Conference Preparations
So why am I here in California for two weeks? Well I am helping out with the 1st International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos which is being run by the Mars Institute and held at NASA Ames Research Center. I’m involved because back in 2005 I worked as an intern for the Mars Institute with Dr. Pascal Lee for two months. During that time I did a review of all the literature regarding the exploration of Mars’ two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in order to support future proposals for robotic missions to these unusual objects. Since then I have continued to work with the Mars Institute (I’m on the Board of Advisors) and helped out with the PRIME mission study (see my earlier post here). As such I am giving a presentation at this conference (the PDF of the abstract is here) and assisting with various logistical things, including managing the ‘Destination: Mars’ space art exhibit.
I hope to provide some photos and reports of the happenings throughout the conference. Stay tuned!