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Vol 27, No 20
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Phoenix Mars Lander Set For Dramatic Entry, Descent, Landing

After traversing 679 million km over nearly 10 months, the Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to arrive at its destination on Sunday, May 25. The US$420M mission ($520M if you include the investment in the 2001 lander Phoenix is based on) will be the first ever to collect and examine water ice in Mars' north polar region. Phoenix will use 7 science instruments on its 3 month mission to study the history of Martian water in all of its phases; to determine if the Martian arctic soil could support life; and to study Martian weather from a polar perspective. Before achieving these goals, however, Phoenix will have to survive the dramatic event known as EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing), a feat that less than half of all previous Mars lander missions have achieved. Upon entry into the atmosphere, the craft will complete a challenging series of maneuvers over a 7 minute period to slow from 20,921 kmh to 8 kmh before its 3 legs reach the ground. If successful, Phoenix's first radio transmission from the Martian surface could reach Earth by 16:53 PDT. Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA JPL says that he can not guarantee success, yet he is confident that his team has "dug as deep as it could to find any problems." (Credit: NASA, UA)

Europe Meetings To Examine Commercial Spaceflight

On May 22, the Netherlands Society for Aerospace (NVR) and the Dutch space firm Space Horizons present 'Space 2.0: The Future of Commercial Spaceflight' in Haarlem, Netherlands. International speakers from the NewSpace community will discuss the future of private spaceflight and commercial opportunities associated with orbital and suborbital space tourism. Speakers include Bob Richards (R) of Odyssey Moon, Jeff Greason (C) of XCOR and Gwynne Shotwell (L) of SpaceX. Odyssey Moon is a competitor in the US$30M Google Lunar X Prize, which is holding its '1st Team Summit' this week at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France. The Prize challenges privately funded teams to land a robot on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and communicate with Earth. On May 28-30, the International Academy of Astronautics is sponsoring the '1st Symposium on Private Human Access to Space' in Arcachon, France. The event will look at all topics related to the transportation of passengers in space on a commercial basis, including legal and regulatory issues, financial aspects, potential customer bases and future spaceports. Christophe Bonnal of the IAA / CNES (France space agency) will deliver the welcome address and keynote speech. (Credit: IAA, Space Horizon, NVR)
THIS WEEK
MAY
JUNE
JULY
LEGEND
All times for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.
All times for space events, and...
All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT ('Universal Time;' Greenwich, England).
Weekly Planet Watch – Morning Planets: Jupiter (SSE) / Evening Planets: Mars (W), Saturn (SW), Mercury (WNW).
 

