HighLight Lectures at the IAC 2015: Rosetta, the Environment, and Orion

3 Highlight Lectures at the IAC 2015
The IAC Plenary Programme features an exciting selection of Highlight Lectures events!
This year you will be pleased to know that the following three HighLight Lectures have been chosen for you:

Tuesday 13 October 17:45 – 18:45
Highlight Lecture 1: The International Rosetta Mission – First Historical Rendezvous and Landing on a Comet
The Rosetta international mission is a cornerstone of the ESA scientific programme which, for the first time in history of spaceflight, achieved a rendezvous with a comet nucleus and delivered a lander module, Philae, onto its surface. The mission realization required almost 30 years since its initial conception. The interplanetary cruise took more than 10 years. The target, comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, was reached in August 2014. The lecture will emphasize on the operational challenges of the long mission, of flying Rosetta at short distances from an active comet nucleus of 2 km radius, and of the delivery and operations the Philae lander. Latest status of both Lander and Orbiter will be presented.
Speakers:
Dr. Paolo Ferri – Head, ESA Mission Operations and Former Rosetta Flight Director
Dr. Stephan Ulamec – Philae Project Manager, DLR

Wednesday 14 October 17:45 – 18:45
Highlight Lecture 2: Sustaining the Space Environment: The State of Space Situational Awareness, Conjunction Warning and Collision
Sustaining a productive near Earth space environment is critical. As the number of satellites in low and geosynchronous Earth orbits increases, collisions become more likely. Avoiding collisions has been a priority for two decades, but there has not been much progress. Space situational awareness has actually declined in the past few years. The quality of orbit data, particularly debris orbits, is neither sufficient nor timely. Fortunately, collisions are not likely, although the consequences might be severe. This presentation will assess the capabilities of the world’s space situational resources. One of the most significant impediments is the diversity of conjunction assessment and collision warning among stakeholders. Each must be able to understand and employ data provided by others. International Standards and best practices provide the environment for collaboration and improvement. Verifiable, measureable, and enforceable guidelines, codes of conduct, treaties, and laws are required. Many proposed and implemented thus far do not satisfy these criteria. The first segment of this lecture will present all capabilities accessible to international stakeholders. These capabilities are much more than locations and fields of view or fields of regard. The second segment will examine the capabilities to conduct actionable surveillance. Surveillance is perceiving events that matter, not looking everywhere for anything. We must consider relationships among assets to be protected, threats to those assets, and actions that might mitigate those threats. The third segment will expose for the non-expert major approaches to conjunction assessment and collision avoidance as well as the uncertainties and estimated effectiveness. Only satellite owners and operators can judge whether to suffer a small, quantified risk or maneuver at the risk of revenue or important data. The tradeoffs will be presented for realistic situations. Finally, the possibility of guidelines, codes of conduct, treaties, and laws to facilitate sustainability will be discussed.
Speaker:
Dr. David Finkleman – PhD, IAA and IISL

Thursday 15 October 17:45 – 18:45
Highlight Lecture 3: Orion’s exploration Flight Test-1 – Taking Human Spaceflight Beyond LEO for the Future of Mankind
Orion’s first flight test last December took the spacecraft to an altitude of 3600 miles, farther than any human spacecraft has been in 42 years. The nearly flawless flight tested the heat shield, separation systems, launch and entry environments, avionics, and critical re-entry systems. The challenges, problems and successes of this difficult mission, as well as the next steps in taking humans beyond Low Earth Orbit, will be explained by two top Program Managers from NASA and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor.
Moderator:
Dr. Carlo Mirra – Senior Manager Head of Mission/Increment Integration Airbus Defence and Space
Speakers:
Dr. William Gerstenmaier – Associate Administrator Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate NASA
Dr. W. Michael Hawes – Vice President and Orion Program Manager Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company

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