Harvey Wichman, professor emeritus of psychology, will chair a panel on international disaster preparedness at the Planetary Defense Conference, to be held in Orange County Feb. 23-26. Conference participants, including internationally renowned scholars and representatives from various aerospace organizations, will consider how to protect the earth from the potential threat of asteroids and comets.
Wichman, who is also on the conference's organizing committee, will lead discussion on the social and psychological implications of an asteroid threat to Earth.
"News of a potential asteroid collision could cause a catastrophe even if the asteroid never hits us," Wichman said. "It would cause a disruption of social affairs, suicides, and a widespread fear that the end had come. My section of the conference addresses how to deal with this."
Wichman has directed CMC's Aerospace Psychology Laboratory since 1987, and his aerospace ties began with the space program itself. As a graduate student he received the BioSpace Technology Training Program fellowship and in 1987 won another fellowship to help design the international space station. In 1992 he began designing space station interiors for McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, and last year he invited 13 students to build a space flight stimulator as part of a practicum. NASA learned of this project and asked to partner in it, inviting Wichman and his students to spend two days studying simulator designs alongside NASA astronauts.
According to Wichman, the Planetary Defense Conference is scheduled to take place every five years. For more information, please visit www.aiaa.org/events/pdc04.