Emily LakdawallaMar 14, 2014

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2014 preview

It's that time of year again: my favorite annual space science meeting, the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, takes place all next week in Houston, Texas. I'm traveling down there Sunday afternoon and will be in and out of five (count them, five) concurrent sessions in which the world's space scientists will be reporting on the latest results from their observations, experiments, and mathematical models of space objects from planets to dust particles.

People will be blogging and tweeting up a storm (with the hashtag #LPSC2014). Here's a block program for the whole week (PDF), and a link to the page where you can access more detailed program information. The personal schedule tool is extremely useful. As usual, I'm going to have a really tough time deciding what to cover. Not only have I not yet figured out how to clone myself, but I also have been forced to admit that I just can't sit through nine hours of sessions for five days in a row; I need mental health breaks. So here is what I'm planning to cover over the course of the week, but I'll probably not be able to get to it all.

  • Monday morning: Start with GRAIL results on Orientale basin on the Moon, move to Titan lakes
  • Monday afternoon: Curiosity and Opportunity results
  • Tuesday morning: Start with first results from LADEE, shift to some cool talks on the origins of Mercury, Miranda, and Pluto
  • Tuesday afternoon: "Enceladus and friends"
  • Wednesday morning: Struggling to choose between Curiosity and MESSENGER results
  • Wednesday afternoon: Geomorphology of water on Mars
  • Thursday morning: writing break
  • Thursday afternoon: how wind makes dunes on Earth, Titan, and Mars
  • Friday morning: a real potpourri of Moon, Mars, comet ISON, and asteroids!
  • Friday afternoon: Mars glaciers and ground ice

As always, I would be delighted for other conference attendees to step up and offer guest blog entries on the stuff I'm unable to get to. In particular, I am not getting to very much on asteroids or meteorites, so I would LOVE for guest bloggers on those topics, especially the Vesta and Ceres session on Monday morning that conflicts with the Moon and Titan. Any volunteers?

The Planetary Fund

Your support powers our mission to explore worlds, find life, and defend Earth. Give today!

Donate