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From the Executive Director

International Space Development Conference - ISDC 2006

May 25 , 2006

Click to enlarge > Louis Friedman, Executive Director

The four-day International Space Development Conference (ISDC), which we cosponsored with the National Space Society (NSS), is now history, and I’d like to share some of my reflections about the experience.

We were pleased to collaborate with the NSS. They were a pleasure to work with and I think we advanced many common interests. Several other groups also participated, including people involved with private space ventures and space tourism. Of course, our Solar Sail project is one of the great private space ventures, and it was striking to see our Solar Sail presentation juxtaposed with that of Elon Musk describing his Falcon rocket development. We both have had early failures and both are determined to fly again.

More than 1,300 people registered — an excellent number — and the conference featured numerous “tracks” to reflect their diverse interests. The Planetary Society hosted a track focused on solar system exploration and the search for life. Other highlighted “space venturing,” space art, and forums devoted to African Americans and women in space.

We had a terrific session on international lunar missions called “Back to the Moon and Forward to Mars.” with representatives from China, India, Europe, and NASA. The participation of Maohai Huang from China was particularly exciting, since getting visas for space scientists visiting from China has been very difficult for the past several years. (In addition to his participation at ISDC, we helped arrange a seminar for him at JPL.) At the same time Narendra Bhandari was presenting a report on India’s Chandrayaan program at the ISDC, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin was in India finalizing the agreement for U.S. science participation on their lunar orbiter. Dietrich Venneman, representing the European Space Agency, spoke both about Aurora, the ESA program for human and robotic exploration, and summarized results from SMART-1, now nearing the end of its lunar mission.

We also had a very animated session for Planetary Society members with Directors Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chris McKay, Bill Nye, Bruce Murray, and me. The audience had a great time and joined right in the discussions, although some people told me later that they were surprised that individual Directors didn’t shy from expressing differing viewpoints, and the Board if Directors doesn’t speak with one voice. I’m glad these people don’t witness our always-lively Board meetings. I am reminded of my old college maxim: “Only by sifting and winnowing can the truth be found.”

But despite the good-natured cooperation and positive interactions among different groups, I did miss something in this conference:  recognition of the profound threat to the Vision for Space Exploration. Public interest (and support) is getting more and more compartmentalize -- diffused among rocket builders, space tourists, science programs, and would-be settlers of other worlds -- while losing the real sense of exploration that the Vision first offered.  I fear that vision is in danger of being lost in the next year or two.

Should The Planetary Society do such a conference again? I welcome your opinions on this subject. Send us email or, better yet, start a discussion in our Members Forum.