Canada Hosts Two Weeks of Earth, Space and Planetary Science
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MONDAYMay 4 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 43 with Kelly & Kornienko fulfilling 1-year mission, three-member crew preparing to return to Earth May 12/13, transferring cargo from Dragon CRS-6, working with Electromagnetic Levitation experiment and Triplelux-A study for gene, immune & cellular responses. May 4 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #409 today; orbiting planet with a 28-day period, observing Saturn aurorae, tendril-like structures seen near icy moon Enceladus. May 4 — New Horizons, Pluto Trajectory: Now 70 days from closest approach, imaging Pluto and moons from 90M km away, revealing bright & dark regions on Pluto surface & potential polar cap. May 4 — Exos Aerospace, Mesquite TX: NewSpace company planning to develop suborbital & orbital rockets and start monthly launches in 2016; Kickstarter campaign has 22 days left; employees & equipment previously from Armadillo Aerospace. May 4 — Ventions LLC, San Francisco CA: Working to incorporate micro-rocket systems with liquid bipropellant motors in 100-5,000 lbf thrust class into vehicle stages for nano-satellite launchers, developing high-performance methane & peroxide based propulsion systems for 3U-6U CubeSats. May 4 — Clyde Space, Glasgow, United Kingdom: Developers of Scotland’s first CubeSat UKube-1, providing CubeSat electrical power systems, solar panels, structures, ground support equipment; collaborating with US university & teams to build advanced CubeSats to observe Ocean changes. May 4 — The Space Show, Online / Tiburon CA: Dr. David Livingston talks with Bruce Pittman about International Space Development Conference. May 4-6 — Venus Exploration Analysis Group, NASA, Pasadena CA: Comparative Tectonics and Geodynamics of Venus, Earth, and Exoplanets Conference. May 4-6 — European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Ven Island, Sweden: Course: Life on Earth and Beyond – The History and Philosophy of the Origin of Life. May 4 — Asteroid 2015 FL209: Near-Earth flyby (0.054 AU). |
= All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
= All times for space events, and…
= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time;’ Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mercury (WNW), Venus (WNW), Jupiter (S); Morning Planets: Saturn (S), Neptune (ENE).
Humans to Mars Summit Addresses Challenges and Positive Impacts of Mars Missions
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Continued from…Apr 6 – May 8 — Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China: Workshop: The Next Detectors for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. May 1 – Jun 30 — Johnson Space Center, NASA, National Space Grant Foundation, Houston TX: 2015 eXploration Habitat (X-Hab); university-level students’ designs for functional space habitat subsystems prototypes to be submitted & evaluated. May 2-8 — Tel Aviv University, Israel Space Agency, Golan Research Institute of Haifa University, Kazrin & Tel Aviv, Israel: Workshop: Space Weather And Plasma in Space (IsraSWAPS-2015). May 3-7 — American Geophysical Union, Canadian Geophysical Union, Geological Association of Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: 2015 Joint Assembly on Geophysical Sciences. TUESDAYMay 5 — Women in Aerospace, Washington DC: WIA’s Aerospace 2015: Soar to New Heights; 6th annual conference will feature: The Impact of the Cyber Threat in the Aerospace World, The Operationalization of Space Sovereignty, Women of Impact. May 5 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: SETI Weekly Colloquium: Brown Dwarf Variability and Implications for Exoplanets; presented by Tyler Robinson, 12:00. May 5-6 — AIAA, Pasadena CA: 21st Improving Space Operations Workshop: Game Changing Technologies and Strategies; at Sheraton Pasadena. May 5-7 — Explore Mars Inc., Space Policy Institute, et al, Washington DC: The Humans to Mars Summit; to addresses technical, scientific, policy challenges of getting humans to Mars, as well as benefits to life on Earth; at George Washington University. |
May 5-7 — ESA, Madrid, Spain: Planetary GIS Workshop; at ESA Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC).
May 5 — Moon: 2.2° NNE of Saturn, 08:00; 9.1° N of Antares, 19:00.
WEDNESDAY
May 6 — SpaceX, Cape Canaveral AFS FL: Crew Dragon pad abort test at Space Launch Complex 40, live coverage available; four hour test window starts 09:30.
May 6 — Foothill College, Los Altos Hills CA: Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series: 100 Years of Einstein’s Relativity (and How It Underlies Our Modern Understanding of the Universe); presented by Jeffrey Bennett.
May 6 — Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt MD: Goddard Scientific Colloquium: MAVEN at Mars; presented by Bruce Jakosky.
May 6-8 — Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD: User Training in JWST Data Analysis.
May 6-8 — Lund University, Lund, Sweden: Meeting: Exoplanets in Lund 2015; to discuss exoplanet-related science, in particular connected to 2017 ESA CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) satellite mission.
May 6 — Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Peak: The 1st of 2 showers that occur each year as a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley’s Comet; Eta Aquarid meteors appear to radiate from Constellation Aquarius, likely to see about 10 meteors per hour, while Southern Hemisphere observers may see up to 85 per hour.
May 6 — Asteroid 2015 HZ: Near-Earth flyby (0.084 AU).
THURSDAY
May 7 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Titan flyby scheduled at 2,722-km altitude.
May 7 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: Enceladus Plume Through the Eyes of the Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer; presented by Hunter Waite of Southwest Research Institute.
May 7 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston TX: LPI Speaker Series: Movie Science: Who Cares If It’s Wrong? presented by Dr. Seth Shostak, SETI Institute.
May 7 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Landing on a Comet; presented by Monica Grady, 18:30 – 20:30.
FRIDAY
May 8 — Peninsula Astronomical Society, Los Altos Hills CA: Lecture: Near Earth Asteroids & Space Missions; presented by Dr. Michael Busch of SETI.
May 8 — Royal Astronomical Society, London, United Kingdom: RAS Ordinary Meeting; Specialist Discussion: Astroseismology – High-precision Stellar Metrics for the Exoplanet Era.
May 8-9 — Silicon Valley Space Center, Innovation Hangar, San Francisco CA: Space Innovation Days; in Palace of Fine Arts; will showcase space development work by local companies, university departments, non-profits.
May 8 — Moon: 3.1° N of Pluto, 12:00.
SATURDAY
May 9 — Progress 59P, LEO: Russia spacecraft with mass of 7,000-kg, unable to reach ISS due to malfunction, predicted to reenter Earth atmosphere May 9 (plus or minus 2 days), with some uncertainty of level of disintegration.
May 9 — Cassini, Saturn Orbit: Distant Flyby of Polydeuces (34,000 km), Telesto (46,000 km), Aegaeon (93,000 km), Daphnis (114,000 km).
May 9 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Inauguration of the Institute for Pale Blue Dots; international speakers talk about challenges & excitement of the search for the first exoplanets.
May 9-13 — PTMSS/SRR, CIM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: 6th Planetary & Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium and Space Resources Roundtable; Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) 2015 Convention.
May 9 — Venus: 1.7° N of M35, 12:00.
SUNDAY
May 10-16 — Institute of Cybernetics, Mathematics and Physics (ICIMAF), Varadero Beach, Cuba: 4th International Symposium on Strong Electromagnetic Fields and Neutron Stars.