SSI 29-31 October NASA Ames: These People Seem Serious
The agenda for the upcoming (29-30 October 2010) Space Studies Institute Space Manufacturing 14 Conference is quite impressive. The conference begins on Friday night with the question: "Moon, Mars, Asteroids: Where to Go First for Resources?" On Saturday expert speakers and panelists will look at ways to get to LEO (low Earth orbit), best ways to go to the moon, space rock resources, space life support, orbital solar satellites, large orbiting habitats, and space robotics. Craig Venter will top off the day's talks with a look into the future of synthetic biology. John Lewis -- an expert on asteroids and economic use of space resources -- will give the Saturday night dinner talk.
On Sunday, speakers will move on to the engineering aspects of dealing with lunar and asteroidal materials for energy storage, building construction, transportation infrastructure, and space-based solar power satellites. Sunday afternoon sessions take a look at space robots for mining, long term space life support facilities, and the economics and law of space manufacturing, mining, and colonising.
Attendance will be limited to 200, but I have not been told that registration is closed. Registration information
Downloadable papers from the SSI on topics pertinent to space exploration, colonies, and industry.
One of the best papers I have seen on why this topic is so important.
On Sunday, speakers will move on to the engineering aspects of dealing with lunar and asteroidal materials for energy storage, building construction, transportation infrastructure, and space-based solar power satellites. Sunday afternoon sessions take a look at space robots for mining, long term space life support facilities, and the economics and law of space manufacturing, mining, and colonising.
Attendance will be limited to 200, but I have not been told that registration is closed. Registration information
Downloadable papers from the SSI on topics pertinent to space exploration, colonies, and industry.
One of the best papers I have seen on why this topic is so important.
Labels: Access to space, space resources
posted by al fin at 1:43 pm
4 Comments:
I hope they are serious. We could use some good news these days. The more important thing is this: does anyone care?
Yes I do care. It is about time NASA did something worth while with my tax dollars. NASA is the one government agency I don't mind giving my tax dollars to because it is the only government agency that can advance the human condition to beyond this planet. If in the future there are private companies that can fulfill that role more efficiently then I will suggest that NASA be broken up and sold to the private sector and the money forwarded to paying off the national debt.
In fact I think we should apply the anti-trust laws to the Government monopoly, break it up and sell it to private organization that think they can make a profit providing those same basic services.
@Al Fin:
Yeah, I read most of Tsiolkovsky's Imperative that Al Fin recommended. Western Culture does have its problems and I agree that we need to go back into space. They are some pretty good reasons why and this paper does point them out.
@gtg723y:
As for breaking up Nasa and selling it off, no to that. The government is the only entity that can bring to bear the entire resources of the nation upon the great challenges presented by space exploration. Somehow, we have to make things work better. Clearly things are not working as well as we need them to.
I am not a big fan of socialism and big government. But government does some things better, and I think this could be one area in which the private sector is more of a follower than a leader.
@Al Fin:
I have just read Tsiolkovsky's Imperative, and I agree that returning to space is very important.
@gtg723y
I am not a big fan of big government nor of socialism, but to break up Nasa would be a mistake. The government can do some things that are risky like space travel. Private organizations won't take the kind of risks that are necessary.
Somehow, we have to get Nasa to do a better job.
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