Subject: [DPS Members] DPS Mailing #09-15: 2009 Meeting, Decadal Survey, green initiatives... Issue 09-15, August 28th 2009 +-----------------------------CONTENTS--------------------------------+ 1) 2009 DPS Meeting Updates 2) 2009 DPS Meeting: Volunteers Needed for Outreach Talks in Spanish 3) 2009 Decadal Survey Update 4) DPS Green Initiatives 5) New Horizons KBO Search- DPS Meeting Workshop 6) HST Multi-Cycle Treasury (MCT) Programs Call for Proposals 7) Ali Safaeinili 8) Job Announcements 9) Upcoming Meetings +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1 2009 DPS MEETING UPDATES DPS Meeting website: http://dps09.naic.edu 1) Registration See http://dps09.naic.edu/DPS09_Reg_Form.pdf The regular registration deadline is Tuesday, 1 September 2009. Registration after the deadline will be available on-site, at an increased rate. You may register online at http://members.aas.org/source/meetings/cMeetingProcessSearch.cfm or download and print out a copy of the registration form from http://dps09.naic.edu/DPS09_Reg_Form.pdf and fax it to the AAS at 202-234-7850 If you have any questions, contact Laronda Boyce at [email protected]. 2) Hotel Reservation Updates The El Conquistador hotel is nearly sold out on Thursday, 8 October and Friday, 9 October. We are in the process of negotiating rates for an additional hotel. Daily shuttle service will be provided from the new hotel to the El Conquistador. For assistance with making a reservation, please contact Laronda Boyce at [email protected]. 3) Late Abstract Submission Deadline The Late Abstract Deadline is Tuesday, 9 September 2009 at 5:00 PM EDT. See http://dps09.naic.edu/abs.shtml The following DPS presentation rules apply: One contributed planetary presentation per person. The following exceptions do not count as your one contribution: History talk or poster Education talk or poster Decadal Survey "White Paper Poster" Invited talks Non-members may only present one time at a DPS Meeting. Non-members must have a DPS member sponsor their presentation. Non-members must enter the sponsor's name before accessing the abstract form. The sponsor will be notified. To implement these rules, abstracts must be submitted through the presenting author's AAS account. 4) Meeting schedule now available See http://dps09.naic.edu/program.shtml 2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2 2009 DPS MEETING: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR OUTREACH TALKS IN SPANISH Help celebrate IYA! Volunteers are still needed to give Spanish talks on general astronomy or planetary science in Puerto Rico. If you are willing to talk to the general public, or to school children in Spanish, during, or immediately before or after DPS, please contact Mayra Lebron ([email protected]) or Ellen Howell ([email protected]). 3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3 DECADAL SURVEY UPDATE 1) There are several activities at the 2009 DPS meeting related to the decadal survey. These include: * Plenary Town Hall meeting on Monday, 11:00am - 12:30pm * Special White Paper Poster Session, * Giant Planets Panel: Community Workshop (date TBD) * Satellites of the Outer Planets Panel: Public Meeting (date TBD) * Small Bodies Advisory Group: Wednesday lunch meeting Updates will be posted at http://dps09.naic.edu/decadal.shtml (though this is not quite up-to-date at the time of posting) 2) A reminder that there will be a session of the Fall AGU meeting (P15: "Recent Results in Planetary Science and Their Impact on Future Science and Mission Priorities") devoted to providing input to the Decadal Survey. See http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/program/scientific_session_search.php? show=detail&sessid=558 AGU abstract deadline is September 3rd 2009 3) A reminder that Decadal white papers are due on September 15th. Please post information on planned white papers at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/decadal/ and submit them via http://www8.nationalacademies.org/ssbsurvey/ 4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4 DPS GREEN INTIATIVES Thanks to the donation of $1500 by registrants to the 2008 Ithaca DPS meeting, the DPS has been able to purchase 725 megawatt-hours of Renewable Energy Credits from 3 Degrees (http://3degreesinc.com/), to offset the impact of meeting travel on the environment. This purchase has been carefully chosen to have maximum impact in replacing carbon-emitting energy sources with renewable energy. Thanks to Beth Clark of Ithaca College for organizing this effort. We would like to increase the fraction of meeting-related CO2 emissions that we can offset in future meetings. So please consider a $30 donation to the carbon neutrality fund for the 2009 DPS meeting to offset its environmental impact- this can be done from the registration page or, if you have already registered, at the meeting itself. There will be a workshop at the DPS meeting to discuss how we can further reduce our environmental impact: Contact John Spencer, [email protected], for details. 5---------5---------5---------5---------5---------5---------5---------5 NEW HORIZONS KBO SEARCH - DPS MEETING WORKSHOP Following its July 2015 Pluto encounter, the New Horizons (NH) spacecraft will continue into the Kuiper Belt, and one or more KBOs may be targeted for close flybys. There are probably KBOs brighter than magnitude 27 that are accessible by the spacecraft, but these have yet to be discovered. The optimum time for a search for flyby targets for NH is the period 2011-2014, when the search area is relatively small and is beginning to emerge from the Milky Way. Large-aperture telescopes, wide-field imagers, and software capable of extracting moving objects from crowded starfields will be required. The New Horizons project is soliciting help for this search, and can provide financial support for selected search teams. NH science team participation of search team PIs in the KBO encounter(s) is also a possibility. There will be a workshop at the 2009 DPS meeting (time and place TBD), which will include discussion of the search region, search depth required, possible search and data analysis strategies, results of preliminary searches, and potential mechanisms for forming and funding search teams. If you are interested in the DPS workshop or the search, please contact John Spencer, [email protected] 6---------6---------6---------6---------6---------6---------6---------6 