March 7-13, 2022 / Vol 41, No 10 / Hawai`i Island, USA

53rd LPSC Being Held in Texas Teeming with Space Activities and Access

The 2022 Lunar Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) hosted by LPI, USRA and NASA is being held in hybrid format this year in Woodlands TX and online from March 7-11. With over 2,000 abstracts submitted annually, LPSC has grown since the 1970 ‘Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference’ to cover Solar System Complete science from Mercury to the Kuiper Belt and Interplanetary Dust. Co-chaired by Lisa Gaddis and Eileen Stansbery, sessions include Oral and Poster Sessions, Artemis Town Hall with Jacob Bleacher and Sarah Noble (NASA), Masursky Lecture ‘To Venus and Back Again’ by Martha Gilmore (Wesleyan), Student Awards and a Haiku Contest. Moon topics cover Apollo 16 and 17 Missions: A Perspective for the Future of Lunar Exploration, Cratering & Regolith, Geophysics, Volatiles & Exosphere, Water Mapping, Petrology & Geochemistry, and Volcanism. Some international contributions to LPSC are coming from China, Canada, UK, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Netherlands, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. Also in Texas this year are 3 other LPI Meetings, AIAA ASCEND, Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, New Worlds Conference and Moon Day, while SpaceX is busy at its Boca Chica and McGregor launch sites, Blue Origin working at West Texas Launch Site One, Intuitive Machines finalizing its Nova-C lunar lander, and ventures abound at Paragon, Firefly, NG, Houston Spaceport, and leading aerospace colleges Rice University, Texas A&M, Embry Riddle and others. (Image Credits: LPI, USRA, NASA)

MONDAY

☆ Mar 7 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Current 7 Astronauts & Cosmonauts preparing for 2 upcoming EVAs and working aboard ISS as 2 NASA Astronauts train with Roscosmos, 3 Cosmonauts train with NASA, and Anna Kikina is planned to launch aboard SpaceX Crew-5 in September.

☆ Mar 7 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: Shenzhou 13 Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, Ye Guangfu to continue construction of station, classroom interactions and lessons over next ~1 month before return to Earth.

o = International terrestrial events in local time.

★ = Space events, and… ☆ = International space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festivals Brings Space Community Together in Austin TX

Returning to in-person format with hybrid online participation, national / global cultural phenomenon SXSW builds off avant garde music, film and comedy anchor festivals to engage with technology, education and space futurism spheres March 11-20 across 130 unique venues in the city of Austin. ‘The Space Rush’ Summit runs March 12-13 at Austin Convention Center with 10 panel sessions and 4 presentations. Notable sessions include Green Space – The Value of Space to Earth panel with ISS Director Robyn Gatens and Astronaut Janet Kavandi; Jessie Christiansen (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech), Tanya Harrison (Planet Labs), Franck Marchis (SETI Institute), Tim Russ (Star Trek) to discuss Space Exploration for All inclusivity; Private Astronauts Sian Proctor, Dylan Taylor, Cameron Bess together with Professional Astronaut Jose Hernandez to consider The Overview Effect: Seeing Earth from Space. Presentations include Earth & Space: Living our Interplanetary Future by Ariel Ekblaw (MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative; Rick Tumlinson (Earthlight Foundation) proselytizing The Space Revolution; Chris Kemp (Astra) speaking on Spacetech: The Next Frontier. The sole online forum of Space Rush track will be Smashing Into Asteroids with DART Mission team Elena Adams, Nancy Chabot, Andy Rivkin (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) and Thomas Statler (NASA). Spacey trade show exhibits include Lockheed Martin, Unistellar, Zero Gravity Corporation, Near Space Labs, NSF, World View Enterprises and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. (Image Credits: SXSW)

● Mar 7-11 — Lunar and Planetary Institute, USRA, NASA, Hybrid / The Woodlands TX and Online: 53rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2022).

o Mar 7-11 — ESA, ESTEC, Online / Noordwijk, The Netherlands: 1st International Conference on Manufacturing for Aerospace and Space Applications (ICAM22).

Continued From…
o Nov 4 – Jun 29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Problems, NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA), Moscow, Russia: Mixed gender crew of 6 participating in 8-month space / lunar simulation mission SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station).

o Feb 10 – Mar 9 — JAXA, Online: Astronaut Hoshide ISS Mission Report Virtual Expo; sharing never-before released video of the interior of the ISS and activities.

o Feb 11 – Mar 8 — International Astronomical Union, Global: Women and Girls in Astronomy.

● Mar 5-12 — IEEE, Big Sky MT: 43rd IEEE Annual Aerospace Conference 2022; at Yellowstone Conference Center.

TUESDAY

★ Mar 8 — SpaceX, Launch Falcon 9 / Starlink 4-10, SLC-39, Kennedy Space Center FL: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to launch next batch of Starlink satellites.

o Mar 8-11 — International Academy of Astronautics, Sideralis Foundation, et al, Quito, Ecuador: 3rd IAA Latin American Symposium on Small Satellites & 5th IAA Latin American CubeSat Workshop (LACW).

☆ Mar 8 — Moon: 3.6° SE of the Pleiades, 11:00.

WEDNESDAY

● Mar 9 — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Washington DC: Schriever Spacepower Forum with Audrey Schaffer; Director for Space Policy at White House National Security Council, 10:00 EDT.

☆ Mar 9 — Moon: 6.8° N of Aldebaran, 05:00.

THURSDAY

★ Mar 10 — Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Orbit: NASA spacecraft enters 16 full years / begins 17th year in Mars orbit today, continues to study seasonal changes on planet circling at 300-km near-polar orbit; launched Aug 12, 2005, entered orbit Mar 10, 2006.