1. Keynote and Featured Presentation Descriptions
July 1, 2019 (Monday)
Welcome Keynote
9:10-9:45 am, Airbus IMAX Theater
Title: Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Present, and Inspiring the Future:
Human Exploration, the Journey Continues
Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director [Bio]
Program Director, SSEP National Program
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE)
Abstract: We live in a moment in time. It’s the place where the accomplishments of those that came before us meet up with what will be undertaken by future generations. It’s a great place to be, especially if you’re part of the future generation. By learning about the past both in terms of what we know and how we’ve come to know it, and talking to those that work on the frontiers right now, you can choose to shape the future. It’s pretty powerful stuff. Standing on the shoulders of past generations, YOU are now the link between the past and future of human exploration.
Featured Presentation 1
11:30-11:50 am, James S. McDonnell Space Hangar
Title: NanoRacks Knows: Students are the Greatest Innovators on the Space Station Today!
Jeffrey Manber, Chief Executive Officer [Bio]
NanoRacks, LLC, SSEP Strategic Partner
Abstract: NanoRacks has been working with SSEP for years and years – together bringing some of the most innovative microgravity research we’ve seen to the International Space Station. NanoRacks CEO will talk about why students being involved in space research is so important, the impact students have had, and why students are so important for the future of space exploration.
Featured Presentation 2
2:00-2:20 pm, James S. McDonnell Space Hangar
Title: What’s Up? Current, Future and Proposed Missions Exploring Our Place in Space
Dr. Emily S. Martin [Bio]
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, SSEP National Partner
Abstract: Getting a mission selected, developed, and launched to explore our solar system can take many years and often many failed attempts. How do you decide where to send a robot? What experiments should you run once you get there? We will touch upon how you decide how big to make your mission and why it can take so long to get a mission selected. Then we’ll dash around the solar system exploring the ongoing and future missions we can look forward to as well as some of the missions still waiting to hear if they will be selected to be built.
July 2, 2019 (Tuesday)
Featured Presentation 3
10:25-10:55 am, James S. McDonnell Space Hangar
Title: The Day a Woodpecker Attacked the Space Shuttle
Dr. Don Thomas, NASA Astronaut, STS-65, 70, 83, 94 [Bio]
Abstract: In June, 1995 the crew of the STS-70 mission aboard Space Shuttle Discovery was finishing their final day of training before their launch, only seven days away. Everything was looking good for the mission until it was discovered that a single woodpecker had tried to make a nest in the big fuel tank of the space shuttle creating 205 holes in the process. During the presentation, NASA astronaut Don Thomas will discuss why the woodpecker did such a thing, what NASA did to prevent future attacks, and what our astronauts accomplished on this flight, one of the more unusual missions of the Space Shuttle Program.
Featured Presentation 4
1:20-1:40 pm, James S. McDonnell Space Hangar
Title: Opportunity’s Question
Matt Collinge, Deputy Director [Bio]
Maryland Space Grant Consortium
Abstract: The future is hope and possibility. Now that you’re here, what will you do next? Each of us confronts this question every single day. We also face it constantly in a larger sense, as a society. It must be our hope that our collective response will lead to the future we envision and desire! Yet we each pursue our answers as individuals. This presentation will not give you your answer. Instead it will aim to introduce new possibilities and a thought to hold as you move forward.
2. Family Night Program – Monday Night, July 1, 2019, 6:20 – 8:15 pm (see Agenda for schedule)
Presentation Title: A Voyage that will Forever Change Your Perspective of Home
Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director [Bio]
Program Director, SSEP National Program
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE)
Description: When we venture beyond our home and explore a greater landscape—whether it’s the town beyond our house, or a planet beyond the Earth—we gain a deeper sense of our own existence. It’s a fundamental principle of exploration. To truly know and appreciate our home, we must leave it. So to truly know and appreciate a place called Earth, we must venture beyond it, and recognize the breadth and majesty of a greater universe.
From another vantage point—we are integrally connected to the universe, and it to us—so to know the universe is to know ourselves. And while we may seem small in its shadow, beauty has nothing to do with size—for the universe is revealed with something the size of the human mind.
You’re invited to the story of our existence—a race of explorers, 7 billion souls strong. It is a story that ignites wonder about the universe, and a sense of pride in our ability to reveal its nature through both human imagination and ingenuity. It is a story that humbles us, and brings a sense of humility to our lives. It is a voyage that will forever change your perspective of home.
IMAX® Film: Journey to Space
Narrated by Patrick Stewart
Premiere Date: February 13, 2015
Description: Discover how NASA’s shuttle program has led to its exciting new era of space exploration. Learn about the important role of the International Space Station. Uncover what NASA and the space community are working on, and the challenges they face to carry out bold missions such as capturing asteroids and landing astronauts on Mars.
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and Subaru of America, Inc., are U.S. National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. Magellan Aerospace is a Canadian National Partner on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.