The 27th LPSC will be held March 18-22, 1996, in Houston, Texas. As usual, sessions will be held at the NASA Johnson Space Center and the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

The LPSC program committee will select the conference program from written abstracts, which researchers in appropriate scientific disciplines are invited to submit by January 10, 1996. Instructions for preparing abstracts are available from the Publications and Program Services department at LPI, 713-486- 2166; e-mail: dotson@lpi.usra.edu. Abstracts submitted by fax or e-mail will not be acknowledged as submissions or accepted for publication. Printed abstracts will be available at conference registration. Abstracts and conference program will be available on line around February 9.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Oral presentations will be scheduled during the four-and-a-half days of parallel sessions Monday through Friday noon. Talks will be scheduled to allow eight minutes for speaking and seven minutes for discussion and speaker transition.

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

Poster sessions 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 on hand 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.

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. These 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. Complete instructions for application are available from the Publications and Program Services department at LPI, 713-486-2166. The awards are administered through the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America.

The abstract deadline is January 10, 1996. Only one abstract per student will be considered for the award. The student must be the senior author of the abstract and the material should not have been previously presented at another meeting.

SPECIAL SESSIONS

Masursky Lecture

The Harold Masursky Lecture Series will continue this year at a special plenary session scheduled for Monday afternoon. More information on the Masursky Lecture will be included in the LPSC third announcement mailed to conference participants early in 1996.

Mars Deep Interior: Geochemical and Geophysical Constraints

Though rather detailed models have been constructed for the internal stratification of Mars, they are based on relatively few direct constraints. A number of recent developments suggest that now is a good time to reconsider some aspects of these models. Significant recent progress has been made on high-temperature and high-pressure equations of state and phase relations in candidate Mars mantle and core materials. Also, though current estimates of the moment of inertia of Mars are still model dependent, planetary orbiter and lander missions planned for the next few years will dramatically change that situation. Abstracts are invited that address new results relevant to the deep internal structure and composition of Mars based on laboratory experiments, spacecraft data, or modeling results. Authors submitting abstracts for this session should check topic #15, "Special session: Mars deep interior," on the 27th LPSC Abstract Information Form.

Galileo Mission to Jupiter--Results from Encounter

The Galileo probe entered the atmosphere of Jupiter on December 7, 1995. The orbiter will explore the jovian system during approach and for almost two years thereafter. This session is devoted to reporting the preliminary results from this historic encounter with Jupiter. The session will include invited abstracts only. Authors invited to give presentations at this session should check topic #16, "Special session: Galileo mission to Jupiter," on the 27th LPSC Abstract Information Form.

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. This format provides much more interactivity, 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.

Participants will be selected on the basis of the traditional informative abstracts by the program committee. (At the discretion of the program committee or its designates, some poster/display presentations may be invited.) Authors submitting abstracts for this session should check topic #17, "Special session: Education (posters/displays)," on the 27th LPSC Abstract Information Form.

Note to Special Session Authors

All abstracts for special sessions, whether invited or contributed, must be received by the January 10, 1996, deadline for consideration by the program committee. No abstracts received after this date will be published in the conference abstract volume, regardless of special session status.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Chili Cookoff and Barbecue Dinner

The chili cookoff and dinner will be held on Wednesday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Landolt Pavilion. 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 teams to compete. The goal of this event is fun, not serious cooking competition. Enter your favorite concoction and compete against other secret recipes! There will be awards for best presentation and first-, second-, and third-place winners for best chili.

REGISTRATION

Preregistration

A fee of $50 ($30 for students) will be charged to cover conference services. Attendees can preregister and prepay by February 23, 1996, to avoid the $10 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 $10 late fee if they return the form by February 23, 1996. Preregistration forms are available from the Publications and Program Services department at LPI, 713-486-2166. Cancellations with a refunded fee will be accepted through March 8, 1996. Those who fail to attend and do not notify the LPI Publications and Program Services Department prior to the March 8 deadline will forfeit the full fee.

Sunday Night Registration

The Sunday night reception and registration will be held at LPI at 3600 Bay Area Boulevard from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Shuttle buses will operate from selected hotels to LPI on Sunday night.

CONFERENCE SHUTTLE SERVICES

Conference shuttle buses will provide service between selected hotels (Nassau Bay Hilton, Days Inn, Holiday Inn, Ramada Kings Inn, Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Motel 6, and Best Western), the JSC Gilruth Center, and LPI. There will be rotational runs in the morning, during lunch, at the close of sessions, and to and from these hotels 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.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM ON LINE

The program and first paragraph of abstracts for the 27th LPSC are scheduled to be placed on line on or about February 9, 1996.

World-Wide Web Access

If you are using an Internet information browser like NCSA Mosaic, the URL for CASS is:

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

Internet Access

At your system's prompt, type:

telnet cass.jsc.nasa.gov
or
telnet 192.101.147.17

The username prompt should be displayed. Only use lower-case characters for logging onto this account.

USERNAME: cass
PASSWORD: online

Modem Access

For modem access (at 14.4K/9600 bps), DEC VT series terminal emulation (100 and above) is required.

713-244-2089 or 713-244-2090

Press < ENTER> until you receive the username prompt. Use only lower-case characters for logging onto this account.

Questions about the online program and abstracts can be directed to:

LeBecca Simmons
phone: 713-486-2158
e-mail: simmons@lpi.usra.edu

For help in accessing the LPI computer, contact:

Eleta Malewitz
phone: 713-486-2197
e-mail: malewitz@lpi.usra.edu

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Contact the LPI Publications and Program Services Department for further information about conference logistics (713-486-2166) or abstracts (713-486-2161).

COMBINED PUBLISHERS EXHIBIT NOTE TO AUTHORS

Authors of recently published books who would like them included in the Combined Publishers Exhibit at the 27th LPSC, please contact either your publisher and have them send the item along with order forms to Combined Publishers Exhibit, LPI, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058-1115, or contact Carole Albyn at 713-486-2103 and she will contact the publisher directly. All items must arrive at LPI by February 15 to be included in the exhibit.