Category Archives: Events

Supermoon eclipse tonight

There will be a lunar eclipse tonight that will particularly unusual. The Moon will be at the closest approach (perigee) of its orbit to earth when it can be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when the Moon is at its farthest distance (apogee) from earth. NASA TV to Provide Live Feed of Sunday’s Supermoon Eclipse – NASA

This video gives a brief description of this eclipse of a Supermoon:

Viewing info:

Sunday’s supermoon eclipse will last 1 hour and 11 minutes, and will be visible to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and parts of West Asia and the eastern Pacific. Weather permitting, you can see the supermoon after nightfall, and the eclipse will cast it into shadow beginning at 8:11 p.m. EDT. The total eclipse starts at 10:11 p.m. EDT, peaking at 10:47 p.m. EDT.

More on times and visibility at September 27 / September 28, 2015 — Total Lunar Eclipse – Where and when to see.

If you cannot go outside and see the eclipse directly, views of it will be available online:

Here’s a tutorial on lunar eclipses:

‘SPACE ART: an evening in the stars’ – multi-media art and performance event in Pittsburgh

SPACE ART: an evening in the stars will take place on Sunday, August 23rd at the Neu Kirche Contemporary Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The event is described as an

experimental and inter-disciplinary event of multi-media art, installations, performance, music, film, & spoken word which explore the realities and aspirations of life in space

It will

feature a mix of installation art, performance, music, film, and spoken word that explores the realities and aspirations of life in space, including the materials of the Apollo program, a voyage to the Red Planet, and the question “How do you make art for aliens?”.

The artist and initiator of this event Dan Wilcox says: “We feel there is a greater discussion going on in the national space agencies, private companies (such as SpaceX), and research laboratories that should involve *everyone*. Humanity heading into space in this century will directly impact our society, so we should all be on board.”

Here’s an article about the event: ‘Space Art: An Evening in the Stars’ takes are into the universe – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The performances and presentations include:

Someday Somewhere Beyond
A documentary on permanent settlements in space by Jonathan Minard

Space Artist
A short documentary on pioneer space artist Lowry Burgess by Jonathan Minard

Our Pittsburgh Constellation
A presentation by Diane Turnshek

Mother Earth, Sister Moon
A talk/lyrics/poetry to a song made live from space sounds and RF signals by Sofy Yuditskaya

Onward to Mars
Presentation and performace by Dan Wilcox

Music for aliens and other beings
By Christopher Botta

blobs
Golden mylar inflatables by Anika Hirt

 

New Worlds 2015 Conference to focus on colonizing the Moon, Mars and Free Space

An announcement from the New Worlds Institute:

Space Settlers Wanted
New Worlds 2015 Conference to Focus on
Colonizing the Moon, Mars and Free Space
Austin Texas  |  October 16 & 17

“New Worlds 2015 is going to be something new in the space field, something that steps out of the airlock of what a space event is supposed to be ”
— Rick Tumlinson

Recently billionaires such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, PayPal billionaire Elon Musk, Paul Allen of MicroSoft, Richard Branson and many others have begun to build spaceships designed to carry regular people into space. Some such as Musk declare outright that they intend to put the first settlers on Mars. Joining them are national entities like the United Arab Emirates who just announced a multi-billion dollar space program aimed at the Red Planet, China which is designing its own Moon base plans, and other countries and projects to be announced soon. NASA is also rapidly moving towards supporting the opening of space to citizens as a focus of its human spaceflight program.

Register Now for New Worlds 2015
Special Early Bird Pricing Still Available

Elon Musk says he’ll be landing on Mars by 2030,” Meagan Crawford, New Worlds Executive Director added. She continued: “The premise of the Institute and New Worlds Conference is that while these bright minds work to build new space ships to carry people out into space, someone needs to focus on what we will do when we get there – how we will live, prosper and create the next level of human civilization.”

Featured talks on colonizing the Moon, Mars and Free Space, space solar power, the space station and its relevance to colonizing the solar system will join presentations by New Space start ups and businesses leaders working to create a space economy. Stories from real space fliers and astronauts will be interspersed between sessions by top experts in such areas as biology, engineering, design, science and space systems. Short, high-level talks on such things as life extension, farming on Mars, the military in space, and genetic engineering will round out the event. On Friday parallel events will include workshops on crowdsourcing settlement solutions, empowering women in space and other important aspects of the space revolution.

“The age of human space exploration is just beginning and this event is a sampler of the different ideas and opportunities the Institute will be looking to cultivate, It’s a starting point for professionals and students to tell the community their dreams” said Jay Milla, Executive Producer of the event. “We’re also including art, music and various workshops for people to ‘think tank’ what is to come. Your crazy idea is welcome here!”

New Worlds 2015 will feature a student competition called “Cities in Space” in which middle and high school students will create 3D or video models of a 10,000 person colony. Students of all ages are encouraged to attend and participate in both the conference sessions and the cultural events such as the art show and the concert. The New Worlds Institute is offering extreme discounts to students, with prices starting at just $15 a day, to encourage the active participation of the future space settlers. Students are encouraged register now to reserve this special discounted price.

The New Worlds Institute announced today it’s inaugural event, to be held in the Palmer Event Center in Austin, Texas October 16-17. New Worlds 2015 is a different kind of space event. The renaissance affair will be a conference, a gathering of minds, a series of workshops, an art exhibit, a cultural experience, a concert, and most importantly, it will be an all-inclusive discussion about humanity’s future as we migrate to new worlds.

