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Henry Spencer
Henry Spencer is a systems programmer with sidelines in nonfiction writing, spacecraft engineering, and space history. He was a pioneer of open-source software, and wrote some of the early software for Usenet; his archive tapes were the base for Google's Usenet archive. He was head of mission planning for the (alas, defunct) Canadian Solar Sail Project, was software architect for the MOST astronomy satellite ("Canada's first space telescope," launched 2003), and now studies cheap planetary missions using nanosatellites, while writing software for Earth-orbiting nanosatellites. He helped found the Canadian Space Society, and is a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Space Studies Institute. Asteroid 117329 is named after him.
Programming for Henry Spencer
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| Fri | 13:00 | (A09) | 1 hr |
The Solar System and SF: Setting SF on the Planets We Know
In early SF, the planets of the solar system were simply exotic locales for adventure. The next generation of SF writers -- Heinlein, Clarke, and others -- tried for more realism, but their solar systems were very different from the one we know today. What are good examples, and how do the new limitations on what writers can do and still be realistic make for good SF. |
| Fri | 16:00 | (D03) | 1 hr |
Building Our Homes under Alien Skies: Imagining the Domestic Frontier
What kind of house could an interdisciplinary team create for use on another planet? The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) is a challenge for college students to do just that. Using this challenge as a starting point, our panel will explore how to approach building dwellings on other planets. http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/xhab_challenge.html |
| Sat | 14:00 | (A16) | 1 hr |
After the Shuttle: Our Next Spacecraft
The Space Shuttle Program is preparing for its last flights - what will replace it? And what other spacecraft and launch mechanisms are on the horizon? |