Opportunity for
BIS members

An exclusive day (Friday, 3 October) for members of the British Interplanetary Society at this year’s IAC 2008 in Glasgow, Scotland, is already proving popular.

Admission is free and the programme includes a chance to tour the large space exhibition and view the stands from many space companies and organisations (9 am - 12 noon); a sandwich lunch and opportunity to meet members of the BIS Council and the Editor of Spaceflight (12 noon – 2 pm); followed by a three-part open plenary (2 pm - 3.30 pm).

The first part - ‘Space travel and science fiction’ - will deal with the imagination inspired by space and the aspirations to travel beyond the Earth. It will feature a high profile figure from the space science fiction/fantasy genre, who will talk about how the power of space inspires an interest in science fiction.

In ‘Medical aspects of human spaceflight’ - George Whitesides, the executive director of the National Space Society and an advisor to Virgin Galactic, will speak about future public spaceflight opportunities.

Melchor Antunano, the director of the FAA’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, will talk about the IAA study on medical requirements for space tourist flights.

And Lauretta Hidalgo - planning the first ever space honeymoon on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo with fiancée George Whitesides - will talk about her perspective and motivations for making such a flight.

Finally, ‘Life as an astronaut’ will feature questions and answers to a panel of astronauts on what it’s really like to prepare for and then go into space. Astronauts will include Michael Lopez-Alegria (USA), Sergei Krikalev (Russia), Chiaki Mukai (Japan) and others.

The day concludes with a highlight lecture ‘Fusion, antimatter & the space drive: charting a path to the stars’ starting at 3.30 pm.