Feb. 15, 2016
We, the members of the National Space Society, believe exploring the unknown is one of the things that drives our vision of "people living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity." The recent discovery of gravitational waves by NSS Space Pioneer award recipient Dr. Kip Thorne is another giant leap forward.
We are very proud and honored to congratulate the amazing achievement of our NSS member Dr. Kip Thorne for his leading involvement in the creation of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) project. LIGO's recent world-changing detection of the existence of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein a century ago in his General Relativity Theory is opening new eyes on the cosmos and the doors that will bring humanity closer to the NSS vision!
Regarding the grand NSS vision, Dr. Thorne remarked, "I think that it's clear that it is attainable to colonize the solar system. Getting beyond the solar system is going to be exceedingly difficult. We are going to either require a lot of brute force over a period of several centuries or else a brilliant idea that none of us has grasped yet. The first thing is the solar system, but we have not been moving at anything like the pace that we could or we should."
Dr. Thorne was honored at the National Space Society's 2015 International Space development Conference® (ISDC) in Toronto, Canada for his work with the movie Interstellar and spoke not only to the conference participants, but also to more than 400 Space Settlement Design Contest winning students from around the world.
The ISDC, which brings together and engages students, scientists, business leaders, space industry stakeholders, families, policy makers and people from all walks of life, is held annually at different locations. This year it will be held at the surprisingly inexpensive location of San Juan, Puerto Rico! By attending ISDC Puerto Rico, you'll be able to meet a whole new batch of winning space settlement students, the latest Space Pioneer Award winners like Pluto New Horizon's Alan Stern, NASA center director Elen Ochoa, and Blue Origin's president Rob Meyerson.
Here's a quick look of what the ISDC 2016 holds for its attendees! https://youtu.be/aYC3G-6hzFQ
When asked during an interview at the ISDC how pleased Dr. Thorne was to see that this type of conference, exists, he replied, "Well I think it's very wonderful, particularly getting the young people involved around the world and being an inspiration for them. It's very important for the future of science and the future of space."