Planetary Exploration Newsletter Volume 2, Number 3 (January 6, 2008)
PEN Website: http://planetarynews.org
Editor: Mark V. Sykes
Co-Editors: Matt Balme, Nic Richmond
Email: pen_editor at psi.edu
1. [NASA] Message from the Senior Advisor for Research & Analysis (Sara), Yvonne Pendleton
2. [NASA] PDS Announces New Deliver of Mars Odyssey Radio Science Data
3. Early Planetary Science Opportunities on SOFIA – Monday, January 7,
AAS 4. National Academy Assessment Reports on NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute Now Available
5. 2008 LPI Summer Intern Program Announcement
6. Environments and Consequences of Impacts of Asteroids and Comets
7. Planetary Meeting Calendar Additions
[NASA] MESSAGE FROM THE SENIOR ADVISOR FOR RESEARCH & ANALYSIS (SARA), YVONNE PENDLETON
The most recent updates to the SARA webpage have just been made. Go to http://science.hq.nasa.gov/research/sara.html
A list of page changes can be found at http://science.hq.nasa.gov/research/sara_whats_new.html
Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year. May this be a year of new discoveries for us all!
If you have not already seen it, please go to the front page of the website today to read the New Year’s message from our Associate Administrator, Alan Stern [Editor: previously distributed on PEN, January 4]. It provides a very nice summary of some of the accomplishments so far, along with insight into our commitment to do much more as the days go by.
As for my own efforts on this website, I am continuing to develop new pages and to populate the current pages with information you need to know. Among other new updates, this issue brings you, a letter from the Division Director for Planetary Science, Jim Green, explaining the effect of the NASA budget passage on the R & A funding in his division, the New York Times link to an article describing Alan Stern’s leadership of the Science Mission Directorate, and a list of NASA officials who will be present at the NASA booth during the upcoming American Astronomical Society Meeting. As always, the What’s new page tells you all the changes that have been made since the last update.
I will be at the AAS meeting next week, so I hope to see some of you there. The NASA Townhall meeting is Tuesday. Please do not miss it if you have the chance to attend. Jon Morse, the Division Director for Astrophysics, John Mather (SMD Chief Scientist), Alan Stern and I will all be there to answer questions. We look forward to listening to you.
Warm Wishes for a wonderful 2008,
Yvonne
[NASA] PDS ANNOUNCES NEW DELIVERY OF MARS ODYSSEY RADIO SCIENCE DATA
The Planetary Data System (PDS) is pleased to announce a new delivery of Odyssey data for the RSS instrument.
To access the RSS data, please visit the following link: http://pds.nasa.gov/subscription_service/SS-20080103.html
To access the latest PDS Data Releases, please visit the following link: http://pds.nasa.gov/subscription_service/SS-Release.html
All available PDS data may be downloaded from: http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/index.jsp
For further information, see the PDS Home Page: http://pds.nasa.gov/
Mailto: pds_operator@jpl.nasa.gov Phone: (818) 393-7165.
EARLY PLANETARY SCIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ON SOFIA – MONDAY JANUARY 7, AAS
There will be a splinter session at the Austin American Astronomical Society meeting to explore early science opportunities with the SOFIA observatory. One of the working groups will focus on planetary science and as Chair of the working group I would like to extend an invitation to any planetary scientist who may be attending the AAS meeting to participate in the SOFIA splinter session. The session will be held on Monday, January 7 from 1 to 5 p.m. If you have any questions please contact me at Black@lpi.usra.edu.
David Black
NATIONAL ACADEMY ASSESSMENT REPORTS ON NASA’S SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION PROGRAM AND THE NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE NOW AVAILABLE
The following reports by Committees of the NRC Space Studies Board are available online from National Academy Press.
NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program: A Midterm Review http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12070
Assessment of the NASA Astrobiology Institute http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12071
[Editor Note: PDF versions can be downloaded for free.]
2008 LPI SUMMER INTERN PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT
The Lunar and Planetary Institute is offering undergraduate students with 50 semester credit hours or more the chance to experience cutting-edge research in lunar and planetary science.
Student interns will get to work one-on-one with scientists from the LPI or NASA’s Johnson Space Center to conduct research on projects of current interest to the lunar and planetary science community. This 10-week program will allow students the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best lunar and planetary scientists in the field.
Please pass this information on to any of your students who might be interested.
Application Deadline: January 25, 2008
For more information on the internship visit: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern
Contacts:
Dr. Julie Moses
Program Manager
internprogram@lpi.usra.edu
Connie Edwards
Human Resources Specialist
edwards@lpi.usra.edu
ENVIRONMENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF IMPACTS OF ASTEROIDS AND COMETS
Birger Schmitz, Christian Koeberl, Maurits Lindstrom, Jens Ormo (symposium PIS-03)
Impact cratering is now recognized as one of the most important geological processes in our Solar System, and this symposium allows an integrated approach to a broad spectrum of impact-related issues, such as effects on the biota and climate locally and worldwide, frequencies and variations in the type of impacts, crater formation processes, crater identification, comparisons with other planets and much more. This is a vivid and exciting research field where major developments take place at a rapid pace. In particular, Scandinavia has the greatest concentration on Earth of recognized impact structures vs. area. Some of the most interesting extraterrestrial signatures in the sedimentary strata also occur here, such as the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary clay in Denmark, and abundant mid-Ordovician fossil meteorites in southern Sweden.
Abstract deadline is February 29, 2008.
For registration and full information on the IGC Oslo, please use the website: http://www.33igc.org
The PIS-03 symposium will be in the second part (August 10-14) of the IGC33 meeting.
With kind regards,
Birger Schmitz
Department of Geology
University of Lund
Solvegatan 12
SE-22362 Lund
Sweden
birger.schmitz@geol.lu.se
phone +46-46-2228265
PLANETARY MEETING CALENDAR ADDITIONS
Posted at http://planetarynews.org/meetings.html
No new additions.
[Editor Note: If there is a planetary-related meeting, conference or workshop that you think your colleagues should be aware of, please send the date, title, URL and location to pen_editor at psi.edu.]
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