HST MULTI-CYCLE TREASURY (MCT) PROGRAMS CALL FOR PROPOSALS Proposal Deadline: November 18, 2009 NASA and The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) are pleased to announce the Multi-Cycle Treasury Programs Call for Proposals for Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Observations. Participation in this program is open to all categories of organizations, both domestic and foreign, including educational institutions, profit and nonprofit organizations, NASA Centers, and other Government agencies. This solicitation for proposals will be open through November 18, 2009, 5:00 pm EST. The Astronomer's Proposal Tools (APT) version 17.4.3, which is required for Phase I Proposal Submission, has been released. Results of the selection will be announced in late January 2010, 6-7 weeks before the Cycle 18 Phase I Deadline. All programmatic and technical information, as well as specific guidelines for proposal preparation, are available electronically from the STScI at http://www.stsci.edu/institute/org/spd/mctp.html/. Questions can be addressed to the STScI Help Desk (email: [email protected]; phone: 410-338-1082). 7---------7---------7---------7---------7---------7---------7---------7 ALI SAFAEINILI Dr. Ali Safaeinili, a long-time and respected member of the Radar Science and Engineering team at JPL passed away on Wednesday, July 29. Born in Sari, Iran, Ali managed to find his way to Iowa State University, where he earned Bachelor, Masters, and Doctorate degrees. At JPL for more than a decade, Dr. Safaeinili pursued radar as a means to study ice on the Earth and the planets. An energetic and innovative scientist, Ali participated in the design, development, testing and operation of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) still operating on Mars Express. He also participated in the design and operation of the Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) currently orbiting Mars on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Active in the analysis of radar data, Ali served as the Investigation Scientist for the radar investigations on both projects. In addition to earlier work on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), he led and contributed to efforts to develop new VHF and HF radars for Earth observations and potential applications to Europa and other icy bodies. Survivors include his wife, two daughters, his parents, siblings, and many, many friends and colleagues. 8---------8---------8---------8---------8---------8---------8---------8 JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) School Postdoctoral Fellowship See http://jobs.anu.edu.au/PositionDetail.aspx?p=791 This Fellowship aims to attract candidates of the highest ability, irrespective of field, to the physics program in the Australian National University's College of Physical Sciences. The physics program at ANU includes research programs in planetary atmospheric chemistry, planetary astronomy, and laboratory spectroscopy. Applications are open to candidates who are within five years of the date of award of their PhD. Candidates who are in the final stage of their PhD must have been awarded their degree by the time of commencing their appointment. Candidates will be assessed on their research potential and track record relative to opportunity, taking into account their background in either theory or experiment. The Fellowship is for two years in any of the physics research areas within the College of Physical Sciences: http://physics.anu.edu.au/ or http://www.anu.edu.au/Physics/new/index.php. Fellowship enquiries: Professor Kenneth Baldwin Planetary research enquiries: Professor Brenton Lewis, Dr Stephen Gibson, or Dr Frank Mills Deadline for application 31 August 2009. 9---------9---------9---------9---------9---------9---------9---------9 UPCOMING MEETINGS 1) Challenging the Paradigm: The Legacy of Galileo, November 19, 2009, Caltech, Pasadena http://www.kiss.caltech.edu/symposia/galileo2009/index.html In the year when the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's discoveries through the use of the telescope, this one-day symposium will reflect upon the significance of his discoveries to the development of our culture and to science. Sessions include: * Galileo the Man and The Space Mission * Exploration of Galileo's Worlds: The Jovian and Saturnian Systems * What Galileo Hath Wrought: Observing the Cosmic System * Beyond Galileo Galilei: Modern Frontiers of Cosmic Science Researchers are encouraged to contribute a poster describing innovative research on any of the themes discussed by the invited speakers. Young researchers and students are especially welcome. Abstracts are limited to 180 words. Deadline for poster abstract submission is September 30, 2009. Please register on our website early - registration is free but seating is limited 2) Lunar Dust, Plasma and Atmosphere: The Next Steps. January 27–29, 2010, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder http://lpa2010.colorado.edu/ This meeting is being organized by the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies (CCLDAS), a NASA NLSI center, see: http://lasp.colorado.edu/ccldas/ 3) Faraday Discussion 147: Chemistry of the Planets, 14-16 June 2010, Saint Jacut de la Mer, Brittany, France http://www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents/RSCConferences/FD147/index.asp Call for oral abstracts: deadline - 21 September 2009 A host of missions either underway, or due to report back in the next few years, are able to land on planets or descend into their atmospheres, and apply powerful analytical techniques to determine their chemical compositions. The wealth of chemical information sent back from these missions has stimulated major efforts in laboratory experiments and computational modelling, and created a fascinating area for multidisciplinary exchange around the theme of the chemistry of the planets. Furthermore, the recent discovery of water and methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet (exoplanet) opens up a whole new and exciting field of planetary chemistry outside of the Solar System. We plan a fruitful Faraday Discussion at the interface of these disciplines. See the Web site for details. Ian Sims, Institut de Physique de Rennes [email protected], http://perso.univ-rennes1.fr/ian.sims/ +---------------------------------------------------------------------+