June Conference to Spotlight ISS Research Results, Opportunities

A conference scheduled for June 26-28, 2012 in Denver, CO will spotlight the results of experiments already conducted aboard the International Space Station and discuss opportunities for the future.

The conference is being organized by the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) in cooperation with NASA.  In addition to keynotes and plenaries, the conference features parallel technical sessions on specific science and technology disciplines.  They include

• human research,
• communications & navigation technologies,
• space science,
• plant biology,
• biotechnology,
• materials science & combustion science,
• spacecraft systems and technology,
• technical earth imaging,
• fundamental physics,
• technologies for exploration applications,
• earth science,
• cell biology & tissue engineering,
• human exploration, and
• education

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently held a similar conference in Berlin and Japan held one in December.  The United States, Europe, Japan, Canada and Russia spent between $60-100 billion (depending on who is doing the math) on building the ISS.   Construction was completed in 2010 and attention is now focused on making the best use of it.  The ISS partners have agreed to operate the ISS at least until 2020.  In the 2005 NASA Authorization Act, Congress designated the U.S. segment of the ISS as a National Laboratory with the expectation that U.S. entities other than NASA would be interested in utilizing it.   CASIS was created last year to manage the ISS National Laboratory and promote its potential to prospective users.

For more information on the June conference, visit the AAS website.