Icy Insights Into Mars, Hayabusa Results Highlight Conference

HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Studies of iceprocesses on Mars and early science results from a Japanese missionto an asteroid will highlight the 42nd annual Lunar and PlanetaryScience Conference March 7-11 in Houston.

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The conference will include presentations on these topics andspecial sessions on observations of last year's flyby of cometHartley 2 and research on the effects that volatile species such aswater and carbon dioxide have on the formation of planets. ThePlanetary Decadal Survey Briefing also will be presented. Theconference will be held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel andConvention Center in The Woodlands, Texas.

Media may register to attend. For LPSC press informationincluding links to the program, media advisories and contactinformation, visit:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/

"The research presented at this conference illustrates thebreadth and depth of our increasing understanding of the bodies,processes and events making up our solar system," said EileenStansbery, director of the Astromaterials Research and ExplorationScience Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center. "Planetaryscientists use this forum to discuss directions for future missionconcepts and fields of inquiry to answer new questions uncovered bycurrent research."

Recent results describing evidence for water in the solar systemand incorporation into primitive bodies are providing new insightsinto the evolution of our solar system. Three special sessions willfocus on ice processes of terrestrial bodies including Mars, Earthand the icy moons of the outer solar system.

On June 13, 2010, the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft ended itsdramatic seven-year mission, returning a tiny capsule containingparticles from asteroid Itokawa. It was the first mission ever toreturn a sample of material snatched from the surface of a worldbeyond the moon. Examination of the particles began in January ofthis year, and researchers will reveal results of their initialanalyses.

NASA's Deep Impact space probe conducted an extended flyby ofcomet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010. The flyby provided a wealth of datafor studies of a cometary nucleus. Members of the science team andother collaborators who observed the flyby will present findings.

Volatile species, such as water and carbon dioxide, and nonmetalelements dissolved in magmas have many critical effects on theformation and evolution of terrestrial planetary mantles and crusts.Magmas are mixtures of molten rock, volatiles and solids. A specialsession will explore contributions from analytical, theoretical andexperimental research on a range of topics involving volatiles inplanetary interiors and crusts.

The Planetary Decadal Survey Briefing will be held at 5:30 p.m.CST March 7. The featured speaker will be Steve Squyres, chair ofthe 2013 Planetary Decadal Survey.

The conference is presented by the Lunar and Planetary Institute.LPI is managed by the Universities Space Research Association(USRA), a national, nonprofit consortium of universities charteredin 1969 by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of NASA.USRA operates programs and institutes focused on research andeducation in most of the disciplines engaged in space-relatedscience and engineering. Institutional membership in USRA now standsat 105 leading research universities. For more information aboutLPI, visit:

www.lpi.usra.edu

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:

www.nasa.gov

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SOURCE NASA