Volume 29 Number 7	May / June 2004

Annual Technical Symposium

The 2004 AIAA Annual Technical Symposium (ATS) was held on Friday, April 16th at the JSC Gilruth Center. This all-day event was open to JSC, JSC contractors, industry, and academia. Fifty-four presentations were given in three tracks: Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Aerospace Technology & Exploration.

Andrew Brodbeck (left) and Norman Chaffee
working the registration table

ATS started at 8:00 am with Speaker registration. There was no early registration or registration fee for ATS, which allowed all interested parties to attend the conference as time permitted. Reservations for an optional lunch meal were the only arrangements that ATS attendees were required to make before the conference.

Each of the three conference tracks started at 8:45 am with introductory remarks by the NASA Session Track Chairs. Three hours of 20-minute presentations were conducted in nine one-hour sessions in three rooms, which included: ISS Software, ISS Activities, Spacecraft Control, Global Positioning Systems, Space Shuttle Technology, Risk Management, and New Process for Space Exploration.

Lunch was served in the Gilruth Grand Ballroom, and was followed by a Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight seminar given by William W. Parsons, NASA STS program manager. ATS attendees were provided a valuable opportunity to take part in a Question and Answer session on Return-to-Flight topics.

Individual presentations resumed at 1:30 pm after introductory remarks given by each of the afternoon Session Track Chairs. Three hours of afternoon sessions in each of three rooms were held on the following topics: Robots in Space, ISS Systems & Software, Sensor and Navigation Systems, Shuttle Real-Time Systems, Shuttle Subsystems, Image Analysis, Power System Upgrades, and Information Technology Applications.

An evening reception, with free snacks and a cash bar, was held prior to the evening speaker. NASA Director of Space Exploration, Dr. Michael Lembeck, gave a presentation on the current status of the President's Space Exploration Program. This provided a forum for discussion on a trip to the Moon and Mars.

Co-authors Michael Hazen and Joe Williams (seated) of Raytheon
provided a presentation on System-Level Reuse of Space Systems Simulations

ATS 2004 had an excellent program, and attendance was 162 in the sessions and 179 overall. ATS was made possible with the support of NASA, and was organized by the ATS Planning Committee. The ATS Planning Committee was composed of AIAA volunteers from Honeywell (Douglas Yazell), Boeing (Sophia Bright, Darby Cooper, Chester Vaughan), Dynacs (Murugan Subramaniam), United Space Alliance (Ellen Gillespie), and NASA retirees (Norman Chaffee and Guy Thibodaux), and thanks go to Dr. Larry Friesen of UHCL for his support. Our committee also recognizes the outstanding contributions from 9 track chairs, 17 session chairs, 54 authors/presenters, and many others whose work made this event a success. If things go according to plan, we will keep the program document at www.aiaa-houston.org, linking to an abstract (no paper required) or a PowerPoint presentation for each author.