By Carol Pinchefsky and G.B. Leatherwood

Attending any of the several space conferences is like standing atop an apex of time. Face this way, and you can look back at where we were, and what has happened since the last time we looked. Take a quarter turn, see and hear where we are now and the people making news. Take another quarter turn, and you are facing the future—what is yet to be done, who is going to do it, and how.

The Space Frontier Foundation is sponsoring a conference entitled NewSpace 2008: Creating the Future or Living in the Past.

The Space Frontier Foundation and SpaceContest.org are co-sponsoring the “Space VidVision Contest.” Entrants have until July 8, 2008, to create a video response to the question, “What should the future of American spaceflight be?”

Although most people who pay $20 million for an adventure vacation might want to relax and unwind during their journey, Richard Garriot, games designer and upcoming traveler to the International Space Station ( ISS), is not one of them.

Since 1981, the National Space Society (NSS) has sponsored the International Space Development Conference, attracting speakers ranging from Dr. Buzz Aldrin, the second human to walk on the moon to Dr. Robert Zubrin, the man who wants us to walk on Mars. In between this A and Z have been some of the most prominent names in the development of technology, astronomy, electronics, law, space tourism, space solar power, and commercial possibilities on the next frontier.

Technologies of the Frontier (TDF), an Italian space advocacy group, is holding their second conference on June 7, 2008 in Belgirate on Lake Maggiore, Italy. Speakers include astronomers and professors, and lectures will be held in both Italian and English.

by Carol Pinchefsky

by G.B. Leatherwood

By Carol Pinchefsky