"Creating the Future Together" is the theme for the 21st annual University of New Mexico's Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) set for Feb. 8-11 at the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel.
The event is being organized by the UNM Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies.
STAIF is an international technical forum hosting six concurrent conferences on various topics of space technology, nuclear power and propulsion and space exploration.
The forum promotes international participation and provides for a timely exchange of information among technologists, academicians, industrialists and program managers. Topics are presented on technical and programmatic issues related to inexpensive access to space and space commercialization, exploration and the potential for performing scientific research and developing new technologies.
International representatives attend STAIF from commercial industry, government agencies and institutes of higher education.
The six conferences associated with space technology and applications include: Thermophysics in Microgravity; Commercial/Civil Next Generation Space Transportation; 21st Symposium on Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion; Conference on Human Space Exploration; 2nd Symposium on Space Colonization and 1st Symposium on New Frontiers & Future Concepts.
"The annual symposium on Space Nuclear Power & Propulsion is the conference that started it all, eventually evolving into the current STAIF meeting. It has been, and is, the most important international technical meeting of its kind," said UNM Regents' Professor Mohamed S. El-Genk, director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies and the forum's technical and publication's chair.
El-Genk continued, "It is a very exciting time with our President strongly committed to the exploration of space and with the successful arrival of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Rovers on Mars this month. This technical community, who has lifted their eyes to the sky and who have dedicated their lives to the desire to learn about space and how it can help humanity on earth, are now revitalized with a new breath of air. We need to continue to stay in touch with space and the wonderful spin-offs it has provided our world."
UNM President Louis Caldera and Joseph Cecchi, dean of UNM's School of Engineering will welcome the STAIF attendees along with Dr. Bonnie Dunbar, NASA Johnson Space Center and general chair and co-chair of STAIF, and Robert Sackheim of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
Other guests include The Honorable Robert S. Walker, chairman of Wexler & Walker; The Honorable Ronald M. Sega, director, Defense Research & Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense; Harley Thronson, director of technology, Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters; William J. O'Neal, Galileo project manager - primary mission (1990-1998), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (retired); Michael Sander, director of Technology & Applications Programs Directorate, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Don Cobb, associate director of the Threat Reduction Directorate, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The annual forum will sponsor a space design competition for secondary students from throughout New Mexico, as well as a special session for these students.
This year marks the 16th anniversary of this outreach program, sponsored by UNM-ISNPS and NASA Space Grant Consortium of New Mexico.
STAIF-2004 is co-sponsored by the Department of Energy, Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, The Boeing Company, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Government agencies, the aerospace industry, and universities will exhibit and present papers at this conference.
Questions concerning the forum can be directed to ISNPS-UNM at http://www.unm.edu/~isnps by calling at (505) 277-0446.
Contact: Greg Johnson (505) 277-1816
Posted by kwentworth at January 28, 2004 03:22 PM