Proposed Talks
Kiko Dontchev
Making Space Smaller
In the summer of 2007, three students were frustrated by the fact they had not yet put anything in space so they decided to start the first CubeSat project at the University of Michigan. 3.5 years later, UMichigan has already launched one CubeSat, with two more manifsested for launch in November, and an additional two recently receiving funding from the likes of NASA, NSF, and JPL. I want to tell the story of how a simple idea transformed the way an entire university deals with space!
Jesse Powell
Startram: A path to ultra-low cost launch using today's technology
A railroad to the sky? What's so difficult about levitating a 1000 kilometer tube to height of 20 kilometers, and then launching vehicles into orbit at 8 km/sec? Not much, apparently. Existing maglev technology and basic physics enables us to launch materials, supplies and people into orbit for $40/kg.
Jesse Clark
"MARS OR BUST!" with The Mars Society
Want to go to Mars but can't wait for NASA? The Mars Society is preparing for when we do go by gaining invaluable hands-on experience running several Mars Analog Research Stations here on Earth with scientists, engineers, and YOU.
Molly McCormick
"Spacesuit Applications and Design for Commercial & Government Operations
I'm picking out the top 4 or 5 uses for spacesuits in the near to mid future and discussing the critical design elements that differentiate one from another, and what the concept of operations might look like for each. I'm definitely covering intravehicular suits, spacediving suits, orbital construction/repair suits, and surface exploration suits, and I may add a fifth if I have room in my presentation.
Greg Wagner
Reflections on the myriad paths to complete and utter total human extinction
In this presentation I will review a handful of selected extinction scenarios, ascertained with a rigorous method of fantastic and arbitrary speculation, which are likely to befall the human species. I will argue that the survival of the human species in the long-term is in the interest both of humans - including those currently alive - and other of forms of life on Earth, and that we should therefore attempt to act to prevent such complete and utter total extinction.
Owen O'Toole
Roger Today
Roger Today is the newsletter and fundraising entity for a film/video projectpotential television seriesthat I am writing based on the life of Thomas O'Toole, science reporter for the Washington Post from 1966-1986. His life uniquely mirrored the ups and downs of the space program. He is renamed Roger O'Neil to allow for the stretching of reality into fictionalized memoir. This film, Roger Tranquility, will study the space race as a rapid evolution period for technology and man's understanding of himself and the cosmos.
Andy Cochrane
Space is F##king Dangerous!
Space exploration is dangerous and hard, and if we continue to do it, people are going to get hurt and killed. We need to understand this, and realize that the cost of NOT going out there is greater than anything else, so we need to be bold and keep pushing!