FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT

February 1999

Sponsors

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Lunar and Planetary Institute
NASA Johnson Space Center

Chairs

Carl B. Agee
NASA Johnson Space Center

David C. Black
Lunar and Planetary Institute


Where and When Registration
Meeting Format Hotel Reservations
Special Sessions Conference Shuttle Services
Stephen E. Dwornik Student Awards Additional Information
Special Events
   

Where and When

The 30th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held in Houston, Texas, on March 15-19, 1999. Sessions will be held at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. This announcement contains plans for all scheduled technical and special sessions, invited lectures, and special events.

Meeting Format

Technical Sessions

Technical sessions will be held at the JSC Gilruth Center and at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Parallel sessions for oral presentations will be held in Room A (104), Room B (the old gym), Room C (the new gym), and Room D (Room 206 upstairs). The poster sessions will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings on the main floor of the University of Houston-Clear Lake Bayou Building. A guide to Technical Sessions and Activities is included in this announcement. The preliminary program and abstracts are also available on line.

Presentations

Oral presentations will be scheduled during the conference to allow eight minutes for speaking and seven minutes for discussion and speaker transition. Standard support for dual-screen projection of slides and overheads will be provided in all oral technical sessions. A slide preview area will be available at the Gilruth Center. VCR images can be projected in Conference Rooms A, B, and C. In Conference Room D, a large-screen video monitor will be available. VCR tapes must be 1/2" VHS or 3/4" U/matic.

Poster presentations will be scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. in the Bayou Building at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. A map to the Bayou Building and the parking areas available to participants will be provided in your registration packet. Authors of papers selected and scheduled for poster presentations will be asked to be available to display and discuss their results in the poster area during the assigned time period. Shuttle transportation between the Gilruth Center and the University of Houston-Clear Lake will be available. Each poster will have a space 44" × 44" for display. Requests for tables, computers, video equipment, etc., cannot be honored due to the limited space available for poster displays.

Special Sessions

Masursky Lectures

The Harold Masursky Lecture Series will continue this year with two lectures to be given in a plenary session to be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Monday, March 15. The first invited lecture will be given by Dr. Michael Belton, the Solid-State Imaging Subsystem (SSI) Team Leader for the Galileo mission, who will present a lecture on what the Galileo mission has taught us, as well as other remembrances from two decades of mission planing and execution. Dr. Carolyn Porco, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) Leader for the Cassini mission, will give the second lecture. She will discuss what we hope to learn from Cassini.

NEAR at Eros

On Wednesday afternoon there will be a special session for participants to hear reports covering the first results of NEAR at Eros. This special session includes only invited talks by team members who will report on early results.

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Results

On Tuesday, March 16, there will be a special session on Mars Global Surveyor mission results. The talks will include observational data that has been obtained during the 18 months since orbit insertion at Mars. There will be reports on the anticipated observations (beginning in late February 1999) of the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor. Results from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument during the aerobraking phase of the MGS mission will also be included in the session.

Future Planetary Missions

There will be a special session from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, at which representatives from NASA Headquarters and the Solar System Exploration Subcommittee will describe the strategic planning process and work that has been done on the plan to date.

In addition, a special subtopic section of the posters presented on Tuesday evening will highlight contributed presentations on suggested future missions. This poster session will be held from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. at the Univeristy of Houston-Clear Lake.

New Views of the Moon:Discrimination of Major Lunar Terranes and Their Origins Using Global and Local Data

This session has been organized as an effort of the entire lunar science community to involve integrated and multidisciplinary approaches of geology, remote sensing, samples, and geophysics, including the newly emerging Lunar Prospector datasets, to define, characterize, and determine origins of the major lunar geochemical and geophysical terranes.

Poster Presentation on Education/Public Outreach

This year the presentations on education and public outreach will be poster presentations integrated into the usual Tuesday and Thursday evening poster sessions. The presentations will be directed to the audience of researchers who are professional attendees at the conference, rather than to K-12 educators.

