Brazilian Astronaut Marcos Pontes to address CANEUS 2008 in Brazil

Brazil’s first and only Astronaut Air Force Lt. Col. Marcos Cesar Pontes will address the “Manned Space Needs” session and also deliver Keynote presentation to showcase Brazil’s achievements to the World Aerospace Community at CANEUS 2008 to be held on November 9-14, 2008, in the city of São José dos Campos, in Brazil’s thriving hub of Aerospace and Defense activities. The International CANEUS organization and the CANEUS 2008 Organizing Committee are pleased to welcome Astronaut Pontes in this historic event hosted by Brazil, commented Chairman Milind Pimprikar.

Dr. Darcton Damiã, Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies – IEAv of the Brazilian Air Force General Command for Aerospace Technology (CTA) confirmed Astronaut Marcos Pont’s participation in CANEUS 2008 during his visit to Montreal, Canada on April 14-18, 2008. Dr. Damiã is serving as the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee for CANEUS 2008.

Manned Space Needs

Astronaut Pontes’ Lead presentation will contribute to the invited presentations from America, Europe and Asia to summarize technological capabilities with the potential to bridge the gap between the challenges faced by future manned missions, both earth orbiting and planetary, and recent developments in MNT-based materials and devices.

Air Force Lt. Col. Marcos Cesar Pontes was selected as a NASA mission specialist in August 1998 and became the first professional Brazilian astronaut to go into space. He launched with the Expedition-13 crew U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 30, 2006 aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft, docking with the station on March 31, 2006, where he lived and worked for the next 8-days. Pontes returned to earth with the Expedition-12 crew landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan in their Soyuz spacecraft on April 8, 2006.

Brazilian Space Agency astronaut Marcos Pontes uses a computer in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station soon after his arrival. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Nine nanotech-related experiments

The 45-year-old astronaut conducted nine nanotech-related experiments, during his eight days aboard the International Space Station.

Astronaut Pontes continues with his technical duties for the International Space Station (ISS) Program at the Johnson Space Center, working with FIESP/SENAI-SP for the development and fabrication of the Brazilian parts for the ISS.

CANEUS 2008 is the world's foremost international conference devoted to Micro-Nano-technology (MNT) development for aerospace applications. The CANEUS 2008 conference continues to build on the theme developed during previous, successful CANEUS conferences (2002, 2004 and 2006) namely, the challenge of rapidly and efficiently transitioning aerospace MNT development from a mostly low technology-readiness-level (TRL) stage to system-level implementations.

About CANEUS: CANEUS is a worldwide organization serving the needs of the aeronautics, space and defense communities by fostering the coordinated, international development of MNT (Micro-Nano- Technologies) for aerospace applications. As a "hands on" organization, CANEUS is focused on the practical aspects of transitioning MNT rapidly and efficiently from the concept to the aerospace system level. In achieving this goal, CANEUS brings together technology developers, aerospace end-users, governmental policy makers and investors from across the world. www.caneus.org