Space Studies Board Colloquium “Space Science: 50 Years and Counting”

Join the Space Studies Board for its upcoming colloquium, “Space Science: 50 Years and Counting,” on June 26, 2008, in Washington, D.C. The SSB will be capping its year-long celebration of the 50th anniversaries of the space age, the International Geophysical Year, and the SSB with an all-day colloquium at the National Academy of Sciences.

The colloquium will run from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and will feature two sessions.

The morning session will include retrospective and prospective policy-oriented discussions and will include perspectives from a senior congressional leader, past leaders of the SSB and the Board’s incoming chair.

The afternoon session will include forward-looking assessments of successes, short-falls, opportunities and challenges in the sciences. This session will revolve around a series of town-hall-format interactions between the audience and panelists about applying lessons from the first 50 years of space exploration to hopes and aspirations for the next 50 years in four areas of space research. These areas are astrophysics and space physics, microgravity life and physical sciences, planetary exploration and astrobiology, and Earth sciences.

The day will conclude with a special lecture about exploring space with humans and robots.

For more information about the colloquium, including online registration and a detailed schedule of events, visit http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/IGY_DC_event.html.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please e-mail them to Marcia Smith at msmith@nas.edu.