Stephen E. Dwornik Student Awards

The Stephen E. Dwornik Planetary Geoscience Student Paper Awards are given for the best student research presentations at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. The purpose of these awards is to provide encouragement, motivation, and recognition to our most outstanding future planetary scientists. The awards are administered through the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America. Two awards are given annually: one for an oral presentation and one for a poster presentation. The awards are open to U.S. citizens who are currently enrolled as students at any degree level in the field of planetary geosciences. Postdoctoral fellows are not eligible. The winners of the 1998 awards will be announced at the beginning of the Monday afternoon special session, and will be honored at a reception on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Conference Room A.

Special Events

30th Anniversary Photo

A panoramic photograph of the participants at the 30th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be staged and shot from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 16, outside the Gilruth Center. Orders will be taken at the conference registration desk for copies of the photograph to be sent to participants following the conference. The cost per photo is $20.

Chili Cookoff and Barbecue Dinner

The chili cookoff and barbecue dinner will be held on Wednesday, March 17, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. The form for chili cookoff team entry is due at LPI by February 15, 1999. Of the 15 teams that competed at the 29th LPSC, 8 were out-of-town teams. To encourage both out-of-town and local teams to enter, we are changing the winning categories to include:

Best Presentation
Best Chili Overall
Best Out-of-Town Chili (that didn't already win)
Best Local Chili (that didn't already win)
Most Unusual Chili (that's a polite way to say booby prize)

Because the conference staff cannot provide cooking equipment, the "preparation on site" rules common to most cookoffs will be waived to encourage more team participation. A new rule involves what chili teams may serve during the "chili tasting." Teams may serve only chili or other food items at their station. Chili teams may NOT serve alcoholic beverages to the conference participants or their guests. Remember that the goal of this event is fun, not serious cooking competition. Join in by entering your team to compete against great secret recipes and creative cooking station decorations.

Guest tickets for the event will be available at the registration desk for $15 per person.

Registration

Preregistration

A fee of $50 ($30 for students) will be assessed each participant to cover conference services. You must preregister and prepay by February 22, 1999, to avoid the $20 late fee. Foreign participants who state on the registration form that they have a currency exchange problem may pay in cash at the meeting and avoid the $20 late fee if they return the form by February 22, 1999. Please send in the downloadable pre-registration form or register using the electronic form. Requests for cancellation and a refunded fee will be accepted through March 5, 1999.

NOTE:  Those who fail to attend and do not notify the LPI Publications and Programs Services Department prior to the March 6 deadline will forfeit their full fee.

Sunday Night Registration and Reception

The Sunday night registration and reception will take place at LPI from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. The location is shown on the map included in this announcement. Shuttle buses will operate from selected hotels to LPI on Sunday night. Parking is limited at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. A continuous "park-and-ride" service will be provided from one of the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) parking lots and the LPI. A map with the route from LPI to the "park-and-ride" lot at UHCL is included in this announcement.

Hotel Reservations

A list of local hotels is included. Although making reservations is the responsibility of each participant, we have negotiated reduced rates at some locations. When you call a hotel, you must tell them you are attending the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference and ask for the conference rate. There are several new hotels in the area, so long-time conference participants will find that there are now more options available. A map of the local area showing the locations of JSC, LPI, and local hotels is included in this announcement.

Conference Shuttle Services

Conference shuttle buses will provide service between most hotels on the list provided (see hotel list for exceptions), the JSC Gilruth Center, LPI, and University of Houston-Clear Lake. There will be rotational runs in the morning, during lunch, at the close of sessions, and during special events. Shuttle buses will make hourly stops at LPI throughout conference week. Your conference badge will serve as your bus ticket. A detailed shuttle schedule will be provided to all registered participants.

Additional Information

For further information, call the LPI Publications and Program Services Department (logistics: 281-486-2158; registration: 281-486-2142).

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