First Announcement — January 2014
Meeting Location and Date
The Eighth International Conference on Mars will be held July 14–18, 2014, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. To assist with long-range travel planning, the meeting is expected to begin the morning of Monday, July 14, and to end around noon on Friday, July 18.
Purpose and Scope
As of 2014, we will have completed a remarkable and unparalleled 15 years of concentrated scientific exploration of the Red Planet. This period includes eight successful missions (1996 Mars Global Surveyor, 1996 Mars Pathfinder, 2001 Mars Odyssey, 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers, 2003 Mars Express, 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2007 Mars Phoenix, and 2011 Mars Science Laboratory), as well as telescopic observations from Earth, studies of martian meteorites, and a variety of numerical and laboratory modeling activities. Two additional missions will be en route to Mars at the time of the conference (NASA’s 2013 MAVEN and ISRO’s 2013 Mars Orbiter Mission), and several other missions are actively under development for launch during the period 2016–2020. The Eighth International Mars Conference will be an ideal time to step back and summarize our current understanding of Mars, to consolidate our primary paradigms for martian processes and history, and to refocus the primary scientific questions that remain in front of us.
We expect that the call for abstracts (to be included in the second conference announcement) will invite contributions from Mars scientists in all scientific subdisciplines, and will invite both specific data-driven abstracts and broader synthesis abstracts. All “martians” are encouraged to attend.
Meeting Format
The first four days of the conference will be structured with morning and afternoon oral sessions organized around topical themes by the program committee, along with late afternoon poster sessions of broader scope. The final day will consist of presentations and discussion focused on the synthesis of the ideas presented. There will be no parallel sessions. The oral sessions will be held in Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus. The poster sessions will be conducted nearby in Caltech’s Dabney Gardens and Hall.
In accordance with new conference guidelines recently issued by NASA, the meeting will not charge a registration fee and no meals will be provided. Although there will not be a registration fee, we need to have all attendees register in advance so that we can plan correctly for name badges, adequate seating, light refreshments, and other logistical details.
Student Support
We encourage students to attend, and a significant budget for student travel support has been arranged. Details about student travel support will be available in the second announcement.
Indication of Interest
To help us gauge the community’s level of interest in this conference, please submit an electronic Indication of Interest by February 28, 2014. This will also put you on a mailing list to receive reminders and special announcements relating to the meeting via e-mail. More detailed information, including guidelines for abstract submission, will be included in the second announcement, which will be posted on this website in February 2014.
Contacts
For further information regarding the scientific content of the meeting:
David Beaty
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
E-mail: [email protected]
For further information regarding meeting logistics
Amy Hale
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
Phone: 818-393-1186
E-mail: [email protected]
Serina Diniega
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
Phone: 818-393-1487
E-mail: [email protected]
For further information regarding announcements:
Katy Buckaloo
Universities Space Research Association
Phone: 281-486-2106
E-mail: [email protected]
Schedule
| Deadline for submitting indication of interest | February 28, 2014 |
| Second announcement, including call for abstracts and registration, posted on this website | February 28, 2014 |
| Abstract submission deadline | April 24, 2014 |
| Final announcement with program and abstracts posted on this website | May 30, 2014 |
| Eighth International Conference on Mars | July 14–18, 2014 |
