September 25 – October 1, 2017 / Vol 36, No 39 / Hawai`i Island, USA

68th IAC in Australia Hosting 4,000 Participants, Multitude of Events

The International Astronautical Federation 68th International Astronautical Congress with theme ‘Unlocking Imagination, Fostering Innovation and Strengthening Security’ is being held in Adelaide, Australia September 25-29 with IAA, IISL and Space Industry Association of Australia. Nearly 4,000 participants are expected to attend and 2,417 abstracts have been accepted from 67 countries. The Heads of Space Agencies will discuss plans for individual countries, commercial activities and the need to attract more women to the Space workforce; speakers include (left T-B) Jan Woerner (ESA), Igor Komarov (Roscosmos), Sylvain Laporte (CSA), Robert Lightfoot (NASA), Naoki Okumura (JAXA), S Somanath (ISRO) and Tian Yulong (CNSA). Key features of IAC are the Astronauts Panel with (right T-B) Sandy Magnus, Pamela Melroy, Chiaki Mukai, Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, Sergei Krikalev, Frank Culbertson, Michael López-Alegria; the Exhibition focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation; Highlight and Plenary Lectures speakers including Bill Nye, Mohammed Al Ahbabi, Simonetta Di Pippo, Bernard Foing, Peter Beck, Peter Martinez, William Gerstenmaier; and the IAF “3G” Geography – Generation – Gender International Platform for Diversity and Equality in Astronautics breakfasts “First Woman on the Moon” Sep 27 and “Gender Diverse Space Workforce” Sep 28. On the final day of IAC Lockheed Martin will unveil new details on plans for human exploration of Mars starting in 2020s. The Space Generation Congress (SGC) 2017 is being held Sep 21-23. The 2018 IAC is panned for Germany and 2019 (the 50th Observation of Apollo 11) is set for Washington DC. (Image Credit: IAF, IISL, IAA, UN, ESA, NASA, et al)

MONDAY

Sep 25-27 — German Research Foundation (DFG), Jena, Germany: Conference: Planet Formation and Evolution 2017.

Sep 25-29 — International Astronautical Federation, IAA, IISL, Space Industry Association of Australia, et al, Adelaide, Australia: 68th International Astronautical Congress 2017 (IAC 2017); multidisciplinary congress that covers all space sectors and topics.

Europe Innovating Solar System and Planetary Science, Exploration

The European Geosciences Union is organizing “Geoscience for Understanding Habitability in the Solar System and Beyond” on September 25-29 in Furnas, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal. The conference is a continuation of the EGU Galileo series of meetings and is co-organized by COST Action, Nordic Network of Astrobiology, and Belgian Planet Topers project. Co-chairs Veronique Dehant of Royal Observatory of Belgium and Wolf Geppert of Stockholm University Astrobiology Centre look forward to addressing fundamental issues of habitability, namely environmental conditions and interaction between interior, surface and atmosphere as well as hotly debated questions in the field like “What influence do comet and asteroid impacts exert on the evolution of the planet?”. There are 16 invited speakers from 7 countries. Good results are emerging from the European Planetary Science Congress 2017 concluding Sep 17-22 in Riga, Latvia. Chair of the local organizing committee Amara Graps, based in Riga, is a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to Solar System exploration headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. Around 800 scientists generated approximately 1,000 oral and poster presentations on latest science results and mission proposals for understanding our Solar System and exoplanets orbiting other stars. Finnish Meteorological Institute suggests fleet of 50 nano-spacecraft propelled by E-sails to explore 300 of the largest and most interesting asteroids in the main belt. (Image Credit: EGU, NASA, EPSC)

Sep 25-29 — ESA, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Leiden, The Netherlands: Workshop: Space Weather – A Multi-Disciplinary Approach.

Sep 25-29 — Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Narrabri, Australia: CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science Radio School 2017; at Australia Telescope Compact Array.

Sep 25 — Moon: 9.5° N of Antares, 15:00.

Sep 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 RO16: Near-Earth Flyby (0.011 AU).

Sep 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 RW1: Near-Earth Flyby (0.028 AU).

Sep 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 RW2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.039 AU).

Sep 25 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 SF2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.058 AU).

Continued from…

Sep 24-28 — University of Warsaw, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Kazimierz Dolny, Poland: 4th Conference of the Polish Society on Relativity.

TUESDAY

Sep 26 — Kilauea Visitor Center, Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park HI: HI-SEAS (Hawai‘i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) Mission V member Brian Ramos to present ‘What It’s Like to Live on Mars’, 19:00.

Sep 26 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: Colloquium: Craters and Cryovolcanoes \u2013 Comparisons Across the Outer Solar System; Kelsi Singer from SwRI.