The National Space Society ‘s annual conference started today in Toronto, Canada – ISDC 2015 (International Space Development Conference 2015). The event lasts through Sunday and includes multiple presentation tracks: Schedule.
Check out comments from the meeting: #ISDC2015 hashtag on Twitter
A SpaceUp event is a space unconference
where participants decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event. Unconferences have been held about technology, science, transit, and even cupcakes, but this is the first one focused on space exploration.
SpaceUp is your unconference
Everyone who attends SpaceUp is encouraged to give a talk, moderate a panel, or start a discussion. Sessions are proposed and scheduled on the day they’re given, which means the usual “hallway conversations” turn into full-fledged topics.
Since the first SpaceUp in San Diego in 2010, there have been dozens of SpaceUp events around the world. See the list of past and future SpaceUp events here: SpaceUp Near You – SpaceUp
To encourage the organization of even more SpaceUp meetings, the SpaceUp Foundation has been formed to provide advice and some initial funding to help organizers get an event off the ground.
The SpaceUp Foundation is holding a crowdfunding campaign to support five events this year: Sci-Five: 5 New SpaceUps for 2015 by SpaceUp Foundation — Kickstarter
It’s the weekend for celebrating space travel at a Yuri’s Night Space Party. The annual Yuri’s Night
is a global celebration of humanity’s past, present, and future in space. Yuri’s Night parties and events are held around the world every April in commemoration of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to venture into space on April 12, 1961, and the inaugural launch of the first Space Shuttle on April 12, 1981.
Yuri’s Night events combine space-themed partying with education and outreach. These events can range from an all-night mix of techno and technology at a NASA Center, to a movie showing and stargazing at your local college, to a gathering of friends at a bar or barbecue.
Check for a party in your area at Find a Yuri’s Night event.
Or have a party of your own. Find space-inspired tunes to play in the HobbySpace music section.
The third meeting of the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW) was held in Oak Ridge last November. The TVIW was founded by Les Johnson, a Senior Technical Assistant for the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Johnson was recently interviewed on The Space Show about the workshop and the prospects for interstellar flight: Les Johnson, Sunday, 2-15-15 – Thespaceshow’s Blog.
There are a lot interesting videos of presentations at the November event:
Here is a sampling:
* Dr. Brent Ziarnick, MAJ USAF – Starfleet Deferred: Project Orion in USAF Space Plan 1962 – An interesting account of the support given by the upper echelon of the USAF to the Orion nuclear pulse spaceship project:
* Michael Minovitch, Ground-To-Orbit Fusion Propulsion System for Achieving Commercial Interplanetary Space Travel – Minovitch as a UCLA student in 1961 discovered the gravitational slingshot technique that allows a spacecraft to gain speed with the assist of a planet’s gravity. (The Voyagers, for example, used the technique to visit multiple planets and escape the solar system to reach interstellar space.) Minovitch gave a talk about a fusion powered engine concept that he has invented that could take a winged vehicle from the surface of the earth to the Moon or a planet and back:
* Gordon Woodcock – A Construction Scenario for O’Neill Cylinder Space Settlement Habitats –
* Robert Freeland – Firefly: An Unmanned Interstellar Probe Using Z-Pinch Propulsion –
* A “Public Outreach STEM Event” that included a panel of science fiction authors and publishers: Sarah and Dan Hoyt, Tony Daniel, Toni Weisskopf (Baen Books), Les Johnson, and Paul Gilster
Below is an announcement of a science festival in Cheltenham, in the Cotswolds area of England this June. The festival will feature lots of space related events:
SPACE EVENTS AT CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL
The Times Cheltenham Science Festival (2-7 June 2015) brings another stellar programme to Cotswolds this summer. Over the course of six days, the Festival hopes to inspire, challenge, surprise and entertain visitors in equal measure. It showcases ground-breaking research, debates big questions and introduces audiences to some of the world’s greatest thinkers. The 2015 Festival also has a fascinating range of space-themed events.
Particle physicist, retired rock star and presenter of the BBC’s Wonders of the Solar System, Brian Cox is the Royal Society’s newly appointed Professor for Public Engagement in Science at Manchester University. Join Brian as he talks with Adam Rutherford about particle physics, the importance of getting people engaged with science and why the UK needs to aspire to be the best place for science in the world.
Brian Cox will participate in the Time Cheltenham Science Festival.
What does the long-range future hold? Is there just one universe, or is ours one of many? Past President of the Royal Society Martin Rees goes from Mars to the multiverse, with astonishing recent developments in astronomy and cosmology: from unmanned spacecraft exploring our own solar system, to telescopes that reach as far as the Big Bang — and perhaps gives hints of other big bangs!
Mars is our nearest neighbour, but how do we get a better look at it? Land a 1 tonne, car-sized, laser-eyed nuclear powered robot laboratory named Curiosity on its surface, that’s how! Since 2012, the rover has been tasting, vaporising and rolling over the Martian landscape. Join Sanjeev Gupta, Peter Grindrod and John Bridges to get the latest on the red planet from Curiosity.
In 2014, Rosetta finally reached its destination after a ten-year, 6 billion km journey, becoming the first spacecraft in history to orbit a comet and land a probe on its surface. Join astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell, Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor and planetary and space scientist Monica Grady to find out what happened when Philae touched down, the latest discoveries from Rosetta and what exciting breakthroughs are yet to come.
In 2014, cosmologists were thrilled to report ripples emanating from the beginning of time. But in a widely-publicised debacle these were proved false, the results most likely due to dust in the Milky Way. Andrew Pontzen joins experts Andrew Jaffe and George Efstathiou as they explain what went wrong, the effect this had on cosmology and what happens next as we continue searching for the moments after the Big Bang.
Space is an expensive business; this recent Rosetta mission is said to have cost £1.4bn. Although space research is often seen as glamorous and exciting, should research here on earth take priority? Asking whether we can justify the cost are Monica Grady, who organised a Kickstarter campaign to fund a mission to the moon, Director of RAL Space Richard Holdaway and former European Commission Chief Scientific Adviser Anne Glover.
For more than 50 years, giant telescopes like those at Jodrell Bank Observatory have searched the skies for evidence of alien civilisations. Join Jodrell Bank’s Tim O’Brien as he describes recent progress in the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), including live data links to giant telescopes, and considers what the future may hold in our attempts to make contact with our cosmic neighbours.
Festival visitors can join the Cotswold Astronomical Society for an evening of stargazing or for a bit of Festival fun, audiences can join a spoof mission to Mars. Masquerading as highly trained astronauts, participants should be prepared to face the worst case scenario!
The full Festival programme is available at cheltenhamfestivals.com