A NSS Space Forum Presentation on the Mars Society Mars City State Design Contest
CSSS President Jim Plaxco will be a speaker at the next National Space Society Space Forum. His topic will be How To Design A Martian Civilization Of One Million People: Experiences From The Mars City-State Design Competition which addresses his experiences as a...
Space Exploration Highlights of 2020
This review of the space activities of 2020 features the happenings in both the national and private sectors. 72 nations have space agencies with most being small.
National Space Society Space Forum 2020 Space Year In Review
Chicago Society for Space Studies (CSSS) is pleased to invite you to the National Space Society's Space Forum being held Thursday, December 17, 2020 from 9:00pm to 10:15pm EST. The program for this Zoom webinar, which is open to the public, is 2020 - The Space Year in...
2020 Space Year in Review Webinar
The 2020 Space Year in Review Webinar Date: Sunday, December 6, 2020 Time: 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM Central Location: Online via Zoom Registration is via Eventbrite: Eventbrite Registration Form Description: Due to the Covid situation, CSSS will not be having our annual...
Factors Impacting the Sustainability of a Lunar Economy
By Jim Plaxco, President, Chicago Society for Space Studies Based on a presentation given at the 2020 Lunar Development Conference In considering the Moon as a future economic resource there are a number of factors that must be considered when evaluating the economic...
Post-Detection SETI Protocols and METI: The Time Has Come To Regulate Them Both
There is an ongoing debate pertaining to the question of whether Earth should initiate intentional and powerful radio transmissions to putative extra-terrestrial (ET) civilizations in the hope of attracting ET's attention. This practice is known as METI (Messaging to...
Archeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication
On 8 April 1960, astronomer Frank Drake inaugurated a new era in the search for civilizations beyond Earth. Pointing the 85-foot telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia, toward two Sun-like stars in the galactic...
The Cathedral and the Starship: Learning from the Middle Ages for Future Long-Duration Projects
A popular analogue used in the space domain is that of historical building projects, notably cathedrals that took decades and in some cases centuries to complete Cathedrals are often taken as archetypes for long-term projects. Author Andreas M. Nein explores the...
Nuclear Propulsion for Manned Mars Missions
Illustration of a Mars transit habitat and nuclear propulsion system that could one day take astronauts to Mars. Credit: NASA Planning for a manned mission to Mars is on hold due to concerns regarding the health impacts of radiation exposure. Using conventional...
SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Space Tourism: A World Space Week Webinar
What impact will SpaceX and Blue Origin have on the space tourism industry? What is the state of the space tourism industry? To address the various issues associated with space tourism, the chapters of the National Space Society will be hosting the webinar SpaceX,...