Workshop 1:

Title: The first 1 Ga of impact records: evidence from lunar samples and meteorites
Dates: July 25-26, 2015, Saturday and Sunday
Organizers: Audrey Bouvier (University of Western Ontario), William Hartmann (Planetary Science Institute), Marc Norman (Australian National University) and Vera Assis Fernandes (Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung)
Abstract: Deadline May 19  Closed
Registration fee: $50 (until June 29)

   On site Registration fee: $60 (NO credit card) (from 8:15 on Saturday, July 25) New

Program: (< Click) New

Lunch: Abundant dining places are available within walking distance (view map)

Venue:  The Home Room in International House (room change)

Short Description: This workshop will be aimed at a review and free-wheeling discussion of the current state of empirical evidence for the 4-decade old concept of “terminal cataclysm” or “late heavy  bombardment” (LHB) as applied either to the Moon or the entire Solar System. We will approach the discussion primarily from the direction of the radiometric dating evidence, but with awareness of crater-count results and dynamical models. The workshop reflects our interest in the extent to which the radiometric dating and geological evidence is or is not consistent with a spike in impacts around 3.8-4.0 Ga, and the embedded but often vague concepts and terminology regarding the LHB that are often invoked in geological, dynamical, astrophysical, and even biological literature. Contact to Audrey Bouvier.

Main themas are

*   Radiometric clocks: what they tell us and what they don’t
*   Cratering Statistics: production functions and anchor-ages
*   Dynamical models
*   Impacts in the asteroid belt
*   Shock effects in planetary materials and constraints on P-T-t shock conditions

Workshop 2:

Title: Workshop on Results from NASA’s Stardust Mission
Dates: July 24-25, 2015, Friday and Saturday
Organizers: Ryan Ogliore (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Anna Butterworth, Zack Gainsforth, Andrew Westphal (University of California, Berkeley); Rhonda Stroud (Naval Research Laboratory)
Abstract: No
Lunch: No, abundant dining is available within three blocks walking distance (view map).
Registration fee: None
Venue: Hillside Club, Berkeley

Short Description: The focus of this workshop will be on recent results from NASA’s Stardust mission. Topics to be covered will include isotopic, mineralogical, and petrographic analysis of cometary material, comparison of comet Wild 2 with interplanetary dust and meteorites, presolar grain abundances, analysis of cometary organics, effects of high-speed aerogel capture, and preliminary analysis of candidate interstellar dust returned by Stardust. A review paper on comet Wild 2 will be written based on the topics discussed at the workshop.

 Brown Bag Discussion:

Title: Seeking Input to the Mars 2020 Landing Site Selection from the Sample Community
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2015, lunch time
Organizers: David W. Beaty (JPL), Kenneth A. Farley (Caltech), and Lindsay E. Hays (JPL)
Abstract: No
Lunch: Brown bag or cafeteria
Registration fee: No

Venue: Computer room in Stern Building of Foothill Residence Hall

Short Description: One objective of the proposed Mars 2020 rover mission is to collect samples of martian rocks and regolith, and to seal them in individual tubes for possible return to Earth for detailed analysis. As such, this mission could constitute a critical first step for MSR. Although the decision on whether or not to return those samples will be made in the future, the fact that these samples could be returned means that the sample community should pay close attention to the choice of the landing site. Mars has varied geological terrane, and the nature of the landing site will be a first-order driver on the nature of the samples available to be collected. Although there is a separate formal landing site selection process that is open to all, the purpose of this discussion is to solicit specific input from the sample community into the desired attributes of the landing site and the rationale for those qualities and priorities. This session is open to all; those interested in Mars samples are especially encouraged to attend.

     With any questions, concerns, or specific interests, please contact Lindsay Hays.  At the conference we will hand out maps to the cafeteria (to acquire a brown bag) and the meeting room (to partake of same).