SPONSORS
 
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
(Technical Sponsor)

Universities Space Research Association
(Logistical Sponsor)

Lunar and Planetary Institute

NASA Lunar Science Institute

CONVENERS
 
David A. Kring
Center for Lunar Science and Exploration, Lunar and Planetary Institute

William F. Bottke
Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution, Southwest Research Institute

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
 
Robin Canup
Southwest Research Institute

Gareth Collins
Imperial College London

James Head
Brown University

Alessandro Morbidelli
Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur (France)

Marc Norman

Australian National University

Richard Walker

University of Maryland


 

Final Announcement — December 2011

Meeting Location and Date

The Workshop on the Early Solar System Impact Bombardment II will be held February 1–3, 2012, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), located in the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) building, 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston TX 77058.

Important Note About Parking —

Limited visitor parking is available at the USRA building for workshop participants, so once the visitor parking section is full, workshop participants are asked to park in the University Baptist Church (UBC) parking lot. A shuttle bus will run continually throughout the workshop to take participants to and from their cars.

Directions from Bay Area Blvd.: Turn left on Middlebrook Drive and continue 0.4 miles. The UBC parking lot will be on the right, just past Glenshannon Drive. There are plenty of parking spaces available for workshop participants, and signs will be posted at the shuttle pickup and dropoff location at the north side of the lot.

Introduction

One of the legacies of the Apollo program is the concept of late heavy bombardment or a lunar cataclysm that may have resurfaced the Moon and thermally metamorphosed its crust. Several recent studies have continued to test that concept and explore the implications any bombardment may have for our understanding of lunar evolution. It has also been posited to be a factor in the origin and early evolution of life on Earth.

Moon-forming ImpactPerhaps the largest collisional event implicated in the evolution of the Moon is the hypothesized impact of a body twice the size of the Moon with the proto-Earth, producing a cloud of debris from which the Moon coalesced. That giant impact hypothesis continues to be avidly explored in the planetary science community.

Interest in these two themes continue to grow, particularly following a National Research Council report about The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon that places a tests of the lunar cataclysm hypothesis and giant impact hypothesis among the top lunar science priorities.

Purpose and Scope

Recognizing the community’s interest in these topics, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and partners within the NASA Lunar Science Institute have organized a workshop to explore them. The workshop will provide an opportunity to integrate several diverse components of the above topics, including an assessment of the geologic record of impact cratering throughout the solar system, cosmochemical constraints on any early bombardment, and dynamic models that might explain the flux of debris and potential changes in the flux of debris. The goal is to investigate the range of collisional events from the era of planetary accretion to the end of the basin-forming epoch.

Although the Moon will be a central component of the workshop, the discussion will include observations elsewhere, such as Mercury, Mars, the asteroid belt, and outer solar system moons.

Meeting Format

The workshop will be dominated by contributed oral and poster presentations, although a small number of invited presentations are planned to frame the issues to be explored. These will be designed to set the stage for the workshop and identify broad issues. Contributed talks and posters that then follow will add detail and hopefully new information that helps resolve the broad issues.

The program and abstracts are now available. An author index has also been provided so authors can easily determine when their presentation has been scheduled.

Oral Presentations

The meeting will be structured with morning and afternoon oral sessions organized around topical themes. Each oral session will contain invited talksand a limited number ofcontributed oral presentations with ample time for questions and discussion.

Audio-visual equipment available for oral presentations will include one LCD projector and one PC laptop.

Poster Presentations

A poster session is scheduled for Wednesday evening, February 1. Posters may be installed on Wednesday morning and will be left on display through Friday noon, February 3, at which time they must be removed. Authors must be present at the scheduled session to discuss their poster.

Each poster will have a space 44" × 44" (1.1 m × 1.1 m) for display. Posters will be displayed on free-standing panels that are 4' × 8' (122 cm × 244 cm) (inside frame). Two presenters will share one side of one panel, so it is important that displays do not exceed the size limits. Due to space limitations, tables, computers, video equipment, etc., cannot be accommodated as a part of a poster display.

Registration

Registration Fees:

Through December 23, 2011 $150.00 professionals; $75.00 students
December 24, 2011–January 25, 2012 $200.00 professionals; $125.00 students
Onsite $250.00 professionals; $175.00 students

 

The registration fee for professionals and students includes a reception, technical sessions, coffee breaks, and a printed program and abstract booklet.

Credit card registrations: Participants registering by credit card MUST use the secure electronic registration form.

Other methods of payment: Those registering using any other method of payment (check, money order, traveler’s check, or wire transfer) must contact the LPI Meeting Registrar for detailed instructions.

Cancellations: Requests for cancellation with a fee refund (less a $25.00 processing fee) will only be accepted through January 6, 2012. Those who fail to attend and do not notify the LPI prior to the cancellation deadline will forfeit their full fee.

Note: We now have a third-party payment page available. Participants required to register using a third party (e.g., SATERN for NASA civil servants) may still register in advance using the electronic registration form. The confirmation e-mail you receive after registering will include payment instructions to submit to the third party. Please be aware, however, that your registration will not be considered complete until the funds have been received.

Accommodations

Participants are responsible for making their own travel and hotel reservations. For your convenience, a list of local hotels and a local area map showing their locations are provided.

Contacts

For further information regarding the scientific content of the meeting:

Dr. David A. Kring
Center for Lunar Science and Exploration
Lunar and Planetary Institute
E-mail:  [email protected]

OR

Dr. William F. Bottke
Center for Lunar Origin and Evolution
Southwest Research Institute
E-mail:  [email protected]

For further information regarding meeting logistics or announcements:

Katy Buckaloo
Meeting and Publication Services
Universities Space Research Association (USRA)/
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Phone:  281-486-2106
E-mail:  [email protected]

For further information regarding registration:

Linda Tanner
Meeting and Publication Services
Universities Space Research Association (USRA)/
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Phone: 281-486-2142
E-mail: [email protected]

Schedule

Deadline for registration at the reduced rate December 23, 2011
Workshop on the Early Solar System Bombardment II

February 1–3, 2012