Code S Weekly Highlights January 25, 2018 Code SS Significant Announcements Highlights - N/A Upcoming Program Milestones - Several team members including Alfonso Davila (SSX), MaryBeth Wilhelm (SST), Carol Stoker (SST), and Richard Quinn (SSX) will be participating in NASA field analog drilling tests and field science investigations in the Atacama Desert of Chile (near Yungay), with Mars- prototype rover, 1m drill and robot arm for sample transfer. Travel will occur 2/18/18 – 3/7/18. On-going research and development under the PSTAR Program award, ARADS: Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies . - Geert Barentsen, Christina Hedges and Jessie Dotson taped an episode of the local cable tv show Future Talk. (http://www.futuretalk.net/ ) The topics discussed included how we operate the spacecraft with only two reaction wheels, Kepler and K2 results, what K2 is looking at now and how NASA’s other telescopes are being used to learn more about the planets found with the Kepler spacecraft. The show will be aired next month on local cable channel 30 (and is sometimes picked up by cable stations across the country). - K2 (jointly with Boston University) planned and hosted a workshop: “Dwarf stars and Clusters with K2” in Boston on January 16 – 18, 2018. There were 63 registrants and 32 talks. The discussed topics included stellar rotation, stellar activity, eclipsing binaries, young stellar objects, synergies with other missions and transiting planets. Several K2 staff members (Geert Barentsen, Michael Gully-Santiago, Ann Marie Cody, and Christina Hedges) gave talks. Key Meetings/ Event and Attendees - Jeffery Hollingsworth, Chief, Planetary Systems Branch (Code SS/SST) attended NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) hosts the 18 th Small Bodies Assessment Group (“SBAG”) within the Ames Conference Center (Building 152), 17–18 Jan 2018. The SBAG was established by NASA to identify scientific priorities and opportunities for the exploration of asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust , small satellites , and Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The SBAG also provides scientific input on the utility of asteroids and comets in support of human space activities . The group has an open membership and a steering committee. Input from the scientific community is actively sought. The SBAG provides findings to NASA Headquarters, but does not make recommendations. -