PLANETARY EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 1, Number 12 (July 29, 2007)

PEN Website: http://planetarynews.org
Editor: Mark V. Sykes 
Co-Editors: Matt Balme, Nic Richmond
Email: pen_editor at psi.edu

o-------------------------TABLE OF CONTENTS---------------------------o

1. SPECIAL ANNOUNCMENT: The Planetary Meeting Calendar
2. [NASA] NSPIRES: New due date for Planetary Protection Research
3. FY2008 House and Senate NASA Appropriation Bills

o---------------------------------------------------------------------o


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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THE PLANETARY MEETING CALENDAR

A calendar of planetary-related workshops, meetings and conferences
is now being maintained on the Planetary Exploration Newsletter 
website:

http://planetarynews.org

To add your meeting to the calendar, send the following information to
pen_editor at psi.edu:

Meeting Name
Location
Dates
URL


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[NASA] NSPIRES: NEW DUE DATE FOR PLANETARY PROTECTION RESEARCH

The due date for proposals to the Planetary Protection Research 
program element described in Appendix C.18 of ROSES-2007 has been 
changed. The due date for submitting a proposal is changed from 
August 7, 2007, to September 5, 2007.

This change is being made to encourage the submission of research 
proposals in areas relevant to planetary protection research.

The Planetary Protection Research program solicits proposals in three 
areas:  improvements in sterilization technologies for spacecraft and 
components, methods for detecting the very low levels of biological 
contamination present on or in spacecraft or components, and 
characterizations of the capacity for Earth organisms to survive in 
other planetary conditions using laboratory simulations. Of 
particular interest in the area of microbial detection are 
fluorescence-based detection systems capable of differentiating 
between living and dead organisms present on spacecraft surfaces or 
in liquid rinsate. In the area of limits to life, studies on the 
potential for survival and reproduction of Earth organisms in 
conditions likely to obtain in Mars gully regions or in the 
subsurface of Mars are of particular interest, as are studies 
exploring the potential for Earth organisms to survive and reproduce 
in conditions likely to be present in the subsurface of Europa and 
other icy satellites.

On or about July 27, 2007, this Amendment to the NASA Research 
Announcement "Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences 
(ROSES) 2007" (NNH07ZDA001N) will be posted on the NASA research 
opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select 
"Solicitations" then "Open Solicitations" then "NNH07ZDA001N").

Further information about this program element is available from Dr. 
Catharine A. Conley, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission 
Directorate, NASA, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 
358-3912; E-mail: cassie.conleyl@nasa.gov 


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FY2008 HOUSE AND SENATE NASA APPROPRIATION BILLS

For the status of appropriations language for Fiscal Year 2008 go to

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app08.html

NASA appropriations is within Commerce/Justice/Science

Summaries and links to complete report language for House and Senate 
NASA bills are posted by the American Institute of Physics at

http://www.aip.org/fyi/2007/080.html (House)
http://www.aip.org/fyi/2007/073.html (Senate)

Differences in the two bills will be resolved in Conference, which
has not been scheduled.

[Editor Note: The House bill increases Research and Analysis funds by
$60M, substantially restoring recent cuts to those programs.]


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