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1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids
 
13 November 2008
The Planetary Defense Conference, with a strong focus on student participation, will be held in Europe for the first time during the week of April 27, 2009 in Granada, Spain.
 
The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids , co-sponsored by the European Space Agency, is the follow-on to two previous Planetary Defense Conferences held in 2004 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Washington, D.C. Details on the 2004 and 2007 conferences can be found here.  
 
Objectives of the Conference
 
The 2009 meeting will bring together worldwide experts to discuss:
  • Detecting and tracking asteroids and comets that might be hazardous to our planet,
  • Characteristics of these objects,
  • Deflecting a threatening object should one be detected,
  • The nature of impact disasters, and
  • Political, legal and policy issues that must be considered as part of an overall mitigation strategy.
A particular focus will be Apophis, a 300-meter asteroid that is predicted to pass within 40,000 km of Earth in 2029 and has a current probability of impacting our planet in 2036 of 1 in 45000.
 
 
Call for papers
 
Papers are solicited for this conference. Technical paper abstracts (250 to 500 words in length) will be accepted electronically through the official online submission form. The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15th December 2008.
 
 
Encounter 2029: Research Students Investigating Apophis
 
Post-graduate student researchers are encouraged to enter the official Planetary Defense Conference student competition by submitting abstracts on topics that can be related to the theme of Apophis and small body encounters. Subjects for papers might include, but are not limited to; modelling of the small asteroid environment and related effects (e.g. plasma environment, dust, solar radiation, Yarkovsky effect); geology and geophysics of small bodies, dynamics and control related to Apophis-like rendezvous and interception scenarios; innovative deflection strategies and mission architectures, etc...

For more information please click here.
 
 
ESA Call for Student Papers
 
European students may also be interested in submitting an abstract to the ESA Call for Student Papers. The submitted paper must be based on one of ESA's Advanced Concepts Team (ACT) suggested topics and selected students will receive financial support from ESA, exclusively for the purposes of paying for the conference registration fee, travel and/or as subsistence allowance.

More information on the ESA Call for Student Papers or the suggested research topics.
 
 
Who can participate?
 
In order to participate in the 'Encounter 2029: Research Students Investigating Apophis' competition and the 'ESA Call for Student Papers' you must:

  1. be a post-graduate (Masters or Ph.D.) research student on 1 December 2008, and
  2. have a senior researcher who is permanent staff in a university department or research institution endorsing your paper as co-author.

In order to participate in the 'ESA Call for Student Papers' you must also be studying at a European institution or include a European researcher as co-author
 
 
Conference dates and location
 
27, 28, 29 and 30 April 2009. Granada, Spain.
 
 

 


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