Hello all,
was on 7 panels at the Archon 45 conference in Collinsville IL 30 Sep to 02 Oct and it was tiring but fun!
(Archon page: http://www.archonstl.org/ )
3 panels were on space farms or a twist thereof, 2 on current and near term space tech, and 1 on AI and the future.
I put the core slides on my space farm site: http://www.spacefarms.info :
Back from NSS ISDC 2022, and it was amazing to see people in the flesh again.
The National Space Society (NSS) in many ways is like a family, with people who share a pasionate vision for a future where people of all types and stripes live and work in the expanses of space for the benefit of Earth and the future. In my terms, Trillions of Happy, Smiling, Babies. The NSS is not nearly just engineers and scientists, and indeed is mostly just normal populace, from retired teachers, to high schoolers, to artists, to farmers, and many others. The International Space Development Conference (ISDC) the last few times was virtual due to the 'VID but this time was in Arlington VA. I did two presentations, one in the space ambassador track, one in the space settlement track, and was on a panel too, all on farming in space.
All those presos are on my site here ( https://www.combat-fishing.com/animationspace/terraform.html).
Met many cool people, including a former head of NASA, other authors and artists too, and especially with other people from around the world who work on using plants, bioreactors, and maybe fungi and animals, to close the mass flow loop in space (i.e. take the human outputs, and turn them into human inputs).
Also saw many posters from the 'puppy engineers' from the International Space Settlement Competition (know some kids who like science? GET THEM TO ENTER!!!!) and a few from the International Space Settlement Design Competition (for slightly older kids, again GET THEM TO ENTER!!!) So much promise makes me feel joy and hope!
Will be advising a few other sci-fi authors on space farms, and am working up a project to run out of the SAM facility at U of Az, or similar, to get some space farm tech matured. Want to play at being a space farmer? Check out SIMOC (https://simoc.space/).
As a result of all that interaction, I now have my list of technical reviewers for my own Space Farm reference book (though for a general audience, not just geeks), hoping to have a publisher lined up very soon.
Ad Astra!
Bryce
On a panel (virtual) for world space week:
Thu, October 8, 2020
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM CDT
http://www.chicagospace.org/space-tourism-webinar-2020/
talking space tourism and the latest round of launchers :0)
Later, 17 Nov , at ASCEND 2020 (virtual) I am running a panel on Space Agriculture and have a presentation on 'Excrement' in Space:
Session Assignment: TECHPRES-23, Crew Nutrition and Food I
Presentation: The Messy Details of Going from Excrement to Entrée
Short title : "Poop to Plate"
Session Date/Time: November 17, 2020 from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Eastern Time
Assigned Session:
PANEL-25, Crew Nutrition and Food II
Scheduled: November 17, 2020 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Eastern Time
Outline/Agenda of Session Activities:
The current state of space farming focuses on microgravity and small scale non cycling results. What key technologies and research are needed, and what has been done to date, to enable long term settlement food production, waste cycling, and details. This session will focus on the overlooked details glossed over in studies, efforts, and books to date.
Session Goal(s)/Outcome(s): Work in space agriculture to
date has focused on hydroponics, and some photobioreactors, what else is
needed, and how do these get connected together in the real world on a place
like the moon, to make a fully functional recycling capability that provides
meals real people want to eat, and what machinery and details are missing?
Where should effort focus in the near term in space agriculture to allow long
term habitation in space?
Still working the space farm textbook, and a fantasy book , and waiting in the slush for my Sci-Fi novel....
tight lines and calm seas,
Bryce
