Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium

The Next Giant Leap: Earth, Moons, Mars, and Beyond

March 19-21, 2019

Tommy Douglas Conference Center
10000 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20903

In recognition of several milestones in space exploration, the 2019 Goddard Symposium will examine the history and future of the science and technology of exploring our home planet, our solar system, and beyond. Join us at our new venue in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the 57th annual Goddard Symposium!

Agenda

Opening Reception

Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Game Room and Lounge

7:00 - 8:15 AM - Registration and Breakfast

Registration and Breakfast
AAS Corporate Member Breakfast

8:15 - 8:30 AM - Introduction and Welcome

Introduction and Welcome: American Astronautical Society and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 

8:30 - 9:00 AM - Keynote Address

Keynote Speaker: NASA/Deputy Administrator – Jim Morhard


 

9:00 - 9:30 AM - Goddard+

Goddard+   NOAA/Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere – Tim Gallaudet


9:50 - 10:50 AM - Looking Back and Looking Forward to the Next Giant Leap

Topic: Looking Back and Looking Forward to the Next Giant Leap


Speakers

Chair: Jeff Bingham/Focused Solutions, LCC
Mary Lynne Dittmar/NSC UAG
Mike French/Bryce Technologies
Suzanne Gillen/NASA HQ
Jared Stout/Venable

Description

Looking forward at the breadth of future space endeavors, while paying homage and recognizing the building blocks of the past. The premise of this session is NOT to provide a sales pitch for industry, but maintain a policy perspective.

Location: Ballroom

10:50 - 11:50 AM - Global Engagement Through Free and Open Big Data

Topic: Global Engagement Through Free and Open Big Data


Speakers

Chair: Lola Fatoyinbo/GSFC
Kevin Murphy/NASA
Andy Mitchell/GSFC
Ed Kearns/NOAA
Shane Glass/Google

Description

Modeling efforts, artificial intelligence, and machine learning can provide quantum leaps in our ability to make sense of an increasing amount of data to understand and predict Earth systems. Freely accessible remotely sensed data has proliferated, creating new challenges and opportunities for big data storage, usage, and cybersecurity.

Location: Ballroom

12:00 - 2:00 PM - Luncheon Discussion with Guest Speakers

Luncheon Discussion with Guest Speakers: Christian Davenport/The Washington Post and Matt Kramer/Lockheed Martin Space Systems


2:00 - 3:00 PM - The Next Decade in Earth Science and Applications

Topic: The Next Decade in Earth Science and Applications 


Speakers

Chair: Eric Ianson/NASA
Antonio Busalacchi/UCAR
Tom Neumann/GSFC
Jill Engel-Cox/NREL JISEA
Joshua Elliott/DARPA

Description

The convergence of science and technology can enable a giant leap in safeguarding and improving life on Earth.

Location: Ballroom

3:00 - 4:00 PM - Commercialization in Low Earth Orbit

Topic: Commercialization in Low Earth Orbit


Speakers

Chair: Joel Montalbano/NASA
Brett Alexander/Blue Origin
John Elbon/ULA
Stephanie Purgerson/NanoRacks
Florence Tan/GSFC

Description

The lack of unsubsidized, true “commercial” demand for LEO is a serious issue that Congress and the Space Council are grappling with. Will demand for commercialization in LEO need to be government-driven or is there is a true sustainable commercial business opportunity? On the other hand, suborbital spaceflight is a highly commercial operation and a great example of private partnership with NASA.

Location: Ballroom

4:20 - 4:50 PM - Goddard+

Goddard+   NASA/Deputy Associate Administrator – Dennis Andrucyk


4:50 - 5:50 PM - NASA's Lunar Architecture

Topic: NASA’s Lunar Architecture


Speakers

Chair: Joe Cassady/Aerojet Rocketdyne
Rob Chambers/Lockheed Martin Space Systems
John Connolly/NASA
Brent Garry/GSFC
Eran Shmidt/SpaceIL

Description

The proximity of Earth’s Moon make it an attractive destination for a growing list of activities, including continuation of the legacy of lunar science, as a proving ground for advancements in crewed exploration, and as the next accomplishment for a growing commercial spaceflight community. This session will discuss the science productivity of robotic missions, like Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and relate these well understood approaches to lunar exploration to the new innovations waiting to be realized with an expanded scope of activities and an expanding community of practice.

