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From the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system to Earth science missions closer to home, NASA shared its goals for the next decades of exploration at this year\u2019s Goddard Space Science Symposium, held March 20-22, 2024, at the University of Maryland in College Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to help bring focus to this long-term vision by gathering people from all areas of the industry to discuss the plan, the associated opportunities and challenges, and how we will all work together to succeed,\u201d said Jim Way, executive director at the American Astronautical Society (AAS), which co-hosted the symposium with NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASA Goddard and AAS collaborated to develop this year\u2019s theme, \u201cSpace 2040: Pathways to the Future.\u201d About 340 in-person attendees participated in panels featuring NASA scientists, researchers, and experts, as well as government and industry partners. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Goddard Center Director Makenzie Lystrup kicked off the symposium by emphasizing the role partnerships have to play in science and space exploration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is changing, and the space industry in particular; we\u2019ve got to adapt to that,\u201d Lystrup said. \u201cGoddard needs to adapt to that, NASA needs to adapt, and I think that that can be scary. But also, this is the time when innovation can really come out. And so, I think that the sharing of ideas, and the willingness to try new things, is more important now than it ever has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the symposium, Goddard employees, students, and members of the industry and government workforce listened to discussions on space weather, climate science, interplanetary missions, and more. Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s Science Mission Directorate at the agency\u2019s headquarters in Washington, gave the opening keynote address on March 20. Fox\u00a0spoke about NASA\u2019s current and future missions,\u00a0highlighting the intersections between NASA sciences. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love to think about the interconnections in the science that we do,\u201d Fox said. \u201cEverybody knows that all the really interesting stuff \u2013 it\u2019s not even just science \u2013 interesting stuff happens on the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
The symposium concluded with early science results from NASA\u2019s OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from the asteroid Bennu in September 2023. Mission scientists brought a small piece of the sample for attendees to view.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat smudge you see is a pristine sample of the early solar system that we took 200 million miles away, and they\u2019re finding some little preliminary results already,\u201d said Michelle Thaller, co-chair of the 2024 planning committee and assistant director for science communication at Goddard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year marked the 61st symposium, making it the longest running event hosted by AAS. Formerly known as the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium, the event demonstrates the longstanding relationship between Goddard and AAS.<\/p>\n