Final Announcement

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

Chairs
David C. Black
Lunar and Planetary Institute		     Douglas P. Blanchard
NASA Johnson Space Center


The 29th Lunar and Planetary
Science Conference
is dedicated to the memory of
Eugene M. Shoemaker.		 

Where and When Meeting Format Special Sessions
Student Awards Special Event Registration and Logistics
Forms and Information

Where and When
The 29th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held in Houston, Texas, on March 16-20, 1998. Sessions will be held at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). This announcement contains plans for special sessions, invited lectures, and special events.


Meeting Format
Technical Sessions
Technical sessions will be held at the JSC Gilruth Center and Space Center Houston. Parallel sessions for oral presentations will be held in Room A (Room 104), Room B (the old gym), Room C (the new gym), and Room D (Room 206 upstairs). The Guide to Technical Sessions and Activities and preliminary program and abstracts are now available.

Presentations
Oral presentations are 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 are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 10:00 p.m. at Space Center Houston. Authors of papers selected and scheduled for poster presentation are 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 Space Center Houston 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 Monday afternoon Special Plenary Session will be held from 1:30 p.m. through 2:30 p.m. in Conference Room C at the Gilruth Center. The session will include this year's Harold Masursky Lecture given by Michael H. Carr, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California. The title of his lecture is Mars: Aquifers, Oceans, and the Prospects for Life. Also included in this session is an overview talk on the Mars Pathfinder Mission to be presented by Matthew P. Golombek, Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This talk will lead into two special sessions on Mars Pathfinder that are described in the next paragraph.

Pathfinder Mission Results
Two special sessions on the Mars Pathfinder Mission and results will be held Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning of the conference. The Monday afternoon session is entitled Mars Pathfinder: Rocks, Dirt, and Air; the Tuesday morning session is entitled Mars Pathfinder: Landing Site Environment and Imaging Results.

New Discovery Missions
Wednesday afternoon, at 1:30 p.m. in Conference Room C at the Gilruth Center, Dr. Wesley T. Huntress will give an opening presentation on the Discovery Program. Additional talks will be given on the recently awarded CONTOUR and Genesis Missions and on the Lunar Prospector Mission in progress.

A New and Enhanced Education
Outreach Special Session
This year the presentations selected for education displays will be included in a special session that will be held at Space Center Houston from 10:00 a.m. through 10:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 19. Abstracts selected for this session will address the needs of educators in grades K-12. Presentations will include both invited and contributed abstracts. Local teachers are invited to attend this special event. Teachers working with visually handicapped students will be encouraged to attend to see a special demonstration of Stephen Dwornik's Braille map of the solar system. By changing the location of the session to Space Center Houston, and by holding the session during the day, we are hopeful that many teachers, who will be on spring break the week of LPSC, will be able to attend.


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. 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 1997 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 Event
The chili cookoff and barbecue dinner will be held on Wednesday, March 18, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. in Campbell Hall at the Pasadena Fairgrounds. Guest tickets for the barbecue dinner will be available at the registration desk for $15 per person. A chili cookoff entry form is provided for your convenience. Out-of-town teams are encouraged to enter. Because the conference staff cannot provide cooking equipment, the "preparation on site" rule common to most cookoffs will be waived to encourage more team participation. The goal of this event is fun, not serious cooking competition. We need more teams to take part in the cookoff, and will cancel that portion of the event if we do not receive sufficient entries by the February 24 deadline. Join the fun by entering your favorite concoction and compete against other secret recipes. There will be awards for best presentation as well as first-, second-, and third-place awards for the best chili.


Registration and Logistics
Preregistration
A fee of $50 ($30 for students) will be assessed each participant to cover conference services. You must preregister and prepay by February 23, 1998, to avoid the $20 late fee. Foreign participants who state on the preregistration 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 23, 1998. The downloadable registration form should be completed and mailed with your payment in U.S. dollars to the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Checks must be drawn on a U.S. bank. Participants registering by credit card can use the electronic registration form. Requests for cancellation and a refunded fee will be accepted through March 6, 1997.

Note: Those who fail to attend and do not notify the LPI Publications and Program 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 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The location is shown on the local area map. Shuttle buses will operate from selected hotels to LPI on Sunday night. For those driving rental cars, see the information on overflow parking provided under the heading "Conference Shuttle Services."

Registration will continue from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday morning, March 16, at the JSC Gilruth Center. The registration desk will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 8:00 a.m. until noon on Friday.

Security/Badges
Your conference badge will permit access to JSC at all gates, to the Gilruth Center where oral sessions will be held, to Space Center Houston for the poster and education sessions, and to the travel office in JSC Building 1. Foreign nationals who wish to visit JSC Building 31 or other nonpublic areas at JSC need to have their embassies contact NASA to make these arrangements well in advance of the conference.

Hotel Reservations
Click here for a list of local hotels. 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. The locations of JSC, LPI, and local hotels are shown on the local area map.

Message and Faxes
A message center will be established in the registration area in the Gilruth Center during the technical sessions. People who need to contact attendees during the conference may call 281-483-0321. The message center will be open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and on Friday from 8:00 a.m. until noon. A fax machine will be located at the registration desk for incoming messages only. Faxes should be sent to 281-483-8722. Telephone and fax messages will be posted on a bulletin board near the registration desk.

Local Ground Transportation
Conference Shuttle Services
Conference shuttle buses will provide service between most hotels on the hotel list (see exceptions noted on list), the JSC Gilruth Center, Space Center Houston, and LPI. There will be rotational runs in the morning, during lunch, at the close of sessions, and during special events. Computer displays, exhibits, and other conference-related events will be located at LPI; shuttle buses will make hourly stops there throughout conference week. Your conference badge will serve as your bus ticket. A detailed shuttle schedule is now available.

Ground Transportation
No public transportation is available within the local area surrounding JSC and LPI. Taxi service is available to Clear Lake area hotels from both Hobby Airport (~$25) and Intercontinental Airport (~$60); taxi service is also available in and around the Clear Lake area. Shuttle service from both airports is available from Galveston Limousine Service (vans and small buses are used for the airport shuttle). This service offers trips from Intercontinental Airport from 7:00 a.m. through 10:00 p.m. every 1.5 hours for $18 per person. Scheduled trips from Hobby Airport are from 8:00 a.m. through 11:00 p.m. every 1.5 hours for $15 per person. Galveston Limousine Service can be reached at 281-286-5466 or 1-800-640-4826.


Forms and Information
For further information, call the LPI Publications and Program Services Department (for information on conference logistics, call 281-486-2158; for information on registration, call 281-486-2142).

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