From Chinese Kites to Musk on Mars – A brief history of the three thousand years that made space flight possible.
What were the most significant achievements and personalities in the history of flight that allowed us to fly to the Moon and beyond? Even Walt Disney plays a significant role in this surprising drama!
Looking for Life in all the Strange Places – How new discoveries about Earth’s life guide our search for extraterrestrial life.
We’re discovering species here on Earth thriving in environments we thought impossible -- life cozy at temperatures well above the boiling point of water, relaxing in hot acid baths, and flourishing inside nuclear reactors. How can they aid us in the search for ET?
Is there life beyond Earth? How are we looking for it… and should we?
What have we discovered in our search for ET and what is planned for future explorations? And should we be hunting for something that we may not want to meet? This presentation may change your mind about that search.
Creating Homo Space-ians – A few possible futures of humans in the Universe.
How is new space technology enabling humans to better adapt to extreme environments on the Moon, Mars, or floating in massive structures somewhere in outer space? Let’s look at future spacians and see what they will be doing to live long and prosper in the coming century.
I Was Bitten by an Astronaut – Stories of the animals that led the way to humans in space.
We’ll meet some of the individual animals that made human spaceflight possible. Hector the rat and Felicette the cat, Ham “The Space Chimp,” the six Alberts, Laika the dog, Arabella the spider, and others. Who were they, how did they help achieve the goal of safely launching humans into space, and what were their fates?
What’s Art Got to Do with Outer Space? – How the arts shape our exploration of the Universe (and how space influences the arts).
The 1959 Cadillac Eldorado had the biggest tail fins of any production automobile. It was the Space Age! Who were the prominent artists that created the outer space images that we’ve seen on everything from book covers to the design of kitchen appliances? And how do music, poetry, and other arts help us to imagine what space is like?
The Overview Effect – Returning from space with new perspectives about Earth and our place in the Universe.
Viewing Earth from space quickly changes many astronauts’ philosophy about the Earth and the people who live here. What were they experiencing, and can those of us who have not gone to space share the Overview Effect on our own spaceship, this ship?
Space Analogs – Simulations of living and working in outer space.
From before “Biosphere 2” was constructed in Arizona in 1991 to dozens of today’s ongoing experiments in how we’ll live on the Moon or Mars, researchers have been looking at how humans will adapt (or fail to survive) living in such remote and challenging environments. Will we physically and psychologically be able to live there? Let’s take a look at the fascinating experiments of creating habitats here on Earth that stand in for actually going into space. Would you want to participate on one of these analog missions?
Who is Stealing the Night Sky?
Since the invention of the light bulb we have been living in a brighter and brighter world. Lights now dominate most of the night sky in much of the world…and we are no longer able to see the stars beyond the glare. What is causing this “light pollution,” what is affected, and what is being done to reverse the trend?
Culture and Space Exploration
What does culture have to do with space exploration? EVERYTHING! What we do and don’t do, what we fund and don’t fund, where we go and how we get there. How do various space-faring nations frame their ambitions in cultural terms. What about the corporate cultures of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin commercial space programs? And how did a Russian’s dreams of resurrecting all the dead on Earth plant the seeds of the Soviet space program’s culture of going to the heavens?
Hawai’i – The endangered species capital of the world
Hawai’i is home to more endangered species of animals and plants than any other place on Earth in proportion to its size. Why does it have this unfavorable record? What geological, biological, cultural, and other factors contributed to that condition and what conservation efforts are underway to save many of those rare species?