Monday
May 19 — International Space Station, LEO: Expedition 17 crew unloading supplies and equipment from Progress 29 craft that arrived late last week; crew preps for arrival of Discovery STS-124 in early Jun following scheduled launch on May 31; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html.
May 19 — Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral FL: Space Shuttle program managers conduct executive-level Flight Readiness Review for Discovery STS-124 mission to ISS on May 31; meeting to be followed by news conference from KSC to discuss status / launch date of next Shuttle launch; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html.
May 19 — Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford CA: 'Innovation for Aerospace and Space Exploration Webinar' with Burton Lee of Space Angels Network; http://aa.stanford.edu/.
May 19 — European Space Agency, Europe: ESA opens registration for new astronaut applicants; agency seeking 2 new astronauts that could fly on Moon missions in coming decades; http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13858-europe-recruits-astronauts-for-possible-moon-missions.html.
May 19 — Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Shanghai, China: Deadline for interested presenters and speakers to register and submit abstract for '7th International eVLBI Workshop' on Jun 16-17; http://www.shao.ac.cn/eVLBI2008/first.html.
May 19-20 — Technology Training Corporation, Las Vegas NV: 'Next-Generation Radio Communications Conference;' http://www.asdevents.com/event.asp?ID=233.
May 19-20 — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, College Park MD: 'Heliophysics Town Hall Meeting: Planning our Strategy for the Future;' http://heliophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/Townhall08.htm.
May 19-21 — Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers, Blankenberge, Belgium: '1st Astronomy & Astrophysics School: Scientific Writing for Young Astronomers;' http://www.swya.org/.
May 19-23 — Responsive Access to Space, Dayton OH: 'Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange 2008;' https://www.usasymposium.com/raste/exhibits.htm.
May 19-23 — International Astronautical Union, Boston MA: 'IAU Symposium 253: Transiting Planets;' http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/2008/IAUS253/.
May 19-23 — University of Paris Astroparticle and Cosmology Lab, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Paris, France: 'Workshop on Cosmological Frontiers in Fundamental Physics;' http://www.apc.univ-paris7.fr/Frontiers08/.
May 19-24 — Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany: 'The NEON 3D Spectra School: The First Practical Workshop on IFU Observations and Data Reduction;' http://opticon.3d-school.aip.de/.
May 19 — Mars, Red Planet: 3 orbiters (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, 2 rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) at Mars observing Mars Phoenix Landing this week; http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/news/phoenix-20080228.html.
May 19 — Moon: Full or Flower Moon (3rd of 4 Full Moons in Spring Season); Hoku I `Iki`Iki; 16:11.
Continued from . . .
Apr 7 — Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford CA: 'Innovation for Aerospace and Space Exploration Webinar Series;' Mondays at 14:15-15:05 PDT through Jun 2; contact Professor Bob Twiggs at Bob.Twiggs@Stanford.Edu; http://aa.stanford.edu/.
May 11 — International Telecommunications Union, Beer-Sheva, Israel: 'Isradynamics 2008: Dynamical Processes in Space Plasmas;' through May 19; http://physics.bgu.ac.il/~gedalin/Isradynamics2008/.
May 14 — NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Connecticut: NASA Vision for Space Exploration multimedia exhibit managed by MSFC tours Connecticut museums and schools; through Jun 4; http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-06-2008/0004807829&EDATE=.
May 18 — Catania Astrophysical Observatory, Vulcano Island, Sicily, Italy: 'Oxford-COSMOCT Workshop on the Interface Between Galaxy Formations and AGNs;' through May 22; http://www.oact.inaf.it/feedb2008/.
May 18 — Recontres de Blois, et al, Blois, France: '20th Recontres de Blois: Challenges in Particle Astrophysics;' through May 23; http://blois.in2p3.fr/2008/.
Tuesday
May 20 — NASA Headquarters, Washington DC: NASA holds media briefing on international Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM) / Jason-2 satellite; http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_M08095_OSTM_briefings.html.
May 20 — NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston TX: Robert Howard, manage of NASA Habitability Design Center at JSC, will discuss lunar habitats via satellite; http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/2006/J06-016.html.
May 20 — Challenger Center, Alexandria VA: Webcast with NASA scientists and upcoming spaceflight participant Richard Garriott on photography from space; http://www.challenger.org/programs/sts118webcast.cfm.
May 20 — Loral Space and Communications, New York NY: Company hosts conference call in conjunction with annual shareholder meeting; 10:30 EDT; http://investor.loral.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=310537.
May 20-21 — Google Lunar X Prize, International Space University, Strasbourg, France: '1st Google Lunar X Prize Team Summit;' a series of workshops and panels for US$30M Google Lunar X Prize teams, suppliers, potential customers, government and industry; http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/2008-team-summit.
May 20-21 — Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles CA: '2008 Global Positioning System Partnership Council;' http://www.gpsdaily.com/reports/GPS_Partnership_Council_To_Meet_In_Los_Angeles_999.html.
May 20-23 — Canadian Astronomical Society, Victoria, BC, Canada: 'CASCA 2008: 'The Scientific Impact of Canadian Astronomical Facilities and Instrumentation;' http://www.astrosci.ca/CASCA_2008/Home.html.
May 20 — Moon: At Apogee, distance 63.72 earth-radii (406,416 km); 05:00.
May 20 — Moon: 0.20° SSE of Antares; 13:00.
May 20 — Asteroid 8837 London: Closest Approach to Earth; (0.963 AU).
Wednesday
May 21 — NASA CoLab, San Francisco CA: '8th NASA CoLab Luna Philosophie – Open Source at NASA: 3D Visualization with NASA World Wind;' with Patrick Hogan and Randy Kim of NASA World Wind; at Yahoo! Brickhouse; http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/node/95.
May 21 — Ohio University, Athens OH: ISS space tourist Charles Simonyi shares his experience as part of 'Frontiers in Space Lecture Series;' http://www.athensmessenger.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=273&ArticleID=10227&TM=21846.93, http://www.lanl.gov/science/fellows/lectures.shtml.
May 21-23 — International Academy of Astronautics, Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, Moscow, Russia: '1st International Conference IAA-RACT: Space for Humanity Conference;' http://iaaweb.org/content/view/171/287/.
May 21-23 — NASA, MEPAG, St Louis MO: 'Mars Express OMEGA-HRSC Data Workshop;' http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/Announcements/MEPAG_Newsletter_02-04-0_DC_CJB-JG.html.
May 21 — Cassini OTM #156, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #156 today; http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/cassini-calendar-2008.cfm.
May 21 — Asteroid 2008 GR3: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.052 AU).
May 21 — Asteroid 2008 JU2: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.063 AU).
Thursday
May 22 — Netherlands Association for Spaceflight, Space Horizon, Haarlem, Netherlands: 'Space 2.0 Conference: The Future of Commercial Spaceflight;' representatives from SpaceX, Odyssey Moon, ESA, XCOR, more; http://www.ruimtevaart-nvr.nl/info/docs/SPACE2.0_ENG.pdf.
May 22 — NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena CA: News briefing on Mars Phoenix Landing (May 25); 11:30-12:30 PDT; http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-074a.
May 22 — Canadian Space Agency, Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Opening of National Astronaut Recruitment Campaign; http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/default.asp.
May 22 — NASA Headquarters, Washington DC: 'Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Meeting;' http://www.spaceref.com/calendar/calendar.html?pid=4934.
May 22 — WM Keck Observatory Headquarters, Kamuela HI: Rafael Millan-Gabet from the California Institute of Technology will present 'Planet Forming Disks - What We Can Learn by Combining the World's Largest Telescopes;' https://www.keckobservatory.org/index.html.
May 22-23 — NASA Advisory Council / Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena CA: 'NASA Advisory Council Science Committee / Planetary Protection Subcommittee Meeting;' http://www.spaceref.com/calendar/calendar.html?pid=4920, http://nasascience.nasa.gov/about-us/NAC-subcommittees/nac-planetary-protection-subcommittee.
May 22-23 — Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Frascati, Italy: 'IEEE South Italy Geoscience & Remote Sensing Chapter;' http://ieee.uniparthenope.it/chapter/gold.html.
May 22 — Ceres: 0.55° ESE of Mercury; 03:00.
May 22 — Asteroid 2008 GC: Near-Earth Flyby; (0.065 AU).
Friday
May 23 — National Space Society, Washington DC: Deadline to register for '27th International Space Development Conference: The New Pace of Space;' annual NSS conference on May 29-Jun 1; http://isdc.nss.org/2008/.
May 23-24 — NASA, Roscosmos, et al, Leipzig, Germany: '1st International Space Education Congress;' http://www.spacepass.de/.
May 23-25 — Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand: 'RASNZ 2008;' http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Conference/Conferences.htm.
May 23-29 — International Center for Theoretical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Darjeeling, India: 'Conference: Supernovae & Gamma-Ray Bursts at low z & in the Era of Reionization;' http://icts.tifr.res.in/sites/Sgrb/Page_0.
May 23 — Mars: 0.28° NNE of center of Beehive Cluster; 03:00.
Saturday
May 24 — NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena CA: News briefing on Mars Phoenix Landing (May 25); 12:00 PDT; also TCM-6 opportunity at 19:46; http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-074a.
May 24 — Cassini OTM #157, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts Orbital Trim Maneuver #157 today; http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/cassini-calendar-2008.cfm.
May 24 — Moon: 2.4° SSE of Jupiter; 02:00.
May 24 — Venus: 4.6° SSE of Pleiades; 18:00.
May 24 — Asteroid 11365 NASA: Closest Approach to Earth; (1.472 AU).
Sunday
May 25 — Phoenix Mars Mission TCM #6 / Landing, Mars Surface: Spacecraft scheduled to conduct 6th Trajectory Correction Maneuver in preparation for landing on surface of Red Planet today following 9 month journey from Earth; landing at north pole region at 16:36 PDT; Aug 4 launch; http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/.
May 25 — University of Arizona Science Center, Tucson AZ: 'Phoenix Mars Mission Landing Celebration;' http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/.
May 25 — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA: 'PlanetFest 2008;' http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/planetfest08/.
May 25-28 — University of Calgary, Banff, Alberta, Canada: '17th Kingston Meeting: Compact Stars in the Rockies;' http://www.capca.ucalgary.ca/meetings/CSR08/.
May 25-29 — Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Yalta, Ukraine: '1st International Workshop on the UX Ori Type Stars and related topics;' http://www.crao.crimea.ua/uxors/.
May 25-30 — Japan Geosciences Union, Chiba City, Japan: '2008 Japan Geosciences Union Meeting;' http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_e/.
May 25-Jun 13 — Aspen Center for Physics, University Park PA: 'Aspen 2008 Summer Workshop: Gravitational Wave Astronomy;' http://aspenphys.org/documents/program/summer08.html.
May 25 — Cassini Flyby, Saturn Orbit: Spacecraft conducts distant flyby of moons Pallene (28,000 km altitude), Atlas (61,000 km altitude), Janus (64,000 km altitude); http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/cassini-calendar-2008.cfm.
 
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Space Calendar Published Weekly, Mondays. ISSN 0741-1731. All Rights Reserved. Copyright May 19, 2008, Space Age Publishing Company, 65-1230 Mamalahoa Highway - Suite D-20, Kamuela, Hawaii 96743; 480 California Avenue - Suite 303, Palo Alto, California 94306, USA. Editor & Publisher, ILO Director / Steve Durst. Associate Editor, ILO Assistant Director / Charles Bohannan. Managing Editor / Jason Ventura. Contributing Editor / Joseph Sulla. Marketing Editor / Michelle Gonella. Special Contributors: Hawaii Aloha / Leilehua Yuen. Australia / Kirby Ikin. Canada / Robert Richards. China, Asia / Patricia Yu, Chen Kan Arth. Europe-Russia / Theo Pirard. India, South Asia / Radhakrishna Rao, USA, Bill Carswell. www.spaceagepub.com, news@spaceagepub.com.