North Carolina State University will host a Bioregenerative Life Support Road Mapping Workshop on November 4 – 5, 2009 in Raleigh, North Carolina. This workshop, sponsored by a NASA Center for Sustainable Life Support for Space Exploration grant, will take place immediately prior to the annual meeting of the American Society of Gravitational and Space Biology. The Bioregenerative Road Mapping Workshop will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 and end at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 5th, 2009.
The workshop will bring together key stakeholders in plant biology, horticulture, microbiology, aerospace, energy, civil engineering, food science, modeling and other disciplines to develop a capability roadmap for bioregenerative life support with reference to current space exploration programs, evolving human space flight strategies, and earth based applications. Issues for integrating crop and biological processes with physico-chemical life support systems are also within the scope of this workshop.
The road mapping effort will collect and publish the deliberations of discipline teams including a review of recent research and technology findings, past advisory committee reports and community response. Click here for preliminary draft of the discipline teams.
The overall agenda for the workshop will include presentations from invited participants followed by break-out groups to identify technology development and/or research needed to achieve mission objectives with reference to the Bioregenerative Life Support Technology Development Plan [see NASA-Technical Memorandum “Roadmaps and Strategies for Crop Research for Bioregenerative Life Support Systems: A Compilation of Findings from NASA’s Advanced Life Support Meetings"] developed for the Exploration Life Support Project by Dr. Ray Wheeler, NASA-Kennedy Space Center.
Participants will self-select the area of expertise and as a discipline team will: 1) identify the capabilities needed for each mission objective; 2) identify technology development and/or research needed to achieve the capability; and 3) assign a priority and maturity level (e.g., technology readiness) to the identified technology development/research.
The road mapping activity is an independent assessment being conducted by academia and industry. Government participation is welcome.
Click here to download the participant information form. A limited amount of funding is available for travel reimbursement. On the participant form, please indicate if you need to submit a request for travel reimbursement. You can request up to $500 for reimbursement. You will be notified in advance of the workshop if you have been approved for travel reimbursement. Meals will be provided at the workshop.
Hotel Accommodations - A block of rooms is reserved for Wednesday, November 4 at the Marriott City Center, Raleigh, NC at a rate of $149. The deadline to reserve a room at this rate is October 5, 2009. When making reservations online, select the "Group code" button and enter the code SPCSPCA in the text box. When calling Marriott reservations ask for the group rate for NC Space Grant; the code is SPC. The Marriott can be reached at 888.236.2427 or www.marriott.com/rdumc.
For more information on the workshop, please contact:
Dr. Chris Brown, North Carolina State University, cbrown@ncsu.edu
Dr. Ray Wheeler, NASA Kennedy Space Center, raymond.m.wheeler@nasa.gov
Ms. Cindy Martin-Brennan, Workshop coordinator, cmbrennan@comcast.net
For information on travel and hotel logistics, contact:
Ms. Jobi Cook, NC Space Grant, jobi_cook@ncsu.edu
We look forward to your participation in November.