Location: Ballroom

8:00 - 8:30 AM - Goddard+

Goddard+ Discussion with Guest Speakers: NASA JASD/Director – John Lee and NOAA OPPA/Director – Elsayed Talaat


8:30 - 9:30 AM - Science and Human Exploration

Topic: Science and Human Exploration


Speakers

Chair: Jim Crocker/SSB
Steve Clarke/NASA
Jen Eigenbrode/GSFC
Kathy Laurini/Osare Space

Description

Human exploration and science are inherently tied together. Whether it’s astronauts in orbit or on the surface of another world, robots being controlled from Earth, or the building of autonomous science experiments, humans are involved in some way. Knowledge gained from ongoing missions, including Mars Science Laboratory and InSight, teach us about our neighbor, which will ultimately help us decide how and where to explore with humans. This panel will broadly discuss the tie between science and human exploration, current science missions and objectives, and how these missions help make progress towards a human mission to Mars, and how near term lunar exploration and science will help prepare us for that.

Location: Ballroom

9:50 - 10:50 AM - The Next Giant Leap in Solar System Missions and Technologies

Topic: The Next Giant Leap in Solar System Missions and Technologies


Speakers

Chair: Michael Amato/GSFC
Jim Garvin/GSFC
Stephanie Getty/GSFC
Timothy Linn/Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Brent Sherwood/NASA JPL

Description

Advancements in technology and engineering are enabling scientific exploration throughout the solar system. From Venus to Europa, Kuiper Belt targets to Enceladus, our reach in to the heavens continues to expand with a diverse suite of robotic spacecraft and advanced instrumentation. The next giant leap in deep space exploration is made possible by building on past heritage and expanding capabilities of the next generation of landers, orbiters, probes, smallsats, and instruments.

Location: Ballroom

10:50 - 11:50 AM - Astrophysics: Looking Out and Looking Ahead

Topic: Astrophysics: Looking Out and Looking Ahead


Speakers

Chair: Mark Clampin/GSFC
Julie McEnery/GSFC
Rebecca Oppenheimer/AMNH
Adam Riess/JHU

Description

NASA’s renown Hubble Space Telescope will shortly begin its third decade of operation and the National Academies Decadal Survey will soon recommend to NASA and NSF the most exciting – and most challenging – astronomy goals for the middle of the 21st Century. This panel will describe the landscape of future space astrophysics, from gravitational waves to the search for habitable planets beyond the Solar System.

Location: Ballroom

11:50 AM - 12:20 PM - Goddard+

Goddard+   NASA GSFC/Senior Astrophysicist – John Mather


Dr. John C. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist and is the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. As an NRC postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he led the proposal efforts for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), launched in 1989. With the COBE team, he showed that the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum within 50 parts per million, confirming the Big Bang Theory to extraordinary accuracy.

 

 

 

12:30 - 2:30 PM - Awards Luncheon with Speaker

Awards Luncheon with Speaker: National Space Council/Executive Secretary – Scott Pace


2:30 - 3:30 PM - Future Directions in Heliophysics

Topic: Future Directions in Heliophysics


Speakers

Chair: Nicky Fox/NASA
Vassilis Angelopoulos/UCLA
Holly Gilbert/GSFC
Ralph McNutt/JHU/APL
Jim Spann/NASA

Description

Heliophysics research and exploration focuses on studying the Sun, the heliosphere, and planetary environments as elements of a single, interconnected system, one that contains dynamic space weather and evolves in response to solar, planetary, and interstellar conditions. Such an understanding represents not just a grand intellectual accomplishment for our times —it also provides knowledge and predictive capabilities essential to future utilization and exploration of space.

Location: Ballroom

3:50 - 4:50 PM - And Beyond... the Next 60 Years of NASA

Topic: And Beyond… the Next 60 Years of NASA


Speakers

Chair: Steve Mackwell/AIP
Ved Chirayath/ARC
Alexa Halford/Aerospace Corporation
Sarah Stewart Johnson/Georgetown
Daniel Kocevski/MSFC

Description

As we step into a new era of human space exploration, we look forward to sustained human presence on other planetary bodies in the coming decades. This panel of early career scientists, those who will be actively involved in achieving this goal, will bring their perspectives on the evolution of their fields as humans join robots on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars.

Location: Ballroom

4:50 - 5:20 PM - Goddard+

Goddard+   NASA GSFC/Deputy Director for Technology and Research Investments – Christyl Johnson


 

5:20 - 5:30 PM - Closing Remarks

Closing Remarks: NASA GSFC/Director – Chris Scolese


 

Thank you to our sponsors!

In conjunction with

Additional sponsorships are available. Please send us an email or call +1 703.866.0020 for information.

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