On October 19, 2014, comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) will flyby Mars within ~130,000 km. A coordination workshop was held on August 11, 2014. The workshop was designed to review the latest comet observations by ground-based and space-based assets and to present the preliminary plans for observations of both the comet and Mars during this historic close encounter.

A second follow-on workshop is now scheduled for September 19, 2014.  The objective of the workshop is to review the latest ground-based and space-based observations and modeling of the comet and Mars.  Also, a report from NASA Mars exploration leaders as they prepare for the comet encounter. This workshop will be held as a virtual meeting, and I encourage everyone who is interested to participate.

For more information about the archived August 11 workshop, and the September 19 meeting, please visit these two websites.

CIOC Campaign webpage: http://cometcampaign.org

Mars Program CSS webpage: http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring