Sunday, 21 October | 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This workshop invites members of the Juno science team and members of the Earth-based Juno-supporting observational network to get together after Juno's two years of orbital operations. The workshop will provide a means for reporting results that would not necessarily be included in regular DPS talks. However, the goal is to establish a dialogue that spawns effective collaborations that enhance and expand the scientific output resulting from both Juno and Earth-based observations. With auroral-related results discussed in a workshop at the 2018 Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets meeting, the emphasis will be on the neutral atmosphere, although not exclusively. The workshop is open, but we expect short presentations to be limited to teams listed on the supporting-observations Google table and Juno team members.

Sunday, 21 October | 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Questions emerging from the discussions begun in the April 2018 SSERVI Carbon in the Solar System workshop include the state of carbon in various locations in the Solar System compared to the “raw” carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM). How “processed or preserved” are Solar System materials such as IDPs, comets, and meteorites compared to the ISM, and what clues can be used to understand the level of processing? What implications do these observed changes have for the evolution of the Solar System? Our collection of carbon-rich samples will expand in the near future when pristine samples of the near-Earth asteroids 162173 Ryugu and 101955 Bennu are returned to Earth. Providing a framework for the existence and processing of carbon in response to thermal processes and irradiation throughout Solar System history improves our future analyses. This session will consist of a panel presentation followed by an open discussion among the attendees. We hope to generate and share ideas to support research and the imminent arrival of new samples.

Sunday, 21 October | 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

DPS meetings provide great opportunities for students and postdocs to network with senior scientists, learn about scientific advances, and get inspiration for new research ideas. However, the meeting is packed with so many presentations and events that junior DPS members rarely find time to network with each other or get career advice from other scientists closer to their own age.The AAS DPS Student & Postdoc Reception is an icebreaker event designed to help students and postdocs meet each other and discuss their scientific views and general issues in planetary science. Attendees will be introduced to other students and postdocs who work on similar topics and encouraged to participate in peer-to-peer mentoring, brainstorming conversations, and joint projects. The goal is to get familiar with one another on the first day of the meeting and use the rest of the meeting to enhance those connections and get involved with other activities.

Monday, 22 October | 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

The centerpiece of the New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission is a very close flyby of the cold classical KBO (486958) 2014 MU69 on 1 January 2019. However, as a small observatory located inside the Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons long-range reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is well placed to observe about two dozen other known KBOs The New Horizons team seeks ongoing supporting Earth-based and space-based observations to maximize the science return of the Kuiper Belt Extended Mission. We are specifically requesting observations yielding colors, absolute photometry at low phase angles, as well as rotational lightcurve periods and amplitudes of our targets. A DPS workshop will describe the New Horizons Kuiper Belt Extended Mission and bring together interested observers to discuss and coordinate plans for our target list, which will be shared at the workshop.

Monday, 22 October | 12:00 pm – 12:45 pm

We will discuss the relatively new ROSES requirements to submit your manuscripts to NASA's PubSpace system, as well as the practicalities for doing so with a variety of different publications.

Tuesday, 23 October | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

Join us for the annual DPS Women in Planetary Science event over lunch. All are welcome! The main topic will be diversity and inclusion, and the presentation/discussion schedule will be announced on the registration page. Pre-registration is required to receive a lunch, and recommended even if you are bringing your own lunch due to possible room space limitations. PLEASE NOTE - This event happens every year, so to make sure you are registered for THIS year, check your e-mail for a registration confirmation sent by Kelsi Singer. Please contact Kelsi.Singer@gmail.com with questions. We look forward to seeing you there!

Tuesday, 23 October | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is an infrared-optimized telescope that will now be launched to its orbit around the Earth-Sun L2 point in early 2021. JWST has a robust suite of astronomical instrumentation (imaging and spectroscopy) operating from 0.6-28.5 microns. The call for General Observer (GO) proposals is expected to be re-issued in late 2019, with the deadline about 3 months later. At this town hall we will provide a brief overview of JWST instrumentation; a status report on observatory integration and preparations at the science operations center (Space Telescope Science Institute); an overview of the currently planned Guaranteed Time Observer proposals; a summary of observation planning tools; and an overview of use documentation. More details about expected proposal dates and future solar system observer planning workshops will be provided. Our goal is to support the DPS community in preparing and submitting a robust set of observing proposals so that we can all benefit from the capabilities of JWST.

Tuesday, 23 October | 12:15 pm – 2:15 pm

Comet 46P/Wirtanen will pass within 0.0777 AU of the Earth on 16 December 2018, just four days after reaching perihelion. This close approach is the highlight of an already excellent apparition, which offers prime conditions for high-resolution imaging, favorable circumstances for spectroscopic observations, and visibility allowing coverage for many hours per night for over a year around perihelion.

