Las Vegas Space
Conference Brings Together NASA & Space Entrepreneurs
(13 July 2005) On July 21st
Keynote Speaker Chris Shank of NASA HQ will kick off the 6th annual Return to
the Moon conference sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation.
Held at the Flamingo Las Vegas, this year's conference
explores issues about humanity's genuine near-term ability to return to the
moon. The conference will focus on near-term realities - not idealised
concepts.
"Return to the Moon VI" starts just two days following
public release of NASA's Space Exploration Architecture Study - a key document
expected to restructure the exploration initiative at NASA and provide
assessments of technologies called for in President George W. Bush's Vision for
Space Exploration.
"Our conference will be one of the very first
chances entrepreneurs have to review the results of the study with the people
who put it together, including NASA's Chris Shank, one of the study team's
leaders," says Jeff Feige, conference chairman. "I believe NASA will not be
able to pull off the President's Vision for Space Exploration without some real
out-of-the-box thinking. The entrepreneurs who are attending and presenting at
this event will interact directly with NASA decision-makers, engineers and
scientists."
Panel discussions at the conference will feature a high
degree of audience interaction, moderated by panel leaders such as Cris Guidi,
Mike Hess, Dr. Terri Lomax and Michael Wargo of NASA, Paul Eckert of Boeing,
Brant Sponberg of NASA's Centennial Challenges program and Lon Rains of Space
News. Conference sponsors include PoliSpace, t/Space, Boeing, and SpaceWorks
Engineering.
The Space Frontier Foundation is an organisation composed
of space activists, scientists and engineers, media and political
professionals, entrepreneurs, and citizens from all backgrounds and all nations
dedicated to the large-scale permanent settlement of space.
(source:
Space Frontier Foundation)