The 28th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held in Houston, Texas, on March 17-21, 1997. Sessions will be held as usual at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).

The LPSC program committee created the conference program from abstracts submitted by researchers in appropriate scientific disciplines. Complete abstracts will be available on line this year in PDF format, viewable with the Adobe Acrobat reader, which can be downloaded free from the World-Wide Web site:

http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/tsfilelib.html

In addition to the traditional printed volumes, abstracts will be available on CD-ROMs for the first time; both versions will be available at conference registration.

World-Wide Web Site for all LPSC Information

The LPI Publications and Program Services Department has created a Web site with complete information on the 1997 LPSC at

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/LPSC97

From special session information to local area maps, this site is the "one-stop shopping" center for the conference.Members of the community who do not have Web access will receive information in the final announcement, to be mailed in early February.

Conference Format

The four-and-a-half day conference will be organized by topical symposia and problem-oriented sessions. Participants were asked to indicate a preference for oral, poster, or title-only presentation when submitting an abstract to the confererence.

Presentations

Oral presentations will be scheduled during the conference to allow eight minutes for speaking and seven minutes for discussion and speaker transition. Poster presentations will be scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the LPI. Authors of papers 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. Additionally, posters may be viewed at LPI each day of the conference. Shuttle transportation between the Gilruth Center and LPI will be available. Each poster will have a space 44"x 44" for display. Requests for tables, computers, video equipment, etc., cannot be honored due to the limited space available for poster displays.

Special Sessions

Galileo: Summary of Mission

There will be a special plenary session on Galileo featuring an invited talk by Torrence Johnson entitled "Galileo: Year One at Jupiter," from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Immediately following the plenary there will be a special parallel session on Galileo and a second special parallel session on Tuesday morning.

Masursky Lecture

The Harold Masursky Lecture Series will continue again this year with a plenary session, to be held from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, entitled "Meteorites on Ice," noting the twentieth anniversary of the first U.S. expedition to recover Antarctic meteorites, and the two decades of research that followed. A special session entitled "New Results on the Possibility of Life in a Martian Meteorite," will be held in plenary immediately following the Masursky Lectures. This session will consist of invited talks and a panel discussion.

Poster and Display Sessions on Education

Two special poster/display sessions on education will be held at LPI on Tuesday and Thursday evenings during the regular technical poster sessions. The format provides much more interaction, which is lacking in an oral session; it allows participants to demonstrate some of the projects hands-on rather than simply describing them orally. The education special sessions will be located in and around the LPI library. Participants will be expected to provide their own computer equipment.

Chili Cookoff

The chili cookoff and barbecue dinner will be held on Wednesday, March 19, from 6:00 to 9:30 p.m. at the Landolt Pavilion. A chili cookoff team entry form can be found at the LPSC Web site.

Out-of-town teams are encouraged to enter. Because the conference staff can no longer 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 the cookoff 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

The fee of $50 ($30 for students) covers conference services. You must preregister and prepay by February 24, 1997, to avoid a $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 24, 1997.

You can register by completing and submitting either the electronic registration form or the downloadable registration form found at the LPSC Web site.

Requests for cancellation and refunded fee will be accepted through March 7, 1997. Those who fail to attend and do not notify the LPI Publications and Program Services Department prior to March 7 will not receive a refund.

Sunday Night Registration and Reception

The Sunday night registration and reception will take place as usual at LPI from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The location is shown on the local area map found on the Web. Shuttle buses will operate from selected hotels to LPI on Sunday night.

Hotel Reservations

A list of local hotels can be found at the Web site. 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. Refer to the area map on the Web for the locations of JSC, LPI, and local hotels.

Conference Shuttle Service

Conference shuttle buses will provide service between most hotels, the JSC Gilruth Center, and LPI in the morning, during lunch, at the close of sessions, and during special events. Computer displays, exhibits, poster sessions, 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 will be provided to all registered participants.

Additional Information

For further information on the conference program or logistics, please call the LPI Publications and Program Services Department at 281-486-2158.

GUIDE TO TECHNICAL SESSIONS AND ACTIVITIES

Monday morning, 8:30 a.m.

Room A    Mars Flows and Processes

Room B    ALH 84001: Carbonates and Life (?)

Room C    Origins of Planetary Systems: Observations and Theory

Monday afternoon, 1:30 p.m.

Room C    SPECIAL SESSION (plenary) - Galileo: Year One at Jupiter

Monday afternoon, 2:30 p.m.

Room A     Achondrites

Room B    Mars Tectonics and Geophysics

Room C    SPECIAL SESSION - Galileo Mission Results: Overview and Io

Room D     Dust to Spherules-Captive and At Large

Monday afternoon, 5:30 p.m.

Room A    Reception to honor the GSA 1996 Stephen E. Dwornik Student Paper Award Winners

Tuesday morning, 8:30 a.m.

Room A    Ordinary and Enstatite Chondrites

Room B    Mars Remote Sensing

Room C    SPECIAL SESSION - Galileo Mission Results: Europa and Ganymede

Room D    Lunar Basins to Regolith: Processes and Effects

Tuesday afternoon, 1:30 p.m.

Room A    Presolar Grains

Room B    Lifeless (?) Martian Meteorites

Room C    Outer Planetary Satellites

Room D    Future Missions? Innovation and Ambition

Tuesday evening, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

LPI SPECIAL SESSION Education and Outreach: Activities and Resources

LPI Poster Session I

Wednesday morning, 8:30 a.m.

Room A    Chondrules

Room B    Mars Water, Climate, and Life

Room C    Lunar Highlands Crust

Room D    Iron Meteorites

Wednesday afternoon, 1:30 p.m.

Building 2     SPECIAL SESSION (plenary) Harold Masursky Lectures: Meteorites on Ice and the Mars Connection

Symposium: New Results on the Possibility of Life in a Martian Meteorite

Panel Discussion - Life on Mars: Science Issues and Directions

Wednesday evening, 6:00-9:30 p.m.

Conference Social Event, Landolt Pavilion

Thursday morning, 8:30 a.m.

Room A    Carbonaceous Chondrites

Room B    Venus Regional and Global Analysis

Room C    Lunar Origins and Igneous Evolution

Room D    The Impact Story-Mechanics, Experiments, Models

Thursday afternoon, 1:30 p.m.

Room A    Early Solar System Chronology

Room B    Venus: The Lithosphere and the Atmosphere

Room C    Lunar Mare Basalt Diversity and Distribution

Room D    Terrestrial Impact Structures Ejecta, and Tektites

Thursday afternoon, 3:00 p.m.

Room B    Mercury

Thursday evening, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

LPI SPECIAL SESSION - Education and Outreach: Activities and Resources

LPI Poster Session II

Friday morning, 8:30 a.m.

Room A    CAIs and Hot Topics

Room B    Small Bodies, Near and Far

Room C    Planetary Interior Processes