Featured - Written by Kirk Kittell on Monday, October 13, 2008 9:00 - 1 Comment

Students Planning to Attend 2008 AAS National Conference

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Join us at the 2008 American Astronautical Society National Conference and 55th Annual Meeting, November 17-19 in Pasadena, California.  Online registration is now closed, but you may register on-site at the Pasadena Hilton.

We extend a special invitation to students to attend. Space industry conferences are largely dominated by the more experienced constituents in the industry. Rather than seeing this as a disadvantage, we encourage students to use this as a tactical advantage in networking. So we’ve invited Matt Cruce, an undergraduate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who has led teams of students to past AAS events and will be leading another group to the National Conference in Pasadena, to describe his experiences.

When asked why he as his fellow classmates travel to AAS events, Matt says that he attends for “networking, a new career, and knowledge.”

University of Illinois students with Mike Griffin“As a student at the University of Illinois and a member of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), I have organized trips over the last several years to the AAS Goddard Symposium. The conference has provided the unique opportunity to meet the NASA Director, Dr. Michael Griffin, several former astronauts, Vice Presidents of major aerospace companies and more. As a direct result of this networking, I have seen many of my peers find full-time or internship positions to gain the work experience necessary for a successful start to a career.”

University of Illinois students at Orbital Sciences Corporation In March, after the 2008 Goddard Memorial Symposium, the Illinois students took a tour of the Satellite Manufacturing Facility at Orbital Sciences Corporation, an AAS corporate member. Inside, Matt and the other students saw satellites in various stages of integration, from nearly-finished satellites set up for vibration testing to bare satellite frames with its components laid out on a table.

With so many AAS corporate members represented in southern California, and with so many interesting people attending the conference, AAS would like to extend the opportunity again to students to see their futures in action. Please go to astronautical.org/conference/students to let us know if you want to go on a tour or meet with other AAS members. Act fast — it takes some time to prepare for visits.

“Most importantly, the firsthand knowledge we have gained from the experiences of others will be information applicable to the spaceflight missions our generation conceives and will not be lost in time. Take the time and find a way to make it to this AAS National Conference and realize that it will be one of the best investments of your early professional career.”

Students, young professionals, experienced professionals, and everyone in between should also attend the Aerospace Leaders Networking Reception on the evening of Monday 17 November. Come to the reception to network, chat, share experiences, and meet peers and mentors. The networking reception is free to all, even if you are not attending the conference (of course, we encourage to attend the conference as well).

Matt and company are also attending the 2008 SEDS-USA National Conference at Texas A&M University on the weekend before the AAS National Conference. Students, be sure to check out this event as well.



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  AAS National Conference, CanSat, and ISU Scholarship Online by Welcome to NiTHiN’s Web World
Oct 19, 2008 12:18

[...] If you’re interested in more, we invited Matt Cruce from the University of Illinois to discuss his experiences as a student at AAS events: http://www.astronautical.org/2008/10/13/aas-national-conference-students [...]

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Looking Ahead - Key Space Events

Jul 27 — Deadline for AAS Awards Nominations

Aug 9-13 — AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sep 14-17 — Space 2009 Conference & Exposition
Space: New Opportunities for a New Era
Pasadena Convention Center
Pasadena, California

Oct 12-16 — International Astronautical Congress
Space for Sustainable Peace and Progress
Online registration now open.
Daejeon, Korea

Oct 20-21 — 2nd Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium
Von Braun Center
Huntsville, Alabama

Dec 2-3 — AAS Imagine ‘09: Ideas at Work
JSC Gilruth Center
Houston, Texas

Feb 5-10 — AAS Guidance and Control Conference
Breckenridge, Colorado

Feb 14-18 – AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Winter Meeting
San Diego, California

Mar 10-11 — Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium
Greenbelt, Maryland

Events Calendar
Subscribe to AAS Calendar
Subscribe to AAS News
AAS on Twitter: @astrosociety

AAS National Conference, Featured - Dec 2, 2008 10:35 - 0 Comments

2008 Conference Slide Presentations Posted

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2008 AAS National Conference in Pasadena, California. The slide presentations are now archived on the web site; see astronautical.org/conference/conference-2008.

Mark your calendar for the annual Goddard Memorial Symposium, and corporate sponsorship opportunities are now available.

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Corporate Members, JPL - Mar 25, 2009 11:28 - 0 Comments

Cassini Provides Virtual Flyover of Saturn’s Moon Titan

PASADENA, Calif. — “Fly me to the moon”-to Saturn’s moon Titan, that is. New Titan movies and images are providing a bird’s-eye view of the moon’s Earth-like landscapes.

The new flyover maps show, for the first time, the 3-D topography and height of the 1,200-meter (4,000-foot) mountain tops, the north polar lake country, the vast dunes more than 100 meters (300 feet) high that crisscross the moon, and the thick flows that may have oozed from possible ice volcanoes.

The topographic maps were made from stereo pairs of radar images. They are available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

Cassini radar team member Randy Kirk with the Astrogeology Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., created the maps. He used some of the 20 or so areas where two or more overlapping radar measurements were obtained during 19 Titan flybys. These stereo overlaps cover close to two percent of Titan’s surface. The process of making topographic maps from them is just beginning, but the results already reveal some of the diversity of Titan’s geologic features.

“These flyovers let you take in the bird’s-eye sweeping views of Titan, the next best thing to being there,” said Kirk. “We’ve mapped many kinds of features, and some of them remind me of Earth. Big seas, small lakes, rivers, dry river channels, mountains and sand dunes with hills poking out of them, lava flows.”

Kirk will present these results today at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.

High and low features are shown in unprecedented detail at about 2.4-kilometer (1.5-mile) resolution. The maps show some features that may be volcanic flows. These flows meander across a shallow basin in the mountains. One area suspected to be an ice volcano, Ganesa Macula, does not appear to be a volcanic dome. It may still have originated as a volcano, but it’s too soon to know for sure. “It could be a volcanic feature, a crater, or something else that has just been heavily eroded,” added Kirk.

The stereo coverage includes a large portion of Titan’s north polar lakes of liquid ethane and methane. Based on these topographical models, scientists are better able to determine the depth of lakes. The highest areas surrounding the lakes are some 1,200 meters (about 4,000 feet) above the shoreline. By comparing terrain around Earth to the Titan lakes, scientists estimate their depth is likely about 100 meters (300 feet) or less.

More 3-D mapping of these lakes will help refine these depth estimates and determine the volume of liquid hydrocarbons that exist on Titan. This information is important because these liquids evaporate and create Titan’s atmosphere. Understanding this methane cycle can provide clues to Titan’s weather and climate.

Launched in 1997, Cassini completed its primary four-year mission in 2008 and is now in extended mission operations, which run through September 2010. Over the course of the mission, Cassini plans to map more than three percent of Titan’s surface in 3-D. About 38 percent of Titan’s surface has been mapped with radar so far. On March 27, Cassini will complete its 52nd targeted flyby of Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a corporate member of the American Astronautical Society.

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News - Sep 12, 2008 0:02 - 0 Comments

NASA’s Future Forum in Boston, 18 September

The sixth NASA’s Future Forum will be held at the Museum of Science, Boston, on 18 September. The Future Forum is a series of events between NASA personnel — administrators, scientists, engineers — and business, technology, and academic leaders in selected cities as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of NASA. The Future Forum in Boston will focus on space exploration benefits the economic and academic sector in Massachusetts.

Previous forums were held in Seattle, Columbus, St. Louis, Miami, and San Jose. The next and final NASA’s Future Forum will be held in Chicago on 10 October 2008.

Source: NASA Press Release

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