60th International Astronautical Congress: Call for Abstracts
60th International Astronautical Congress: Call for Abstracts
NASA announces its intent to participate in the 60th International Astronautical Congress, “Space for Sustainable Peace and Progress,” and requests that full-time graduate students attending U.S. universities respond to this “Call for Abstracts.” Unfortunately, at this point there is no NASA funding available to sponsor students for this event. If funding opportunities become available, selected students will be notified immediately. NASA encourages each student to seek non-NASA funding, which might include the student’s university or private industry.
The IAC is organized by the International Astronautical Federation, or IAF, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law. The IAC is the largest space-related conference in the world and selects an average of 1000 scientific papers every year. The upcoming IAC will be held Oct. 12-16, 2009, in Deajeon, Republic of Korea. NASA’s participation in this event is an ongoing effort to continue to connect NASA with the international astronautical and space community.
This “Call for Abstracts” is a precursor to a final paper, which may be presented at the 60th IAC. Student authors are invited to submit an abstract regarding an original, unpublished paper that has not been submitted in any other forum. A NASA technical review panel will select abstracts to be considered by the IAF. This opportunity is for graduate students majoring in fields related to the IAF research topics. Students may submit technical (oral) presentations and/or posters. Students may submit abstracts that are co-authored with their Principal Investigators; however, the student must be the “lead author,” and only the student will present at the IAC. Students must be available to travel to the conference to represent NASA and their universities. Students must be U.S. citizens, attending a U.S. university, who plan to enter a career in space science or aeronautics.
Many students and professors are currently involved in NASA-related research that could be considered for this submission. Students submitting abstracts are strongly encouraged to seek advice from professors who are conducting NASA research and/or from NASA scientists and engineers. Abstracts must be related to the Vision for Space Exploration and fit into one of the following IAF Conference themes: Agency, Industry, Climate, Exploration and Peace.
The following information must be included in the submission: paper title; author’s name and e-mail address, organization/institution, mailing address, phone number, fax number, names of the coauthors, and e-mail address of coauthors. Please use the IAF Web page (www.iafastro.org): Unregistered persons should log onto the site for submission of papers.
IAC Paper Selection
The Session Chairs, on the basis of technical quality and suitability, will evaluate abstracts submitted. Their relation to the Congress theme “Space for Sustainable Peace and Progress” will also be considered. The abstracts will be selected for presentation and discussion on the basis of potential for discussion but with no distinction in terms of quality threshold. All selected abstracts must reach the same high level of quality and will be accorded the same level of recognition by the Congress. Papers with the potential for extended discussion will be chosen for interactive presentations wherever possible. The Session Chairs’ evaluations will be submitted to the responsible Symposium Coordinators, who will make acceptance recommendations to the International Programme Committee, which will take the final decision. Ensuring the high quality of the papers presented at the 60th Congress will be the primary goal of the International Programme Committee.
The criteria for the selection will be defined according to the following specifications:
— Abstracts should specify: purpose, methodology, results, conclusions and areas for discussion.
— Abstracts should indicate that substantive technical and/or programmatic content is included.
— Abstracts should clearly indicate that the material is new and original; they should explain why and how.
— Prospective author(s) should certify that the paper was not presented at a previous meeting and that financing and attendance of an author at the respective IAC at Daejeon to present the paper is assured.
NASA Submission Guidelines
All abstracts must be submitted electronically to mabel.j.matthews@nasa.gov via e-mail by Feb. 25, 2009. Submit abstracts in MS Word or Adobe PDF format, as an attachment or as text pasted within the body of the e-mail.
In addition, please include an education/citizenship statement: I verify that I am a U.S. citizen and a full-time graduate student majoring in a field or fields related to the IAF research topics. The abstract submitted is original and has not been presented at another meeting.
