The Future of Human Spaceflight
posted April 2, 2014 11:33 AM   RSS | iCal | +googleCal

Tue April 8 at 8:00 PM, Beckman Auditorium, California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA, USA (Map & Directions)
There is a free public panel being offered next week at CalTech featuring various experts on the topic of The Future of Human Spaceflight, sponsored by the Keck Institute for Space Studies and The Planetary Society. No registration required. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Description from the website:
In the 42 years since the last Apollo mission, humans have not flown beyond low Earth orbit. The capability to go back to or even beyond the Moon does not yet exist. President Obama adopted the flexible path proposed by the 2009 (Augustine) Committee to Review U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans by proposing NASA plan a series of steps into the Solar System – reaching a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, the vicinity of Mars in the 2030s and landing on Mars in the early 2040s.

Even the first step in that plan is beyond the capabilities of current space systems unless the near-Earth asteroid is redirected from its natural orbit to one closer to Earth, around the Moon. The robotic Asteroid Redirection Mission (ARM) is a new idea now proposed by NASA to enable human space flight to go beyond the Moon and start on the path to Mars. The proposal has generated both enthusiasm and skepticism – some question its cost, some think it is a detour on the way to Mars or back to the Moon, while some see it as the only practical way to revitalize NASA and get human space exploration started again.

Join a panel of three renowned astronauts as they discuss the future of human spaceflight:
  • Tom Jones – Scientist, Author, Pilot and Space Shuttle Astronaut
  • Garrett Reisman – DragonRider Program Manager, SpaceX and Space Shuttle Astronaut
  • Rusty Schweickart – Chairman Emeritus, B612 Foundation and Apollo Astronaut
The panel will be moderated by Louis Friedman, Executive Director, Emeritus of The Planetary Society.
Venue and parking map

Live broadcast of this event will be available on Caltech's Ustream channel beginning at 7:55 p.m. PDT on April 8, 2014.
posted by Celsius1414 to Presentation (0 comments total)


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments