ESA researching wireless powerbeaming for SBSP

ESA Advanced Concepts Team issued a call for ideas on new ways of transmitting power wirelessly.

Further details on the study are available on the ESA ACT website:
 http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/ariadna/OpenCalls.htm

The Invitation To Tender is available on ESA EMITS website (study
reference number AO7053):
 http://emits.esa.int/emits/owa/emits.main

Call for Papers 2011 Planetary Defense Conference

From: http://rescommunis.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/2011-iaa-planetary-defense-conference-call-for-papers/
The European Space Agency has issued a call for papers for the 2011 IAA Planetary Defense Conference on 09-12 May 2011 in Bucharest, Romania. The call covers numerous topics including Legal and Policy issues:

Call for papers
Papers are solicited for the 2011 IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids sponsored by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and The Aerospace Corporation (information on sponsorships is available at http://www.pdc2011.org/).
The theme for the conference is “From Threat to Action.” Papers are solicited in the following areas:
Potentially hazardous Objects – Recent Progress
• Discovery statistics and projections (ground-based & space-based)
• Observational refinements including non-gravitational effects and keyholes
• Lessons learned from recent discoveries including Earth impacting 2008 TC3
Discovery and Tracking Resources and Plans
• Program plans (e.g., NASA’s NEO program, ESA’s SSA program)
• Survey completion estimates; ground-based and space-based surveys
• The status of next generation surveys (e.g., PanSTARRS and LSST)
• The discovery and tracking of 50-meter class PHOs
• Utilizing archival and historical data

Impacts, Consequences and Education
• Historical information
• Modeling ocean and land impacts
• Consequences, impact frequency vs. size of impactor
• Planning for a short or no warning time event
• Public/media education and notification

Mission Planning & Technologies
• Viable deflection concepts and technologies; technology readiness and constraints
• Launch windows and mission designs for chemical, nuclear thermal, and ion drive missions
• Minimum-time trajectories for NEO missions
• Current capabilities for NEO deflection missions
• Matching mitigation options with available technologies and action timeline
Campaign Planning
• Human and robotic campaigns that inform all three NEO issues: science, exploration and planetary defense
• Decision tree, timelines and decision-to-act criteria (e.g., Impact probability thresholds)
• Threat evolution with time – refining the threat
• What do we do if a threat is detected tomorrow?

Legal, Policy, Political Framework for Planetary Defense
• Current international agreements and coordination activities
• Organizing, coordinating, and managing an international effort
• Impact of public opinion on decision to act and choice of mitigation method
• Planning for and consequences of a false alarm

Moving Forward on Planetary Defense
• Funding levels and priority actions to build and maintain readiness
• Current national and international funded activities that support planetary defense
Participants will develop a set of actionable recommendations that will help to improve our ability to successfully defend Earth from possible impacts and prepare for unexpected NEO-related disasters. Throughout the conference asteroid Apophis will be considered as a reference scenario to focus the discussions (current information on Apophis is posted at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/apophis/).
The conference will follow the model of the 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference held in Granada, Spain in 2009–see http://www.congrex.nl/09c04/ for details on the 2009 conference.

ABSTRACT SUBMITTAL
Technical paper abstracts (250 to 500 words in length) in the areas described above or related to planetary defense will be accepted electronically through the official ESA conference website (http://www.pdc2011.org/) as of September 1, 2010. Please be sure to designate the topic area your paper addresses (see topics listed above).
The deadline for receipt of abstracts is January 14, 2011. Letters of official acceptance and instructions for paper submission will be mailed on or before 15 February 2011.
Accepted papers (including poster papers) will be published in the official conference Proceedings. Selected peer-reviewed papers will be published in Acta Astronautica. Authors of all poster papers will be invited to present two-minute overview presentations during the regular session. The format for papers will be that provided on the conference web site, http://www.pdc2011.org/.
STUDENT COMPETITION
Undergraduate students and graduate researchers are invited to submit abstracts in two major categories:
• MAKING THE WORLD AWARE. Participants are requested to develop and study creative ideas to help deepen the understanding of the public, decision makers and academia on the nature of threats posed by Near Earth Objects.
• FROM THREAT TO ACTION: Papers may also be submitted on any of the diverse areas covered by the conference, including celestial mechanics, space engineering, astrodynamics, political sciences, social sciences, etc., as they relate to planetary defense.
The best student paper in each category will be awarded a prize.
Note: The aim of the student competition is to help promote academic work and informed political debate by enhancing research and general understanding essential for sound decision making on NEO impact threats in years to come.
Undergrate students and graduate researchers submitting the abstract should tick the box “I will participate in the Student Competition”.

Russia May Send Spacecraft to Asteroid

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/air-space/ci.Russia+May+Send+Spacecraft+to+Asteroid.opinionPrint
- AP 
- December 30, 2009
Russia's space chief said Wednesday his agency will consider sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth.
MOSCOW — Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth, the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday.
Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized.
When the 885-foot asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37, but have since lowered their estimate.
SLIDESHOW: How Could Scientists Prevent an Asteroid Impact?
Further studies ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles above Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.
In October, NASA lowered the odds that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 as earlier thought to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path. It said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.
Without mentioning NASA findings, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.
"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said.
Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or using nuclear weapons to hit it.
Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.
Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions.
"Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision without destroying it (the asteroid) and without detonating any nuclear charges," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted."
Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids.
"Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.