ASE NEO Experts Gather To Finalize Mitigation Recommendations For UN

The Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Committee on Near Earth Objects (NEO) is holding the 4th and final workshop in cooperation with the Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation on Sep 22-25 at the Offices of the Google Foundation in San Francisco CA. The international panel, organized by the ASE NEO Committee, is comprised of a preeminent group of global leaders in the fields of diplomacy, international law, space policy and other disciplines. The goal of the workshop series is for the panel to present recommendations on NEO deflection and mitigation to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) during its 2009 session in Vienna, Austria. The ASE NEO Committee's role is to provide the forum and financing for the workshop series and to gain support for the proposal. A briefing on the recommendations, entitled 'Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response,' will be held on 25 Sep following the meeting. Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart (BR) chairs the NEO committee, which has been working towards this final document since 2007. Founded in 1985, the ASE is comprised of 320 individuals from 33 nations who have flown in space. Other members of the ASE NEO committee include Thomas Jones, Ed Lu and Franklin Chang-Diaz of the USA, Chris Hadfield of Canada, Sergei Avdeev and Viktor Savinykh of Russia, and Dumitru Prunariu of Romania. (Credit: ASE)

The 3rd 'European Planetary Science Congress 2008' will be held on Sep 21-26 at the University of Munster in Germany. With over 550 abstracts received covering the whole scope of planetary science, the annual meeting is intended to be the European counterpart of the Houston TX-based 'Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference.' A mixture of talks, workshops and posters will cover subjects such as: lunar exploration, designing new missions to the Jupiter and Saturn systems, nanosat and nanoprobe concepts for future planetary exploration, and planetary robotics. Splinter sessions will also be held on Europe's strategy for space exploration, Cassini's recent flyby of Saturn moon Enceladus, and a European initiative for the analysis of extraterrestrial material returned by future space missions. The event is sponsored by the European Geosciences Union and the European Planetary Network (EuroPlaNet), an EU supported initiative to strengthen and unify the European planetary science. EuroPlaNet consists of 60 European agencies and organizations from 17 different countries. In addition to organizing this event, the EuroPlaNet project, led by Michel Blanc of CESR in Toulouse, France, is also developing and coordinating synergies between space observatories, Earth-based observations, and laboratory research to maximize the science produced by planetary missions with European involvement. (Credit: ESA)