The core premise of the event and the organization is that the first settlers of the Solar System are alive right now, and it is time to begin to focus on the technologies, tools and culture they will need to open the frontier. This is the purpose of New Worlds 2015.

“New Worlds 2015 is going to be something new in the space field, something that steps out of the airlock of what a space event is supposed to be,” said Rick Tumlinson, Founder of the New Worlds Institute. “Our goal is to take the serious core of science and engineering we will need to build new communities in space and wrap it in a cultural experience that is fun, challenging and generally mind blowing.”

Learn More about VIP and Sponsorship packages;
designed for space enthusiasts and small businesses

While the Institute itself intends to focus on serious research into the technologies and engineering challenges needed to create real human cities in space, the group believes that there also needs to be a cultural element included in what it calls the “breakout”. Thus the event will feature such unusual elements as an art show and a rock concert/dance party featuring the techno-rock band Arc Attack, known for using Tesla coils and amazing lightning effects in its show, complimented by performance artists Nadis Warriors and The Clergy.

The New Worlds Institute is producing this event as the first in a series of social gatherings and conferences meant to engage the public, the business world and the scientific community in a constructive dialog about not just how we get there, but how we stay. The two-day event will highlight concepts and ideas about building the first human communities on the Moon, Mars and in the free space between worlds.

“New Worlds 2015 is an experiment,” said Tumlinson. “Space has been boring too long. Our goal is to plant the seeds of a new and dynamic space culture that will begin to grow in the years ahead so those who will literally build the first human space colonies can be ready when the space ships are ready to carry them out there. It may sound crazy, just as 20 years before the MayFlower saying you might go across the ocean and start a new community in that New World sounded crazy. But it will also be incredibly fun.”

Register now to reserve our special early bird pricing of just $275 for both days (including lunch and admission to the Lift Off! concert on Friday night). Click here to learn more about the event, including location details, speakers, discussion topics, the student competition and more. VIP packages and small business sponsorship opportunities are available online or by contacting us directly. Please contact us to learn more about our corporate level sponsorship options and partnership opportunities.

2015 Space Elevator Conference – Seattle, Washington, Aug.21-23

An announcement from the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) about their upcoming annual conference:

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is proud
to announce the 2015 Space Elevator Conference!
This annual event will be held at the Museum of Flight in Seattle,
Washington from Friday, August 21st through Sunday, August 23rd.

Seattle, WA, July 27, 2015 – Come experience learning, brainstorming, and international collaboration in an atmosphere of history, invention, and discovery! A Family Science Fest day will be held in conjunction with the conference.

3-Day Technical Conference

The twin themes of this year’s conference are “Carbon Nanotube Tensile Strength Progress” & “Marine Node Design Characteristics”. Papers will be presented on these and other space-elevator related topics. There will be mini-workshops on Research Activities and Global Cooperation, Marine Node Design Concepts, and Space Elevator Architectures and Roadmaps as well as the ever popular Shotgun Science Session and “Elevator Speech” competition.

ISEC is very pleased to announce that Mr. Mark Haase, PhD student (Chemical Engineering) at the University of Cincinnati will give the Keynote address at this year’s conference. His talk will address:

“Advanced Materials are critical for the development of the Space Elevator. Most prominently, the elevator cable will require a material with a much greater tensile strength than current materials. Carbon nanotubes are an exciting material for this purpose, showing high tensile strength at the nanoscale. Despite this promise, they have not yet achieved the needed strength. Nonetheless, meaningful progress has been made.

In this presentation, we will consider the recent progress in high strength materials; focusing on carbon nanotubes, but also considering other materials. We will also consider the progress in other properties of these materials, such as conductivity. While these properties are not directly related to the development of the Space Elevator Tether, they are likely to be important in the design and development of other elevator technologies.

Further, demand for these properties in other sectors will drive broader material development, making them important in enabling technologies.”

We are very excited to have Mr. Haase with us this year and we’re sure that his insights will be fascinating.

Family Science Fest

The Family Science Fest on Saturday, August 22nd will also be held at the Museum of Flight. This event is open to the public (no registration required) and is included in the museum admission price. The Family Science Fest includes Space Elevator 101 and 201 presentations, a youth robotics competition, exhibits from science organizations and clubs, and much more.

More details of the conference program and the Family Science Fest events are posted at http://spaceelevatorconference.org, including information on registration for the technical conference and lodging. Registration for the technical conference closes August 15th.

The Space Elevator is one of the most magnificent Engineering projects ever conceived. It promises abundant access to space and a multitude of benefits for humanity. Come to the conference and hear presentations and join discussions with people who are working to make space elevators a reality!

About The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC)

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is composed of individuals and organizations from around the world who share a vision of humanity in space. Our Vision is a world with inexpensive, safe, routine, and efficient access to space for the benefit of all mankind. Our Mission is to promote the development, construction and operation of a Space Elevator (SE) Infrastructure as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity.

To learn more about ISEC, please visit our website at http://www.isec.org.

Asteroid Day reports and videos

Yesterday was the 107th anniversary of the Tunguska  airburst that leveled a 2000 square kilometer area of forest in Siberia. So June 30th is now commemorated as Asteroid Day and there were various events and many articles about asteroids and the threat of asteroid and comet impacts on earth.  For example,

Brian May, guitarist for Queen and an astrophysicist, talks about the asteroid threat:

May did the soundtrack for this short film for Asteroid Day:

Here two Planetary Radio Live reports on a conference in Italy: