The 2024 AMOS Conference, September 17-20, celebrated 25 years at the Wailea Beach Resort, Maui. Presented by Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB), the premier technical conference in the nation devoted to Space Domain Awareness hosted 1101 in-person attendees with a further 231 participating virtually.
“AMOS brings together a diverse audience to bridge technical gaps, foster international cooperation, and advance space sustainability,” said Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President and CEO, in her welcome remarks.
The opening segment of the conference began with a traditional Hawaiian invocation with a reflection and sense of place to set the tone for the week. The message provided guidance and a reminder of responsibility as stewards of the land. Learn more about Healeakala: Sense of Place.
The morning program also included a look back at the origins of the AMOS Conference with a presentation by Paul Kervin, founding conference technical chair. Maui has some of the most diverse and highly capable optical telescopes (AEOS, Pan-STARRS), instrumentation (adaptive optics, spectrometers, photometers, radiometers) and processing capabilities (MHPCC) centralized into one location on the planet Earth and in 1999 the technical conference was initiated by the AFRL aimed at users of these facilities. Kervin took the audience through the evolution of technology and topics, the growth in audience in numbers and types.
The annual AMOS Conference program featured daily keynote speakers, SSA/SDA policy forums, featured presentations, technical oral and poster sessions, exhibits, short courses and networking receptions. Both in-person and livestream attendees had access to a virtual platform to facilitate networking and collaboration before, during and after the conference.
Pam Melroy, Deputy Administrator, NASA, provided the keynote on Day 3 and started off with a response to the underlying theme of the conference with a sense of place. “I’d like to first acknowledge the native Hawaiian community who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand and offer my heartfelt condolences on the effects that the wildfires have had on this island and this community. We care a lot about that and we’re doing a lot to try to help with wildfires, but I know that the impact has been intense.”
Melroy spoke about the history of NASA in space sustainability and how they got where they are and some very important steps they are taking going forward. She also went on to give a few broad reflections as a policymaker and a leader on some of the technical challenges facing our community.
After her presentation, asked about the idea of kuleana (sense of responsibility), Melroy said about NASA, “I love this word kuleana. We do talk about what is the purpose of space and going to space and operating through space, and we talk about how it benefits humanity in three ways. The first way is we do unique science in space, science that literally cannot be done from the surface of the earth. One of the most important aspects is that we study the Earth as a planet. We have a unique capability to do that from space.”
Technical Conference
The Call for Papers received over 300 abstracts from 27 countries with 152 papers presented as oral or poster presentation. Technical sessions this year covered the topics of Astrodynamics; Atmospherics/Space Weather; Cislunar SSA; Conjunction/RPO; Machine Learning for SSA Applications; Satellite Characterization; SDA Systems & Instrumentation; Space-Based Assets; Space Debris; and Space Domain Awareness.
“It’s the best venue for presenting the research and development and technology that I have developed with my team over the years for space surveillance and space domain awareness,” said Tamara Payne, Technical Subcommittee Chair of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) Space Surveillance Committee. Speaking to a sense of place, she added, “Space domain awareness is becoming more and more international and it’s more of an allied and international partner effort, which is a good thing because space is global. And we need a global cooperative arrangement so that we can take care of space and monitor the environment and shepherd and be good stewards of our Earth and our space around it.”
Attendees had access to all technical posters through the virtual platform with 88 posters presented in digital format with accompanying briefings. 44 of these posters were presented in-person in the AMOS Exhibit Venue during the evening Poster Sessions.
Networking
In-person attendees of the annual AMOS Conference have access to numerous networking opportunities with breakfast and lunch included and nightly receptions.
On Wednesday evening the Women and Allies in Space Domain Awareness reception was held for the third year. Sandra Magnus, Chief Engineer for the Traffic Coordination System for Space in the Office of Space Commerce, was the guest speaker at the reception aimed to strengthen and empower the community of women Space Domain Awareness professionals, as well as heighten the understanding of gender disparity within space-related careers.
The exhibit and poster venue was a draw for attendees throughout the conference with exhibiting sponsors demonstrating their products and services. Exhibiting sponsors were: a.i. solutions, Advanced Scientific Concepts, Astro Haven Enterprises, BAE Systems, Celestron, Charles River Analytics, COMSPOC, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, GEOST, GMV, Hart Scientific Consulting International, JHU Applied Physics Laboratory, Kayhan Space, KBR, Kratos, LeoLabs, Lipoa Investments, LLC, LSAS Tec, Mitre, Planewave Instruments, Rocket Communications, SAIC, Sea West Observatories, SEAKR, Slingshot Aerospace, SpaceMap, SpaceNav, TOPTICA Photonics and TransAstra.
Sponsoring, but not exhibiting, were Advanced Space, Anduril, Astroscale, BlueHalo, Booz Allan, CACI, EO Solutions, ExoAnalytic Solutions, General Dyamics Mission System, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation, L3 Harris, LinQuest Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Maxar, MDA Space, NEC Aerospace Systems, Northrop Grumman, Peraton, Pier-Tech Inc., Raytheon, Sandia National Lab, SpaceFlux, SpaceX, The Boeing Company, The Tech7 Company and USRA.
The AMOS Conference also includes an EMER-GEN Program for young professionals (read more) and a Space Exploration Day. After her keynote on Friday, Pam Melroy proceeded to meet with, and speak to, 120 middle school students as part of Space Exploration Day. The students were enthralled by Melroy’s journey as an astronaut and beyond. After the talk, the students then participated in hands-on, space-related activities with select AMOS exhibitors and local organizations.
The AMOS Conference is presented by the Maui Economic Development Board, Inc. (MEDB), a nonprofit corporation established in 1982 to focus on diversifying Maui’s economy. MEDB’s mission involves taking innovative actions that strengthen existing industry as well as diversifying through new opportunities.
