Outreach Presentations
San Diego Space Society members are available for outreach presentations to students, interest groups, and conferences. A selection of presentation topics is listed below.
To request an SD Space speaker for your event please fill out the online request form. You can also download the San Diego Space Display Request Form (102 KB PDF) and e-mail it to outreach@sdspace.org. Please submit your request at least 2 weeks prior to your event. (Nominal donations are accepted to help cover expenses.)
Moon 2.0: Future Lunar Exploration
The Moon has been physically explored by various government programs starting when Soviet Luna 2 impacted the Moon on September 14, 1959. Twelve American astronauts explored the moon between July 1969 and December 1972 during Project Apollo. Two Soviet unmanned rovers roamed the Moon in 1970 and 1973 as part of the Lunokhod program. In all, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, there were 65 Moon landings. Then Moon exploration lay quiet from 1976 until 1990. Since then, seven lunar orbiters from various countries (including Japan, China and India) have studied the Moon from above.
Moon 2.0 is a presentation that delves into various plans to go back to the Moon and what will be different this time. It will open with some historical lunar exploration highlights, but will shift to what’s coming ahead, including the Google Lunar X Prize competition – a challenge that calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and operating a privately funded robotic rover on the lunar surface. The presentation continues with NASA’s Project Constellation – a NASA-lead, multi-national permanent manned return to the Moon – similar in exercise to the development and construction of the International Space Station. The presentation closes with some final thoughts about “private” space exploration.
A Close Look At Mars
[Presented by The Mars Society San Diego] Outside of Earth herself, Mars is the most Earth-like planet in our solar system. But what does that really mean? What are the current conditions on the red planet? Is there air, water and other necessities for life? Could human beings eventually colonize there and make a second home for human civilization? We’ll take a multimedia look at what our robotic explorers are telling us about what the planet Mars is really like.
Invasion From Earth: The Robotic Exploration Of Mars
[Presented by The Mars Society San Diego] Mars is becoming a busy place for exploration these days with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter achieving Martian orbit last year and the Mars Phoenix Lander on its way for a north polar landing in May 2008. This brings the total of operational Earthly spacecraft to three orbiters, two rovers and one lander down on the surface of the red planet. Mars Society members will look at all the different robotic craft and their missions, as well as the next several planned missions by all the spacefaring nations of Earth.
Space Telescopes: Astronomy In Orbit
Modern observational astronomy was born when Galileo Galilee first turned his newly constructed telescope to the heavens in 1609. Almost immediately he made the first observations of mountains and craters on earth’s moon, sunspots and discovered moons circling planets Jupiter and Saturn.
Discoveries that have been made with each new generation of telescopes have amazed and continuously advanced our understanding of the Universe. The most recent such instrument to equally revolutionize astronomy and capture the imagination of humanity has been the Hubble orbiting telescope. Launched on the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, it has exceeded all expectations of its designers even though its beginning observations were marred by a faulty main mirror that was later successfully corrected with a manned space shuttle repair mission.
Hubble is only one of several existing telescopes in space that currently scan the universe in all forms of light from radio waves to the most energetic forms of X-rays and gamma rays. Due to its spectacular visible images however, Hubble has allowed us to make an instantaneous personal connection to the wonders of our Universe.
NewSpace: Space Travel For All Of Us
Do you want to go into space? To float weightless? To look down at the whole Earth from the blackness of space? It’s an exciting time for private space travel. Many new space companies have been founded in just the last few years. Most are working toward the goal of ordinary people going to space.
This presentation summarizes current space tourism programs, from weightless rides in a Zero G plane to trips to the International Space Station. It also presents an overview of near-future private space projects, including SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket flights, orbital rides in the Dragon capsule, and the private Genesis space hotel currently being built in orbit.
