While speaking at Long Now’s Long Conversation with Peter Schwartz last year, NASA Ames Research Director Pete Worden announced a partnered initiative with DARPA to explore long-term space travel, calling it the 100 Year Starship Study. Watch video of their talk in our previous post about it.
The conversation around this research agenda will be opened wide at the 100 Year Starship Study public symposium in Orlando later this fall.
The organizers say they’ve received 520 abstracts and will be choosing from among them the presentations for the event. Seven main research tracks will guide the agenda:
- Time-Distance Solutions
- Habitats and Environmental Science
- Biology and Space Medicine
- Education, Social, Economic and Legal Considerations
- Destinations
- Philosophical and Religious Considerations
- Communication of the Vision
Long Now’s Stewart Brand will participate in the Symposium by filling the chair overseeing the Philosophical and Religious Considerations Track.
There will also be a Sci-Fi Author’s Discussion Panel featuring, among others, Charlie Stross and former SALT speaker Vernor Vinge.
The 100 Year Starship Study public symposium will be held from September 30 through October 2, 2011 at the Hilton Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Registration is free.