Wirtanen is a small, hyperactive comet, which in many respects is a near-twin of comet 103P/Hartley 2, the target of the Deep Impact Extended Investigation and is itself a potential future spacecraft target. The upcoming apparition represents one of the best recent opportunities for ground-based studies of a comet, allowing for long-duration, systematic observations using a wide range of techniques and wavelength regimes. The circumstances of this apparition also represent an opportunity to mobilize the amateur observing community to execute otherwise difficult-to-achieve science programs and to engage the public with a bright (likely naked eye) comet that can act as the centerpiece for star parties and educational programs.

Wirtanen has been recovered and is on track for its close approach in December, and the observing campaign being organized at the at the University of Maryland is well underway. We are holding a lunchtime workshop to assemble participants who are interested in collaborations, coordinated studies, public outreach and educational opportunities. At the workshop, we will evaluate any observations of the comet that have been obtained to that point, and discuss observational strategies for the rest of the apparition.

Please visit the campaign website. This website is a clearinghouse for general information about the comet, presenting status reports and tracking its brightness throughout the apparition. It also contains general information about the comet and its history and geometric observing conditions.

Tuesday, 23 October | 3:35 pm – 6:35 pm

The discovery and characterization of Near Earth Objects (asteroids and comets) addresses: 1) the science of small bodies in the solar system, 2) the Congressional planetary defense mandate, 3) needs of the growing in-situ resource utilization community, and 4) future manned and unmanned space missions in pursuit of all these. Efficient utilization of ground and space-based NEO facilities requires coordinating survey and follow-up operations via infrastructure such as the Minor Planet Center and new protocols such as IAU ADES. We will discuss future plans of the MPC as well as observation brokers and other systems to streamline communications, to optimize multiple telescope scheduling, to build on astrometric archives and on services such as orbit computation to make the already productive NEO community even more so. Your participation, questions, and comments are welcome!

Wednesday, 24 October | 4:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Over its 10-year lifespan, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will catalog over 5 million Main Belt asteroids, almost 300,000 Jupiter Trojans, over 100,000 NEOs, over 40,000 KBOs, tens of interstellar objects, and over 10,000 comets. Many of these objects will receive hundreds of observations in multiple bandpasses. The LSST Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) is preparing methods and tools to analyze this data, as well as understand optimum survey strategies for discovering moving objects throughout the Solar System.

This workshop serves as the annual meeting of the LSST SSSC and is open to everyone. We will provide updates on current and future activities within the SSSC. The emphasis will not be on general LSST background but on details relevant to Solar System science topics. In particular, this year discussions and presentations will focus on the development of the LSST Moving Object Processing System (MOPS), the SSSC’s feedback/input on upcoming LSST survey cadence decisions, and future community follow-up opportunities. There will be time set aside for open discussion for both members of the SSSC and the broader planetary community.

Thursday, 25 October | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

This workshop provides an opportunity to discuss and refine ideas for a two-spacecraft mission to explore the Uranus and Neptune systems, a Centaur, a Dwarf Planet in the Kuiper Belt, and at least one other small KBO. Under this plan, an orbiter with atmospheric probe is sent to Neptune, flying by a Centaur on the way. A separate flyby spacecraft explores the Uranus system, a dwarf planet, and at least one other KBO. Building on the completed NASA ice giant mission study and a recently announced ESA study, this dual-spacecraft mission would address priority science objectives across the deep outer solar system. After short presentations on the NASA and ESA studies and the two-spacecraft mission, there will be time for group discussion.

Thursday, 25 October | 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

The proposed NEOCam mission would be a space-based thermal infrared survey for asteroids and comets. We will introduce NEOCam to the science community, including details about the survey pattern being considered, the expected data types and volumes, and the planned data delivery timeline. All members of the science community, especially early career researchers and members of historically under-represented groups, are encouraged to attend to learn more about the project.

Thursday, 25 October | 4:00 pm – 7:30 pm

The main goal of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) is to facilitate the efforts of the planetary community to study the planets and small body populations residing within our Solar System using LSST data. To prepare for future survey cadence decisions and ensure that interesting and novel Solar System science is achievable with LSST, the SSSC is organizing a Hackathon. The aim is to spend several hours working intensively on collaborative projects. This includes laying the infrastructure groundwork for joint computational tools (github repositories, common computing infrastructure, initial code, and more), brainstorming potential observing follow-up proposals and programs, drafting plans for user-contributed data products, writing Metrics Analysis Framework metrics, writing text for the cadence optimization (plus mini-surveys and deep drilling fields) white papers, etc. Participants will pitch projects at the beginning of the session and divide into project groups. Past Hack day or SSSC sprint experience is not required. Come ready with a project idea or join someone’s pitched project. Programming experience is not a requirement. This workshop is focused towards SSSC members, but it is open to everyone. Space is limited, please register reserve a spot.

