2014 PROGRAM ACTIVITY TIMELINE

Check the Events Page for more details on events and activities.

THURSDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2014

7:00 am – 6:00 pm   Registration/100YSS Store/Participant Assistance

8:30 am – 2:00 pm   Houston Landmark Tour

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm   Author/Poster Drop Off Green Room

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm  100YSS Classes

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm   100 YSS Member Reception

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm   Opening Reception for 2014 Public Symposium

9:00 pm – 12:00 am  Halo Lounge

FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2014

8:00 am – 6:00 pm   Registration/100YSS Store/Participant Assistance

8:00 am – 9:30 am   Opening Plenary Session

9:45 am – 11:30 am Technical Track Session A

12:00 pm – 1:15 pm  Luncheon Workshop: The Perils of Futuring

1:30 pm – 3:30 pm   Technical Track Session B

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm   Technical Track Session C

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm   Technical Track Hosted Poster Reception

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm  Science Fiction Stories Night w/ Movie Screening

9:00 pm – 12:00 am  Halo Lounge

SATURDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2014

8:00 am – 6:00 pm   Registration/100YSS Store/Participant Assistance

8:15 am – 9:15 am   100YSS Classes

9:30 am – 4:00 pm    Expo Inspire!

9:30 am – 11:30 am State of the Universe Panel, Trending Now Panel

12:00 pm – 1:30 pm  Luncheon: Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth

1:30 pm – 2:30 pm    Plan B Plenary Session

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm   Radical Leaps Plenary Sessions

3:30 pm – 5:00 pm   Deep Dive Workshop Session

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm   Accelerating Creativity: Accelerator Reception

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm  Accelerating Creativity – MAKERS: Women is Space  Premier Screening, Dinner and Panel Session.

9:00 pm – 12:00 am  Halo Lounge

SUNDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2014

8:00 am – 12:00 pm Registration/100YSS Store/Participant Assistance

8:00 am – 9:00 am   100YSS Classes

9:15 am – 11:00 am Evolution to Interstellar Civilization Plenary Session

11:00 am – 11:45 am  100YSS: The Year Ahead

12:00 pm                   Symposium Close

See you in 2015!!!

Engineering

Propulsion: Proven, Probable, or Preposterous?

Since the dawn of spaceflight, we have propelled all of our craft with the reliable power that rockets can provide, but even the fastest rocket-powered craft ever made would take millennia to reach another star system. What else might we use to power a ship, what else could we build, that would safely get us there sooner than rockets can? This lesson will cover the various technologies currently available that have the potential to power an interstellar spaceflight. Along the way, we will acquaint ourselves the various known fundamental particles, available materials, and physical forces that might be harnessed to send us to the stars.

Shipwright’s Workshop

How can we design a Star Ship built to face challenges we have not yet foreseen? What can we learn from more than half a century of flying through space? Will the interstellar environment pose threats not known in the near-Earth orbits that humans have already experienced? In this lesson, we will attempt to cover all of the design questions we must answer in order to build a safe, multi-generational Star Ship. How will we sleep, eat, and bathe? How will we repair damage to the ship without any hope of being “resupplied?”Can we simulate or substitute the force of gravity? To what degree will we rely on automation and robots? How many people should our ship carry? This lesson, as an introduction, will not attempt to answer every question, but instead to identify the design questions that must be answered before we are cleared for lift-off!

Life Sciences

Leaving the Nest

All life on Earth, from Bacteria to Blue Whales, has evolved on the same planet, with similar conditions and materials that have supported that life. Our species, being the first to leave this planet intentionally, will face dangers and challenges unknown to all other earthling creatures. Our survival has always depended on countless species of microscopic life living within us: the Human Micro-biome. We also cultivate and consume numerous species of plants and animals that provide our food. If we are to spend generations in space, who needs to come with us? Can we exclude the rogues, viruses and harmful bacteria, without endangering the beneficial companions in the human habitat? How do diseases behave in space? Will our current medical techniques work aboard a Star Ship? This lesson will survey the fields of Biology and Medicine to address what happens to our bodies when we leave the Earth behind.

Space Sciences

The Very, Very Big Picture

In this new age of discovery, esoteric terms such as hadron, boson, exoplanets, dark matter, and dark energy have now become everyday topics of conversation! This lesson will focus on the recent revelations and scientific endeavors that have shaped our understanding of the structure of the universe, with a particular emphasis on the potential dangers to the human body and the prospects for finding habitable places outside of the Solar System. With this new knowledge, might we better refine our search for intelligences like ourselves? How does the current state of cosmology inform our ideas for where other life might be found?

Getting to Know the Neighborhood

Next year, the New Horizons mission will give us our first close-up pictures of Pluto and its entourage. Rosetta is now orbiting a comet, and its Philae probe will be the first robot to ride a dirty snowball as it dives around the sun! With Curiosity on Mars, Cassini around Saturn, and Juno on her way to Jupiter, there has never been a better time to go sightseeing in the Solar System! This lesson will tour the planets, asteroids, and comets as well as the star that serves as their central hearth: The Sun. How does our Solar System compare to the others: the extra-solar planetary star systems we’ve been finding by the thousands with the Kepler Space Telescope and other planet-hunting missions? What should we be looking for if we are ever to call another star system our home?

Education

International and Interstellar Best Practices

As some nations struggle with students’ declining scores in Math and Science, other countries have made great gains in these same subjects. What can we learn from the most effective curricula around the world? Is it possible to establish a global set of educational standards, free of cultural biases and language barriers, that will educate and motivate the generational that will design, build and inhibit the 100 Year Starship? The lessons will survey the vast variety of methods used globally to teach and assess learners in what is now commonly referred to as “STEAM”– Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.

Social Sciences

Can We All Just Get Along?

If our pioneers are to survive a multi-generational spaceflight in a ship of limited size, an effective method for the peaceful resolution of conflicts will be as essential as oxygen or water. Obviously, we could use this on a larger ship with seven billion passengers too! What have we learned from studies in Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Mediation, and even Pathology that will help forge new, reliable methods in conflict resolution? What have we learned in Neuroscience and even Psychopharmacology that might help temper humanity’s propensity for violence, or help us predict and prevent it? This lesson will explore the frontiers of multiple disciplines to shed light on the path to engineering social harmony.

Culture

The Science Fiction Dream Factory

Jules Verne’s Nautilus scoured the seafloor long before real submarines came along, and the inventor of the notorious Taser named it for Tom Swift’s Electric Rifle! It is clear that many of the greatest inventions and accomplishments of our time are inspired by works of science fiction. Perhaps a graphic novel, motion picture, or video game being made now will inspire and guide the builders of the 100YSS? This lesson will review several historical examples of seemingly fanciful fictions that have become essential realities, ending with a review of current trends in popular culture that might inform our goals and plans for the 100 Year Star Ship.