Category Archives: Activism

New Visions for Space

Here’s an announcement about an event on Google+ on Wednesday, February 6, 6:00 PM PST: New Visions for Space – Google+

“New Visions for Space” will feature young voices from NASA Academy, Yuri’s Night, AIAA Young Professionals Committee, The Moon Society and others to talk about how exciting all of the new developments in space are, and how all of us are making a real difference in our space future. Guests include:The BIL Conference – Carter Gibson (Moderator)
The Moon Society – Ken Murphy (Organizer)
Liftport – Michael Laine (Co-Organizer)
Yuri’s Night – Brice Russ
Starstryder – Pamela Gay
SEDS – Michael Zwach
NASA Academy – Will Pomerantz
ISU-USA – Laura Burns
AIAA YPC – Alison Lauderbach

Please tune in on Wednesday, and be sure to let all of your friends know on Facebook, Twitter and other social media!  Let’s show the world how awesome space is!

Update on NSS’s Kickstarter “Our Future in Space” campaign

The National Space Society‘s crowd-sourcing campaign to raise money to fund development of a top professional quality video to convey a “powerful vision of the future of space development” is close to reading its goal but needs your help to get over the top: Our Future in Space – A National Space Society Video by National Space Society — Kickstarter

Teachers in Space invites applications for Flight Experiment Summer Workshop

Joe Latrell of Photos-To-Space sends me this announcement:

2013 Summer Flight Experiment Workshop Applications Opened
Teachers in Space Announces Opening for
Flight Experiment Summer Workshop Applications

The Space Frontier Foundation’s Teachers in Space (TIS) project today announced that teacher’s applications are now being accepted for its free Flight Experiment summer workshop.

Teachers in Space is a project to inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging teachers with authentic astronaut training and real space science experiences combined with information and resources they bring into classrooms across America.

The workshop is offered for high school teachers of math, science and technology.

The Flight Experiment workshop offers hands-on, repeatable experience with suborbital and orbital experiment design and launch processes. Participants will build, launch, track, retrieve, and analyze captured data from weather balloon experiments which can be recreated within a typical classroom budget. Teachers will learn about commercial spaceflight, suborbital and glider and balloon flight, meteorology, basic glider controls, basic instrumentation, control surfaces, and simple premade instruments that will be flying with teachers in gliders and on weather balloons. They will also learn about pressure change, accelerometers, and dosimeters. The experience will culminate with teachers practicing what was learned during the week as they launch their own weather balloons.

Leading the workshop are James Kuhl, 6th Grade Earth Science Teacher from Syracuse, NY and finalist in the 2004 NASA Educator Astronaut program; Rachael Manzer, district science coach in the Suffield, Connecticut School District and former NASA distance learning educator; and Robert “Mike” Schmidt, a second-generation teacher and high school math teacher at University High School in Tucson, AZ.

The workshop will be held at the Aero Institute in Palmdale, CA on July 15-21, 2013. A tour of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center will also be available.

If you are a teacher of science, technology, engineering, or math at the high school level we encourage you to apply. Space is limited; only 30 seats are available. The deadline for workshop applications is April 1, 2013.  The workshop is free of charge. Subsidized housing will be available at a cost of $25 per night (shared rooms). Meals are not provided, but a limited number of stipends will be available to help defray the cost of meals and transportation. The maximum size of a stipend is $400. If you require a stipend, you are urged to apply early.

U.S. Highschool STEM (Science Technology Engineering or Math) teachers may apply at http://fs25.formsite.com/TIS2013/Flightexperiments/index.html.

Copenhagen Suborbitals: Low cost R&D for DIY spaceflight

Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals discusses how they hold down costs in their pursuit of manned space launch: Low Cost Research and Development Dogmas for a DIY Manned Space Program – Wired Science/Wired.com.

Our mission is to launch a human being into space. Not to invent or discover new technologies or justify our existence as incubators for business or companies to evolve their capabilities, like NASA or ESA. We stand on the shoulders of giants and dig deep into the vast ocean of knowledge in which we are floating (sometimes almost drowning).

This project is not possible without the Internet which provides both knowledge and general outreach to all of you. Naturally we seek as much information as possible, on all matters in this space endeavor and even ask readers for solutions and ideas. The globe is packed with brilliant minds, like you. Work it right, and the open source approach becomes mighty powerful.