Sessions and Talks

Note: The following is the Tucson 2000 ISDC speakers list as of March 10, 2000. Watch this page for changes and additional information.

Saturday, May 27

Morning (9:00 am - 12:30 pm)
Two concurrent sessions

Conference Session 1: Propulsion

Robert Forward - tether-based launch to LEO and Earth to Mars transfers.

Robert Gounley - Deep Space 1, asteroid rendezvous with an ion engine.

James Beall - efficient propulsion by a circulating ion beam.

Henry Vanderbilt - private RLV development.

Giorgio Gaviraghi - deflected asteroids as cyclical space ships.

Conference Session 2: NSS Challenge

Is an economically self-sufficient space settlement feasible on the Moon or Mars or other bodies in the solar system? The National Space Society is challenging the aerospace, economic, and university communities, and especially those who would reduce the role of Government, to answer that question. Abstracts due by April 15. See the NSS Challenge - Call for Papers. Jeffrey Liss, chair.

Lunch (12:30 pm - 2:00 pm)

Speaker John Lewis, A Resource Survey of the Solar System.

Afternoon (2:00 pm - 5:30 pm)
Two concurrent sessions

Conference Session 3: Materials and Processes

Giorgio Gaviraghi - modular construction with local fill materials.

Christopher McKay - taking advantage of the Martian chemistry.

Alastair Browne - asteroid-supported Moonbase as a stepping stone to Mars.

Ron Fevig - spectral survey of Near-Earth Asteroids requiring low delta V to rendezvous.

Joan Slonczewski -- Designing Humans for Beyond Earth.

Conference Session 4: Economics of development

Kevin LeClaire - the Think Mars development plan.

Peter Diamandis - progress in the X-prize competition.

Ron Jones - paths to space through development of tourism.

Robert Gounley - the revamping of NASA's Mars program.

Dick Fredericksen - Social Security as a source of space funding.

Eric Lund - Government incentives to the commercial launch industry.

Evening (6:00 pm - 9:00 pm)

Reception and L5 Retrospective Dinner.

Guests Keith Henson, Mark Hopkins, Bill Weigle, and more. Reliving the days when space colonization was just around the corner, and "L5 in '95" was the rallying cry. What went right, and what went wrong, and personal remembrances of a time that still shapes the space movement.

Sunday, May 28

Morning (9:00 am - 12:30 pm)
Two concurrent sessions

Conference Session 5: Space Life Sciences

Eleanor O'Rangers, chair.

Roy Walford - lessons learned from the Biosphere 2 experiment.

Linda Plush - space nursing.

Robert Zubrin and James Logan - medical challenges of long duration space flight.

Conference Session 6: Advanced Planning

Francis Govers - engineering challenges of a trip to Mars.

Peter Kokh - revisiting the large orbital colony concept.

Ronnie Lajoie - an earth to moon cycling cruise ship for tourists.

Christopher Shove - planning of commercial spaceports.

Claire Jolly - internationalization of RLV regulations: a realistic future need.

Christopher Dessauer and Ken Morse - enhancing human longevity in space by stem cell banking.

Lunch (12:30 pm - 2:00 pm)

Speaker Robert Zubrin

Robert Zubrin makes the case for near term Mars exploration and settlement, and reports on the progress of the Mars Society in bringing this about.

Mid-Afternoon (2:00 pm - 4:00 pm)
Two concurrent sessions

Conference Session 7: Making a Base

Pascal Lee - the Mars Arctic Research Station.

Robert Zubrin - the Mars Arctic Research Station.

Charles Reynerson - tools for planning a base on the Moon or Mars.

Conference Session 8: The human element

Michael Fulda - the social sciences in space.

Allen Steele, Jerry Morris and David Qualls - piracy, a nasty reality of remote colonization.

Late Afternoon (4:15 pm - 5:30 pm)
One combined session

Conference Session 9: Finding common ground

Panel - finding common ground in competing visions for near term space settlement.

Evening (7:00 pm - 9:30 pm)

NSS Awards Banquet

MC Dan Brandenstein.

Heinlein and Pioneer awards presented by Hugh Downs

Chapter awards by Greg Allison.

Monday, May 29

Morning (9:00 am - noon)
One session concurrent with other events (see below)

Conference Session 10: Getting the attention of a busy world

Frank Sietzen - charting the future of Ad Astra Magazine.

Carol Redfield - The Sky's the Limit, space education at a charter school.

John Versluis and Ralph Gibson - Tranquility Base as a National Historic Landmark.

Robert Freeman - preview of ISDC 2001 in Albuquerque.

Morning (9:00 am - 11:00 am)
Concurrent with part of Conference Session 10 (see above)

Poster session interviews.

Tutorial seminar on screenwriting by Al Halsted.

Late Morning (11:00 am - Noon)
Concurrent with part of Conference Session 10 (see above)

Video production on a shoestring - workshop by Jeannette Jaquish.

Early Afternoon (12:30 pm - 1:30 pm)
Combined session

Parting shot: conference wrap-up meeting

Aimed at future conference hosts. Lessons of the present conference: what went right, what went wrong, what help can we give.