Events of Interest: Week of September 24-29, 2012

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.   Congress has left town until after the elections.

During the Week

Among the interesting events this week is the release of the results of NASA’s Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) led by Orlando Figueroa.   NASA set up the MPPG earlier this year after budget constraints led it to terminate a cooperative Mars exploration program with the European Space Agency (ESA).  MPPG’s task is to develop “foundations for a program-level architecture for robotic exploration of Mars that is consistent with the President’s challenge of sending humans to Mars in the decade of the 2030s, yet remain responsive to the primary scientific goals of the 2011 NRC Decadal Survey for Planetary Science.”   Figueroa is scheduled to brief the NRC’s Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) on Tuesday at 10:15 am PT (1:15 pm ET) at the NRC’s Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.   The meeting will be webcast and there are several other very interesting presentations on both Monday and Tuesday.

Also of particular note this week are —

• a meeting of NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES), the first in three years, on Monday afternoon;
• a talk by Steve Isakowitz, who has broad experience in both government — including the White House Office of Management and Budget and NASA — and industry and now is with Virgin Galactic, at the Space Policy and History Forum on “Launching to the Future, Learning from the Past — Historical Perspective of Space Transportation,” also Monday afternoon; and
• a Canadian Embassy (in Washington) celebration of the first 50 years of Canadian space activities with a focus on the future — “servicing, repurposing and mining of space resources,” all day Wednesday.

Here’s the complete list of events for the coming week.

Monday, September 24

• NOAA Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing, NOAA auditorium, 1301 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD, 1:00-4:00 pm ET
• Space Policy and History Forum Featuring Steve Isakowtiz, Virgin Galactic, National Air & Space Museum, 600 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC, 4:00 pm ET

Monday-Tuesday, September 24-25

• National Research Council Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS), NRC Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (meeting wil be webcast)
  • Figueroa briefing on Mars Program Planning Group, Tuesday, 10:15 am PT (1:15 pm ET)

Tuesday, September 25

• NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, 1:00-2:00 pm ET

Wednesday, September 26

• Canada’s First 50 Years in Space, Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 7:30 pm ET

Thursday-Saturday, September 27-29

• Space Generation Congress 2012, Naples, Italy (in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress, which begins October 1)