Schedule By Day
Day 1 - Friday 09-03-2004 Day 2 - Saturday 09-04-2004 Day 3 - Sunday 09-05-2004 Day 4 - Monday 09-06-2004
2004 DRAGON*CON SPACE & SCIENCE TRACK SCHEDULE |
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| Friday 09-03-2004 | Return to top | ||
| 1:00pm Stardust, Genesis and Messenger by Ginny Mauldin-Kinney |
Two sample return missions and our first trip to Mercury in over three decades! The Genesis solar particle sample return will occur 08Sept04, Stardust particles from comet Wild 2 in Jan06 and Messenger will reach Mercury in March of 2011. | |
| 2:30pm Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter and the New Horizons Kuiper Belt Objects Probe by Ginny Mauldin-Kinney, Dani Eder, Hugh S. Gregory |
JIMO is part of Project Prometheus and is designed to search for vast oceans in the icy moons of Jupiter (Ganymede, Europa and Callisto). New Horizons will mark the first exploration of the Pluto/Charon worldlets and other Kuiper Belt Objects. | |
| 4:00pm Exploring Mars: Where No Rover Has Gone Before by Ginny Mauldin-Kinney |
This session will discuss how the Spirit and Opportunity rovers successfully landed on Mars, cover the significance of their geological finds on opposite sides of the red planet, and provide the audience with new spectacular images! | |
| 5:30pm Space Elevator - Fact vs Fiction by Michael J. Laine |
Local "cryonauts" discuss the science of cryonics and the various cryonics programs and organizations available to interested parties. | |
| 7:00pm Capitalists in Space! Making Money in the Final Frontier by George Tyson |
A presentation of some of the moneymaking opportunities awaiting businesses in space. Satellite construction, zero-G crystals, tourism and medical aspects will be covered. | |
| 8:30pm The Singularity: It's the End of the World as We Know It by Eliezer S. Yudkowsky |
Incredibly rapid advances in science and technology fundamentally changed the world in the previous century. Will homo sapiens survive the next 100 years in some recognizable form? Do we want to? | |
| 10:00pm Antimatter Driven Sail for Interstellar Missions by Dr. Steven Howe |
Answering questions about dark matter and other cosmological conundrums may require sending probes into interstellar space. A light-weight instrument package using antimatter will be discussed. | |
| 11:30pm The First Stars and the First Black Holes by Dr. William C. Keel |
The early universe was a very different place compared to today, some 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang. What are these differences, and how did we make these discoveries? | |
| Saturday 09-04-2004 | Return to top | ||
| 10:00am Space Elevator - Progress Report by Michael J. Laine |
What's happened so far, what we plan to do in the near future and beyond. We will include highlights of the recent Space Elevator conference in DC. | |
| 11:30am The Future Doesn't Need You by Dani Eder |
As technology improves, low skill jobs are increasingly being replaced. What will happen to society if too many jobs are replaced too quickly? (Think Wal-Mart self-checkout counters applied everywhere). | |
| 1:00pm The Commercialization of Space: Tourism and Beyond by A.C. Charania, |
This panel will review recent events that could herald the start of a new space commercialization era. From private space tours (Ansari X-Prize, SpaceShipOne) to orbital hotels, the implications of these endeavors will be debated. | |
| 2:30pm Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow: 2nd Annual Recruiting Session, Membership Drive and Bake Sale by Dani Eder, Abaddon, Eliezer Yudkowsky, possibly others |
Members of the professional association for the working Evil Genius discuss various methods of taking over the world for fun and profit, avoiding common mistakes and the design of secret lairs. New applicants should bring a resume or a project to demo. | |
| >4:00pm NASA's Great Observatories: Accomplishments, Images and How to De-orbit the Suckers by Dr. William C. Keel |
The Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope - how their imaging in different wavelengths of visible and invisible light have led to a better understanding of the universe. | |
| 5:30pm Missions to Asteroids and Comets by A.C. Charania |
This session will explore the myriad of robotic spacecraft that are operating and soon to be launched to explore asteroids and comets. A survey of future missions for deflection of Near Earth Objects will also be provided. | |
| 7:00pm The Origins of Life by Andrew Palmer |
