11th International Congress on Protection of Materials and Structures from Space Environment(ICPMSE1

The human race is about to set forth on a journey that will mark the beginning of a sustained human presence in the solar system .The voyages to the Moon, Mars, Venus mark only the beginning of the space exploration of our system. Discovery of new habitable planets and their exploration is the next logical step to the human presence in space. 　A thorough knowledge of space environment around Earth, Mars, Venus and other possible candidates for landing remains therefore an important issue for the years to come. Protection of spacecraft from the factors of the space environment is gaining also new meaning with the fast development of the nano-structured materials and coatings with the new and unusual properties they can provide. 　In light of all these developments, the ICPMSE series of meetings became an important source of knowledge to the space environment community. Since the first meeting in 1992, the conference has grown steadily, attracting a large number of engineers, researchers, managers, and scientists from industrial companies, scientific institutions and government agencies in Canada, U.S.A., Asia, and Europe, thus becoming a true international event. 　With the space weather topics overlapping closely in many instances the space environment issues, the ICPMSE-11 meeting is gaining even stronger importance, attracting a large interest in interdisciplinary areas of space exploration of LEO, GEO and Deep Space. 　To reflect on all new developments, the program of the meeting, in addition to the traditional topics of protection of materials and structures from the atomic oxygen, VUV, and particle irradiation and thermal effects includes also such topics as micrometeoroids, space weather and relevant protection issues for travel to Moon, Mars, other planets, and Deep Space exploration. 　The common denominator for all the topics to be discussed at ICPMSE-11 is the protection of materials and structures from the effects of space factors. 　The combination of a broad selection of technical and scientific topics addressed by internationallyknown speakers with the unique charm of Lijiang and the hospitality of the organizers will undoubtedly create the necessary atmosphere for a productive meeting.