NASA Participates In American Astronautical Society Conference

Allard Beutel
Headquarters, Washington November 14, 2003
(Phone: 202/358-4769)

James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone: 281/483-5111)

NOTE TO EDITORS: N03-122

NASA PARTICIPATES IN AMERICAN ASTRONAUTICAL SOCIETY
CONFERENCE

NASA officials, speaking on topics ranging from assured
access to space to Mars exploration, will be among
participants at the American Astronautical Society's National
Conference and 50th Annual Meeting Nov. 18-19 in League City,
Texas.

William Gerstenmaier, International Space Station Program
Manager, will deliver the conference's keynote address.
Jefferson D. Howell Jr., director of NASA's Johnson Space
Center (JSC) in Houston, is the honorary chair of the event,
which is open to members of the media.

JSC Deputy Director Randy Stone will welcome attendees during
the opening session on Nov. 18. Other NASA personnel
scheduled to speak during plenary sessions or to moderate
discussions include:

o Lynn Cline, Deputy Associate Administrator for Space
Flight, NASA Headquarters, Washington, will moderate a
panel discussion on the "Quest for Assured Access to
Space"
o Andrew Algate, space architect lead for transportation,
NASA Headquarters, will discuss the Integrated Space
Transportation Plan
o Michael Kostelnik, Deputy Associate Administrator for
Space Station and Shuttle programs, NASA Headquarters,
will discuss the Space Shuttle's Return-to-Flight
activities
o Adena Loston, Associate Administrator for Education,
NASA Headquarters, will moderate a panel discussion of
"Space in the Classroom"
o Frank Jordan, manager, Pre-Projects and Advanced
Studies, Solar Systems Exploration Programs, NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will moderate
a session on "Mars -- Potential of the Red Planet"
o James Garvin, lead scientist for Mars exploration,
Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, will
discuss the 2003 Mars rovers' status
o Everett Gibson, senior scientist, Office of
Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science at JSC,
will discuss the status of research on Martian
meteorite ALH84001
o Franklin Chang-Diaz, astronaut and director of the
Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at JSC, will
discuss the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma
Rocket
o Rob Navias, public affairs officer at JSC, will
moderate a media roundtable

Media can find more information and register to attend the
conference at:

http://www.astronautical.org

For more information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


-end-

(Ron Baalke) wrote
[...]
o Franklin Chang-Diaz, astronaut and director of the
Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at JSC, will
discuss the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma
Rocket


This might answer my earlier question --
(in . com)

Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Astronaut Chang-Diaz Wins Discover Magazine Award
Date: 29 Oct 2003 10:22:13 -0800
[...]
BTW, the PopSci article on alternative propulsions quoted FC-D (or at
least his lab) as having an article (small unit) ready for flight-test
early 2002 (IIRC; I keep meaning to drag out that issue). Does anyone
know how close this has gotten, and if it still needs to be done from
the Shuttle platform?

Wish I could be there!

/dps