An open discussion regarding the theories on how life originated and evolved on our world and what it might tell us about the prospects of life on other worlds. | |
| 8:30pm A Stepped Plan for the Commercialization of Space by the Private Sector by George Tyson |
Author George Tyson will show how businesses can enter space without government assistance and make a profit. | |
| 10:00pm Mars Bases - The Hazards and The Needs by Hugh S. Gregory and others |
What will it take to set up a successful Mars colony? What hazards would our colonists have to protect themselves against? | |
| Sunday 09-05-2004 | Return to top | ||
| 10:am Plans of the World's Space Faring Nations by A.C. Charania |
From the Bush administration's new Vision for Space Exploration to Chinese space stations to India's lunar program, this session will discuss future human and robotic exploration plans in a post-Columbia environment. | |
| 11:30am President Bush's New Vision for Space Exploration: The Next Giant Leap? by A.C. Charania & |
This panel will review the recent Vision for Space Exploration and its potential impact of future human space exploration. Implications of the new Vision, both domestically and internationally will be debated. | |
| 1:00pm Expanding the Battlefield: Space Warfare in the Future by Dr. John E. Bradford |
What will be the shape of the space battlefield? This session will review different engineering concepts for the military's next generation of space vehicles. | |
| 2:30pm Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan by Ginny Mauldin-Kinney, Kevin Grazier |
The seven year journey has ended, but that's not all folks! This session will cover Cassini? four year mission in orbit around Saturn and the January 2005 rendezvous of the Huygens probe with the pre-biotic sea of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. | |
| 4:00pm Cryonics by Dr. Ralph Merkle, |
This is the practice of being frozen at low temperatures shortly after death with the hope of a future revival. A panel of cryonicists will answer your questions and discuss some recent and disturbing legal trends impacting cryonic preservation in the US. | |
| 5:30pm The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by John C. Snider, |
Accurate science is vital to our democracy and civilization. The distortion and suppression of scientific data for corporate and governmental purposes, pseudoscience and poor science reporting by the media are not. Wanna revive the GA Skeptics Society? | |
| 7:00pm Space Exploration - The Year In Review by Hugh S. Gregory |
An annual report and look back at what space programs world wide have been doing for the past year. | |
| 8:30pm How China Will Build A Moon Base by Hugh S. Gregory |
A presentation on what they?l need, what they?l take and what they?l use onsite. To fully function from day one, the base must also be constructed in a certain order. Will the Chinese be able to do this before America gets its act together? | |
| 10:00pm Space Elevator - Design, Deployment, Construction and Operations by Michael J. Laine |
The "how to" of building the Elevator, including everything that can go wrong. | |
| Monday 09-06-2004 | Return to top | ||
| 11:30am Organic Technology: Not just in Babylon 5 and FarScape by Andrew Palmer |
The concept of living technology has been common in science fiction for quite some time. How realistic is it? How much like machines are living systems? Can we use biology to encode information? An informal discussion on advancements made, existing theories, and pros and cons. | |
| 1:00pm Rockets are *SO* 20th Century by Dani Eder |
Rockets are among the least efficient ways to get into space. This panel will discuss some of the many alternatives. | |
| 2:30pm Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine by Ralph C. Merkle |
An update on current trends as well as predictions on where the young technology is heading, from a couple of experts in the field. | |
| 4:00pm Space Elevator - The Business Plan by Michael J. Laine |
How to finance the $10B project and make money over the 15 years needed for R&D and construction until full operations. | |
Space Track 2010 Schedule
Science Track 2010 Schedule
Space Track 2009 Schedule
Science Track 2009 Schedule
Space Track 2008 Schedule
Science Track 2008 Schedule
Space Room 2007 Schedule
Science Room 2007 Schedule
Space & Science 2006 Schedule
Space & Science 2005 Schedule
Space & Science 2004 Schedule
Space & Science 2003 Schedule