source, Scime said. Keesee presented a paper comparing her measurements to previous calculations at a recent American Physical Society meeting.

Although the purpose of her visit was research, not all of Keesees time in Australia was spent in the lab.

She went snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and sightseeing in Sydney.

She saw plenty of kangaroos, which she said are as common a sighting as deer in West Virginia. She also visited a zoo, where she saw two dingoes and a Tasmanian devil.

Besides seeing kangaroos, Keesee said she also ate kangaroo meat, which she likened to venison in taste. Other foods common in Australia are meat pies and various international cuisines reflecting the countrys multicultural society, she added.

Keesee said one observation that stands out from her trip is that Australians follow politics closelyespecially American politics.

Theres a prevalence of American politics in the news and discussion because it has a huge impact on their own politics,she said.

It is against the law not to vote, and violators face fines, Scime added.

Keesee said she is no stranger to travel. A military brat, she was born in England, lived a short time in Germany, and has been to Canada and Mexico. She returned to England a few years ago as part of a high school exchange program.

That doesnt take away from the uniqueness of her trip to Australia, Keesee said.

I had a lot of fun,she said.It was great to work with these scientists and see another part of the world.