Solar System Exploration @50 Symposium

On October 25-26, 2012, the NASA History Office, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, the National Air and Space Museum, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will co-sponsor a symposium to mark the 50th anniversary planetary exploration. The event will be held at the Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center, 2121 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Virginia (in the Crystal City, Virginia, complex). Participation is free and open to the public, although registration will be required.

The registration website for our annual history symposium “Solar System Exploration @50” is now open.

Go to http://events.signup4.com/planets50 or http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/SSEat50.html to sign up – and to learn more about the Symposium.

Solar System Exploration @50 Symposium Agenda

Thursday – October 25, 2012

7:30 – 8:30 am           Registration Opens. Coffee and refreshments available.

8:30 – 9:00 am           Introduction

Opening remarks by Mr. James H. Crocker, Vice President & General Manager, Civil Space, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company

9:00 – 9:45 am

Keynote Speech – Peter Westwick (University of Southern California): Exploring the Solar System: Who has done it, how, and why?

9:45 – 11:45 am

Panel #1: Politics and Policy in the Conduct of Solar System Exploration

Panel Chair: Marcia Smith (Space and Technology Policy Group)

Dwayne Day (National Research Council): The National Research Council’s Role in the American Planetary Exploration Program.

Roger Handberg (University of Central Florida): The Politics of Pure Space Science, the Essential Tension, Human Spaceflight’s Impact on Scientific Exploration

Jason W. Callahan (The Tauri Group): Funding Planetary Science: History and Political Economy

John M. Logsdon (George Washington University) and Andre Bormanis (Independent Writer/Producer): The Survival Crisis of The Planetary Program

11:45 am – 12:45 pm

Lunch Keynote Speaker – James L. Green (NASA): NASA’s Solar System Exploration Paradigm: The First Fifty Years and a Look at the Next Fifty

1:00 – 3:00 pm

Panel #2: The Lure of the Red Planet

Panel Chair: Janet Vertesi (Princeton University)

Richard W. Zurek (JPL): Mars After 50 Years Of Space Exploration: Then, Now, and Beyond

David Grinspoon (Denver Museum of Nature & Science): Evolving Concepts Of Planetary Habitability In The Age Of Planetary Exploration

Erik M. Conway (JPL): Dreaming Of Mars Sample Return, From Viking To The Mars Science Laboratory

W. Henry Lambright (Syracuse University): NASA, Big Science, And Mars Exploration: Critical Decisions From Goldin To Bolden

3:15 – 5:15 pm

Panel #3: Public Perceptions, Priorities, and Solar System Exploration

Panel Chair: Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute)

Linda Billings (George Washington University): Survivor(?): The Story Of s. Mitis On The Moon

William R. Macauley (Freie Universität Berlin): ‘Instant Science’: Space Probes, Planetary Exploration And Televisual Media

Laura Delgado López (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies): Killer Asteroids: Popular Depictions and Public Policy Influence

Giny Cheong (George Mason University): Voyager: Exploring Through the Public Eye

Friday – October 26, 2012

8:30 – 9:15 am

Keynote Speech – Wesley T. Huntress, Jr. (NASA Advisory Committee) and Mikhail Marov (Keldysh Institute): First On The Moon, Venus And Mars: The Soviet Planetary Exploration Enterprise

9:30 – 11:30 am

Panel 4: Exploring the Outer Solar System

Panel Chair: Ralph McNutt (Applied Physics Laboratory)

Torrence V. Johnson (JPL): Outer Solar System Exploration: An Archetype Of The Scientific Method

Arturo Russo (University of Palermo): Europe’s Rendezvous With Titan” The European Space Agency’s Contribution in The Cassini-Huygens Mission To The Saturnian System

Robert Pappalardo (JPL): Revealing Europa’s Ocean

11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Lunch and conversation

1:00 – 3:00 pm

Panel #5: Institutional Arrangements in Solar System Exploration

Panel Chair: Joan Johnson-Freese (U.S. Naval War College)

J.D. Burke (JPL): Foundations Of Solar System Exploration At JPL: How The First Mariners And Rangers Built Them

John Sarkissian (CSIRO): Mariner 2 And The CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope: Fifty Years Of International Collaboration.

Michael Neufeld (National Air and Space Museum): Transforming Solar System Exploration: The Applied Physics Laboratory and the Origins of the Discovery Program, 1989-1993

Petar Markovski (University of Oklahoma): International Cooperation In Solar System Exploration: The Cases Of Ulysses And Giotto

3:15 – 5:15 pm

Panel #6: Roundtable – From the Past to the Future

Moderator: Andrew Chaikin (Independent Space Historian)

Glenn E. Bugos (Ames Research Center): Precursor Missions: The Science Of What Comes Next

Amy Paige Kaminski (NASA): Faster, Better, Cheaper: A Sociotechnical Perspective On The Meanings Of Success And Failure In NASA’s Solar System Exploration Program

G. Scott Hubbard (Stanford University): Exploring Mars: Following the Water

Chas Beichman (Caltech): The Search for and Study of Extra-solar Planets: Extending Planetary Science into the Realm of Classical Astronomy