by guest blogger Ken.
With great fanfare I’m proud to announce the ISDC 2007 Call for Papers for the May conference. While Jon works on his thesis, I’m going to try to distract him with thoughts of perhaps submitting a presentation on cislunar infrastructure architectures for the ‘Moon & Cislunar Space Development’ track at the conference…
There’s also an important note for us youngsters after the CfP. Most put the youngsters at <35,>35, but <43, and we need leaders from this number to bridge from where we are now to where we will be 10-20 years from now. But enough pontificating, here's the CfP:
Call for Papers
National Space Society Issues Call for Papers for 2007 International Space Development Conference in Dallas, TX:
“From Old Frontiers to New”
Texas has stood at many frontiers in history, and is proud to be in the forefront of our efforts in the space frontier. Many agendas are being pursued in this newest frontier, and efforts are accelerating to establish a presence there. Our knowledge of both the risks and benefits of living in the Solar system are increasing at a dizzying pace. New launch systems are springing up all around. The competition for space skills and technology is increasing, providing new opportunities at every turn.
Fifty years after the dawn of the Space Age we are at an exciting crossroads to the new frontier. We have seen well funded, government-sponsored scientific forays and safaris for a few people of means into the frontier, but only now does the prospect of sub-orbital access for the masses soon, and orbital spaceflight on the horizon make dreams of wagon trains to the ISS, inflatable hotels and bases on the Moon and Mars move from the realms of science fiction to real possibilities. This newest frontier will be a place to live, a place to work, and a place to stay. You can help lay the foundation for this new reality.
The National Space Society is seeking papers and speakers to discuss the latest issues in space technology, science, policy, commerce, medicine, exploration, settlement and more at the National Space Society’s 26th International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Dallas, Texas over the Memorial Day weekend, May 24-28, 2007.
This year’s conference theme, “From Old Frontiers to New” concentrates on the settlement and development of this new frontier.
Individuals wishing to speak must submit an abstract of 300 and 500 words by Friday, March 16th, 2007. For more details about submission guidelines, interested individuals are encouraged to review the Speaker’s Information online at http://isdc.xisp.net/~kmiller/isdc_archive/ or email their questions and comments to ISDC2007Papers@nss.org . Written manuscripts are not required, but submission of the proposed Power Point presentation are encouraged to allow compatibility checking with the Audio/Video equipment to be used at the Conference.
In the spirit of the near frontier, the International Space Development Conference will feature three primary tracks running the length of the conference:
Frontier Transport: to, through, and from space
Explores the principles and practice of transport in the new frontier. From suborbital to interstellar, this track is about the means of traveling to and from the many destinations in space.
Moon & Cislunar Space Development
(Presented in association with the Moon Society)
Explores the varied destinations between here and the Moon, the many things to be done, and the infrastructure we’ll need to become a space-faring, and not just space-visiting civilization.
The Martian Frontier
(Presented in association with the Mars Society)
Explores the ways and means of going to Mars, and what is needed to stay there.
Additionally, the conference will feature a number of one- and two-day tracks on a variety of important topics, including:
-The Solar System Frontier & Beyond
-ISS Science
-Space Medicine
-Space Law
-Space Business
-Space Humanities
-Educator Tracks
The full track layout with proposed topics can be found under the Programming section under Conference Information tab at http://isdc.nss.org/2007/. These proposed topics should be used as guidelines for paper topics, but alternative topics are also welcome.
Abstracts for papers should be submitted on the Abstract/Papers database at
http://isdc.xisp.net/~kmiller/isdc_archive/isdc.php?link=Welcome.
More information about the conference, including registration and hotel information, is available on the conference web site at http://isdc.nss.org/2007/.
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About NSS
The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, international, educational, grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. Founded in 1974 by Wernher von Braun, NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space. The National Space Society’s vision is people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth. NSS members promote change in social, technical, economic, and political conditions to advance the day when people will live and work in space.
Okay, and now the Call for Tomorrow’s Leaders:
I was hoping to have a larger space settlement symposium on Sunday afternoon, about three hours to tie together the threads of the disparate tracks into a coherent vision, though it looks like that might be falling through. One of the concerns raised is that there really aren’t a lot of big names in the Space Settlement field. This means opportunity, people. There is a niche that is unexploited.
I’ve already squatted in the Lunar economic development camp, but one point that I made regarding the Symposium was that there had better be women on the panels, because you know, if the girls aren’t on board with the whole settlement thing then it’s not really going to get very far now is it?
I’m pretty sure that I can talk the powers that be regarding this conference into giving us some space to talk about OUR (Gens X & Y, the Boomer children) vision for what’s going to happen during our lifetimes, in space, for Earth’s benefit.
I can be reached via the ISDC homepage (unless they’re monkeying around with the code again), so if you think you can put something together, talk to me about it. SEDS is going to be helping out at the conference, but there are woefully too few chapters. I know y’all’re out there…
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