Thursday, 25 October | 4:30 pm – 7:00 pm

This workshop will introduce the Python module sbpy, a community project that aims to develop an astropy affiliated package for small-body planetary astronomy. sbpy's functionality will include analysis tools and model implementations for photometry, spectroscopy, cometary activity, thermal emission from atmosphere-less bodies, and small-body light-curves; it furthermore provides tools for data archive access, comet coma image enhancement, and small-body observation planning. Information on the package and its installation can be found at sbpy website. The workshop will introduce some of the currently available features and enable the discussion of future functionality. Everybody who is interested in contributing to, testing, or simply using sbpy is invited. A hackathon will be part of this workshop, enabling community members to try out existing sbpy functionality and to receive help with more general questions regarding Python programming and astropy. Please note that this is not a Python crash course, but we will be ready to help you if you have questions. sbpy is supported by NASA PDART Grant No. 80NSSC18K0987.

Thursday, 25 October | 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Please join us for discussion about harassment, bias, and what we can do to help change the culture. All DPS members are welcome, with the goal of continuing a conversation among men about how we can raise awareness and be proactive on these issues.

Friday, 25 October | 8:00 am – 11:30 am

The success of scientists depends upon their ability to obtain funding. One of the largest challenges is to create strong proposals. Using Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) from NASA as a template, this workshop will focus on teaching the audience key points to writing a successful proposal.

Session Goals: As a result of this session, participants will be able to understand the proposal writing, reviewing, and selection process for federally funded proposals, as well as help those who have previously submitted proposals improve their performance.

Session Teaching and Learning Practices: Proposal Writing Workshops help early career scientists, as well as those looking to improve their previous proposal performance. However, workshops have been limited to due time constraints and the location of those willing to organize and run these critical workshops. Dr. Richey (the organizer/speaker), while a contractor at NASA Headquarters, was able to do some workshops during ROSES Roll-Outs, which occurred primarily at NASA Centers. That presentation will be modified to be attractive to a more diverse audience. The current presentation for the proposal writing workshops is 3-4 hours in length, with time for questions and interactive engagement from the audience, as literature shows that active learning environments are optimal (Review of Literature within the field by Prince, M. 2004). The workshop is primarily a power point presentation, with handouts included. An anonymized survey will be included at the end to allow for general feedback in improving the workshop.

Speaker Diversity Statement: Given this workshop requires high-level working knowledge of the entire proposal process (including writing, submitting, reviewing, and selecting proposals), there will be only one speaker. Dr. Christina Richey has previously worked with several key Planetary Science Division and Astrophysics Division programs at NASA, and has done several proposal writing workshops previously. The workshop will be done in a format that allows for a great deal of audience participation, and is particularly geared towards early career participants wanting to increase their knowledge about the proposal submission process. This workshop has been done primarily at NASA Centers or large planetary science conferences, but by bringing the workshop to DPS, information vital to a proposal writer's success will be provided to a diverse audience that represents far more than just those at NASA Centers.

Friday, 26 October | 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

The Kuiper Belt (KB) is a scientific treasure trove consisting of comets, planetesimals, and small planets like Pluto. Since its discovery in the early 1990s, the KB has yielded fundamental insights into planetary accretion, the migration of planets, and the population structure of our solar system—including the discovery that dwarf planets like Pluto are common there.

The exploration of Pluto by New Horizons in 2015, the first KB dwarf planet to be explored, revealed a richness of geological, atmospheric, satellite, and compositional diversity at Pluto that rivals planets like Mars. The flyby also revealed evidence for Pluto being an actively evolving world over many spatial and temporal scales including evidence for an interior ocean, active glaciers, dunes, tectonics, a wide variety of terrain ages, and a complex atmosphere. Those results, combined with the heterogeneous colors, surface compositions, and satellite systems of other KB dwarf planets beg for an ongoing future in Kuiper Belt exploration.

In this workshop we will survey 2018 work on (i) a return to Pluto with an orbiter, (ii) Centaur missions to study KBOs, and (iii) flyby missions to other KB dwarf planets. We will review community and individual scientist work to motivate NASA to fund future studies leading to the next Decadal Survey.