In summer of 2024, I took a train from Seoul to Busan.

Prior to depearture, I was informed that there was a movie that was based almost entirely on this premise, so I went about watching it as self-assigned mandatory reading. Without spoiling the contents of the movie itself, it was a zombie movie that was focused on humanity and the reactions of individuals in high stakes environments. For me, this was a sneak peek into the trains and the potential luggage room available.

I confess, I was misled. Google and reddit supported the idea that there would be extremely limited luggage space, and rolling travel bags would be at risk of not fitting. As such, I opted to bring duffle bags to squish into the overhead compartments, which I knew from the movie could fit an adult human.

As it turns out, I was not the only one who took the train to Busan. Several COSPAR2024 (Committee on Space Research 2024 meeting) attendees I met also mentioned that they had opted to fly into Seoul from whatever country they had previously been in, and taken the train. Direct flights to Busan were about twice the price from Toronto at the time I was looking, and to me it made sense to stick around in Seoul a few days after the conference to get to know the city. I assumed that I would have gotten enough from Busan by the time the 8 day conference was over. I was very wrong on this point, Busan is THE coffee city in Korea, and I felt like I really missed out! Food and activities were also far cheaper in Busan than they were in Seoul, and it only became sunny after the conference had ended and I was on the train back to Seoul. That said, I really was there for work related matters.

Let’s talk about the conference. I spent most of it “live-slacking” interesting tidbits from all the talks I went through. This conference was heavily focused on the presentations, with the poster hall being fairly quiet. I personally had a talk during the ocean worlds session. Navigating the sections was interesting, there was a letter number system that broke down large topics (Space Studies of Earth, Space Studies of Small Bodies, Space Studies of Atmospheres, Space Plasmas, Astrophysics, Life Sciences, Materials Sciences, Fundamental Physics, etc.). For Scientific Commission B, small bodies, the numbers were labeled Bx.x, where the integer indicated the relative subpanel (my guesses are that B3 was exploration and the moon, B4 were the inner planets, B5 the outer) and the decimal indicating the specific name of the panel (B4.3 was Mars Science Results). Each subpanel was further divided into presentations and posters that were relevant to each subpanel.

One interesting aspect of COSPAR is the numerous “business meetings” that take place for each panel throughout the conference. Several representatives give reports, and explain their rational for how many quarter-days they would like in the next conference. During the one I attended, there was also quite a lot of discussion over cross-linking into different panels so that attendees would not miss talks that would be relevant to their work. There was also some discussion on how to revitalize the poster sessions which were relatively poorly attended despite the free alcohol and beverages on site. I was attending to comment on the relative lack of participation and attendance from early career scientists that were not exceptionally gung-ho about sharing their work and putting their names out there in this particular panel (the astrophysics and life sciences sections conversely appeared to have many early career scientists!). I found the overall discussion very interesting. Feedback and discussion for other conferences I’ve attended typically occurs after the conference ends, and this type of business meeting is not open to all attendees.

Despite the extended length of this conference (and extreme heat and humidity that found its way into the conference centre), I found that I was engaged for most of the time and there was less rushing about the building in comparison to some other conferences. It was easy to talk with people during downtime and a great way to meet folks who were doing relevant work, but you might normally not encounter in a more niche conference. There was time for coffee with my coauthors and dinner with my fellow Canadian delegates. Overall I’d say it was an excellent experience, and my main regret is not keeping my mouth shut a little more and doing a bit more active listening.

Some interesting things that happened during the conference that were not work related… A flight show happened! The Korean Space Agency opened in 2024! I found an alien themed coffee shop!

I also would like to shoutout the Canadian Space Agency for making attending COSPAR2024 possible in the first place. This is typically not a conference I would be attending without a thoughtful justification and clear goal in mind. I hear the next one will be 9 days long. As an aside, every single submitted abstract is still visible on the site and can be viewed.