Utah Hosts Conference On PicoSats, NanoSats, MicroSats & More

The '22nd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites' takes place from 11-14 August 2008 at Utah State University in Logan UT. This year's theme is, 'Small Satellites, Big Business,' as the conference will focus on the expanding business of miniature satellites. Carl Marchetto (TR), President of ATK's Space Systems Division, will deliver the Keynote Address on Monday, Aug 11. Tuesday will feature a panel discussion on market trends, and where small sats fit in the global space market. The panel will include Jason Andrews (BR) of Andrews Space, Bretton Alexander (BC) of the X Prize Foundation, Debra Lepore (BL) of AirLaunch, and Amnon Ginati of ESA. Along with the business focus, the technical sessions will examine recent and upcoming missions and technical advances, launch opportunities, and educational programs to help train the next generation of space scientists and engineers. A special session on Wednesday will focus on CubeSats and NanoSats, featuring John Hines (TL) – Deputy Chief of NASA Ames' Small Spacecraft Division – and others. Undergraduate and Graduate students will also be participating in the Frank J. Redd Student Scholarship Competition, which provides students the opportunity to share their work on small satellite concepts and missions. Up to US$10,000 will be awarded to the first place winner. (Credit: USU, AIAA, NASA)

The '11th Annual Mars Society Convention' takes place on Aug 14-17 in Boulder CO. The event will examine all aspects of the '5th rock from the Sun,' including current and future robotic missions, prospects for sample return and human Mars missions, commercial opportunities, and biomedical research. Recent data from NASA's Phoenix Lander should be a hot topic at the meeting, with scientists currently examining the spacecraft's discovery of water ice in Martian soil, as well as the detection of the potentially toxic oxidizing chemical perchlorate in soil samples. While the water ice find is welcome news for the possibility of human settlements on Mars, high doses of perchlorate are known to be harmful to humans, especially babies in the womb. The key for Mars scientists now is to determine if the perchlorate was there already, or if it was brought there by a spacecraft from Earth. The Mars Society conference will feature many distinguished speakers, including Mars Society President Robert Zubrin, NASA scientists Jim Garvin and Chris McKay, Phoenix co-investigator Carol Stoker and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Sessions will cover coordination of international Mars mission plans, human hazards in space and on Mars, the Moon-Mars relationship, and the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert. Evening sessions will feature a debate on US space policy by representatives of US Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, and the finalists' presentations of the Mars Project Challenge. (Credit: Mars Society, NASA)