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11月13日 Space Settlement UpdateJust so everyone who drops by knows, the Space Settlement section of the National Space Society site is now available. Just go to www.nss.org and click on the word "Settlement."
The next piece of news is that NASA-Ames and NSS will be co-sponsoring NASA's yearly Space Settlement Design Contest for junior and senior high students. The following letter is from a college student at University of Central Florida concerning how participation in this contest, among others, has helped him a great deal.
From: Michael Green
Date: Nov 11, 2006 11:51 PM Subject: Conference Remarks and NSS To: george@nss.org Dear Mr. Whitesides, I would just like to personally thank you for coming to speak this weekend at the University of Central Florida for the SEDS SpaceVision Conference. For students such as myself that hope to eventually work in the aerospace field, having speakers such as yourself is a great learning experience. I had the brief opportunity to talk to you about the future of space settlements during one of the breaks of the conference on Friday. As we were discussing, I have been very active in research and projects relating to future space settlements, mainly due to such programs as the competition now sponsored by the National Space Society – the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest. If at all possible, would you please pass along my appreciation and thanks to the rest of the NSS for stepping up and promoting educational endeavors such as this competition. It is opportunities like space competitions and conferences that allow students to explore specific fields and get exposed in-depth to space disciplines. At least in my personal experience, participating the past two years in the NASA/NSS Space Settlement Contest, on a team and then as an individual, I certainly learned more than I could ever imagined on space settlements, the fields of engineering, and space-related topics in general. I attended a magnet program at a high school that actually had an aerospace engineering club, which was organized to participate in various NASA competitions. Between your competition, the (now defunct) NASA Student Involvement Program: Science and Technology Journalism Competition, and the International Space Settlement Design Competition (sponsored by Anita Gale and Dick Edwards of Boeing with contributions from NASA, Lockheed, and AIAA amongst others), I had extraordinary opportunities and first-hand experiences that would not be available otherwise. Even though I did not win any of these (a combined three time International Runner-Up and one regional US runner-up finish in five total competitions are certainly enough for me), I really gained more than just knowledge, evolving as a person - further preparing me for my future engineering career. Between the educational benefits and the advocacy of future space endeavors to students, competitions to involve students of all ages - from middle school to college - is a definite must for the space industry. Again, I would like to thank the NSS for all of their student-related projects such as the contest, the involvement with the ISU, various conferences, an art contest I saw on your website, and I assume much more. I hope that involvement by such organizations such as the National Space Society will encourage others to do the same and that the NSS does stay as involved as possible with students and student organizations (especially large student aerospace-related organizations such as SEDS or AIAA student chapters). In my opinion, I believe that it would be in the best interest for the NSS to get as much involvement as possible with students, especially of college age, in order to mutually help both the students and the organization spread. I am not an expert on NSS, as my full involvement has been following the site for a few years, but if there was some sort of national council or board advisory positions just for the student members, I believe it would only benefit the organization (if there isn't already one). This is coming off of the top of my head, and I apologize for my digression, but any infrastructure for university students to increase participation would only increase local involvement. Thanks again for speaking here at UCF and please pass along my appreciation to the rest of the National Space Society. Further thanks for reading my entire email. Also, I am attaching a copy of the engineering proposal for a space settlement that I entered into the NASA/NSS Space Settlement Contest last year, to further show your organization of what the competition introduced to me. -Michael P. Green University of Central Florida Student / SEDS Member I've cross posted this letter at my Phoenix-Rising blog at Townhall as well. If you've got kids or grandkids in need of a shot of hope--or even if you need one--you owe it to yourself to check out the two contests available through NSS. I'm adding the links to my Space Places list, but I think you'd enjoy checking out the whole NSS site as well.
And in other news, I've had fun over the last couple or three weeks designing at least part of an orbital hotel that could be constructed using inflatables. I expect to convert the designs into a slide show for upload here to add to my collection (and give you a break from "How We Settled the Solar System in 3 Easy Steps"). I'm also beginning to plan for attending ISDC '07 with at least an updated version of "How We Settled..." that includes actual models. I may also create a model or several of my Orbital Hotel design as well.
Until next time...
...Ad Astra per Levitas Nostra!
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