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Days, dates, and venues are indicated in the program below. Program
coordinators may make announcements before the introduction of the speaker
and the start of the talk. All talks except the one scheduled for 27
June will begin at 11:30 and will end at 12:30 so that there will be time
to clean up and vacate the conference room before 12:45. The session
on 27 June will be from 11:00 a.m. to noon. Only
students with a JPL badge may attend.
Thursday, 14 June, von Karman Auditorium
Randii R. Wessen, Program System Engineer, Mission Systems Concepts
The Future of U.S. Robotic Planetary Exploration
As the millennium closed, so did the era of large planetary
spacecraft which were launched once per decade. Future robotic
spacecraft will have a wide range of capabilities, diverse
mission objectives, and be launched almost one per year.
Among the many types of missions, some will be the lander
and sample return missions of tomorrow. To meet these bold
endeavors, these ambassadors from Earth will require advanced
mission concepts, new operational approaches, as well as
technologies that have yet to be developed. To organize this
effort, the United States robotic planetary exploration program
has been divided into the following themes: 1) Earth; 2)
Mars; 3) Outer Planets; and 4) Universe. This presentation
will describe each of these areas, the major missions currently
in operations, and those being planned. It will also have
a special emphasis on the quest for extra-solar planets and
the search for life in the cosmos.
Tuesday, 19 June, von Karman Auditorium
Kobie T. boykins, Groups supervisor, Mechanisms and Mobility
Mars Science Laboratory
MSL, the Mars Science Laboratory currently under development at JPL, will
be launched as early as September 2009 and arrive at Mars the following
July. MSL is primarily an advanced rover two or three times as massive
as each of the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity now exploring
opposite sides of the planet, and with far more capability for investigating
hard-to-reach places and staying operational throughout the Martian year. It
will carry a sophisticated suite of instruments provided by several U.S.
and international partners whose purpose is, among other things, to examine
rock and soil samples looking for organic molecules such as amino acids
and proteins that could be indicative of past or present life on Mars. MSL
presents many engineering challenges because of its size, the entry-descent-and-landing
strategy adopted, and the use of a radioactive power source for power. The
talk will focus on some of the specific problems that have arisen during
the design and implementation of the Actuator subsystem, which the mission
will depend on in order to have a safe landing and a mobile robot on the
planetary surface, and how these challenges have been or are being met.
This experience is a good example of how JPL’s team-based system
engineering and implementation approach produces robust and reliable spacecraft
and successful missions.
Wednesday, 27 June, 180-01 Conference
Room, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon
Seminar Cancelled (Moved to July 12)
Thursday, 28 June, 180-101 Conference Room
Gregory S. Agnes, Group Lead, Precision Deployable Structures; Advanced
Deployable Structures Group, Instrument Mechanical Engineering
How the Mass of Large Gossamer
Telescopes Scales with Size and
Disturbance Environment
The future of NASA astronomical telescopes will require larger and larger
primary mirrors. Back-of-the-envelope calculations will be used to
show the dependence of the primary mirror's mass on the diameter of the
telescope. Using current technology and current launch vehicles,
we cannot build telescopes beyond around 10 m in diameter. Potential
advanced structural technology to meet these challenges will be shown. Among
these are inflatable structures technology and robotic assembly. Some conceptual
designs for 20 - 150 m diameter telescopes will be presented.
Thursday, 5 July, von Karman Auditorium
Deborah S. Bass, Deputy Project Scientist
Phoenix Mars Scout Mission and
the Search for Extant Water Ice
The Phoenix mission to Mars is part of NASA’s Mars Program and
is the first of the fully competed (Scout program) missions. Phoenix
will launch in August, 2007, land on Mars in late May 2008, and conduct
a mission in Mars’ north polar region through at least September, 2008. The
Phoenix mission has two main goals: (1) Study the history of water
in all its phases with paleo-hydrological, geological, chemical,
and meteorological methods, and (2) Search for habitable zones by
characterizing the subsurface environment in the permafrost region
by measuring the concentration of organic molecules, by performing
water chemistry on wet soils (water provided), and by microscopic
examination of soil grains.
Thursday, 12 July, von Karman Auditorium
Andrea Donnellan, InSAR Study Scientist, Science Division
Living on a Restless Planet: Using
Space Technology to Study Earthquakes
Earthquakes cause billions of dollars in damage and great loss of life. Space
technology in the form of GPS and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)
data coupled with computer models are improving our understanding of earthquake
processes. Under NASA's QuakeSim Project scientists are modeling earthquake
fault systems using the latest data and high-performance computers. The goal
is to improve earthquake forecasts and mitigate damage from this natural hazard.
Thursday, 19 July, von Karman Auditorium
Sabrina M. Feldman, Senior Engineer in the Planetary Habitability Science
Group, Science Division
The Search for Life in the Solar
System
Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of finding life
beyond earth. The three key requirements for a planetary environment
to be habitable are thought to be the presence of water, an energy
source to support chemical assembly, and the presence of an adequate
supply of molecular building blocks. This talk will review
the scientific arguments for finding life on Mars, Europa, and other
planetary bodies. Measurement techniques and scientific instrumentation
that can be used to study planetary habitability and search for past
or present life will be discussed
Thursday, 26 July, von Karman Auditorium
Rosaly M. Lopes, Lead Scientist for the Geophysics and Planetary Geosciences
Group, and Investigation Scientist for the Cassini Titan Radar Mapper
Volcanoes on Earth, Io, and
Titan
Volcanoes are common throughout the Solar System and are a major force
shaping planetary surfaces. Volcanic eruptions are one of nature's most
awesome spectacles and can range from gentle effusions of lava to catastrophic
explosive events such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. As we
explore other worlds, we come across forms of volcanism much different
from what we see on Earth today, and others that are surprisingly similar.
This talk will focus on the diversity of manifestations of planetary volcanism,
with particular emphasis on Jupiter's moon Io, where we find more than
150 active volcanic centers and the hottest lavas known. Recent results
from the Cassini mission will also be discussed. Cassini is exploring the
Saturn system, where several of the moons show evidence of ice volcanism.
Thursday, 2 August, von Karman Auditorium
Michelle Thaller, Manager, Office of Education and Public Outreach,
Spitzer Science Center, Caltech
The Spitzer Space Telescope: Who
Knew What Was Lurking in the Dark?
For over 3 years, the all-infrared Spitzer Telescope has been returning
spectacular and surprising views of the invisible universe. With
its incredibly sensitive heat vision, Spitzer has peered into dark nebulae
to witness the births of stars, watched the turbulent chaos of galactic
collisions, even observed the first "sunset" seen on a planet
in another solar system. And more surprises are rolling in each
day! During this talk, the audience will have a chance to experiment
with an actual infrared camera in order to better understand what Spitzer
sees. After that, we'll update you with the latest news and images
of a universe unlike any you've seen before.
Thursday, 9 August, von Karman Auditorium
Richard J. Terrile, Director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation,
Mission Formulation
Rise of the Machines: Exploring Space with Intelligent Robots
This talk will examine the field of evolving intelligent machines to explore
space and directly address how close we are to creating true artificial
intelligence. Evolutionary computation is changing the way humans interact
with computers and may bring us to the threshold of conscious machines. Today's
advances in science and technology will be contrasted with predictions
based in science fiction and movies.
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