A central mission of Chicago Society for Space Studies (CSSS) is to provide educational services to the public on a variety of topics dealing with space exploration. Examples include space policy, space development, space settlement, and space commercialization. To accomplish this in our community (the Chicago metropolitan area and northeastern Illinois), CSSS created a Speakers Bureau program which has given over a thousand presentations in the years since it was established, and which has earned CSSS multiple awards from the National Space Society.
To reach a larger audience on a more permanent basis, CSSS has been expanding the content offerings of our website chicagospace.org. The most recent major expansion (as of 2024) was the incorporation of the Mike Combs Space Settlement Website into chicagospace.org and the addition in 2026 of a central Space Library for quick access to the educational content hosted on chicagospace.org.
As a part of our effort to further increase the quantity and variety of content that our website offers,
Chicago Society for Space Studies is establishing an Open Call for Submissions. To that end, we are
seeking original articles, book reviews, essays, and personal observations on the development of the space frontier. Examples of subject areas include:
- Advanced technology concepts
- Analysis of NASA programs
- Artemis program
- Asteroid mining
- Cislunar activities
- Commercial Space Regulatory Policy
- Commercial Space Activities, aka newSpace
- Historical missions
- Human Missions to Mars
- International Space Programs (ESA, JAXA, Roscosmos, ISRO, CNSA for example)
- In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)
- Low Earth Orbit (LEO) development
- Lunar bases
- Mars bases
- O’Neill orbital space colonies
- Planetary defense
- Planetary exploration
- Propulsion systems
- Space economics
- Space development
- Space industrialization
- Space manufacturing
- Space settlement
- Space solar power (SSP, aka SPS, aka SBSP)
- Space stations, both commercial and national)
- Space tourism
- Space transportation
When submitting your original article or essay for publication consideration, please adhere to the following submission guidelines.
- Please submit your original article in one of the following formats: Open Document (.odt), Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), or HTML (.html).
- The minimum word length for submissions is 800 words.
- Insure that your submission is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
- Please include references to source materials where appropriate.
- Include in your submission a short (up to 70 words) biography.
- Images for your article should be between 600 and 1600 pixels wide and in either JPEG or PNG format.
- For any images included with your submission you must provide attribution. If you are not the copyright holder, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder granting Chicago Society for Space Studies the right to use the image in conjunction with your submission.
- Your submission should not be published on another website. (Search engines penalize duplicated content)
To submit your article, just send it to Jim at the CSSS domain chicagospace.org. You will be notified once your submission has been received and reviewed. We look forward to your submission.
Terms of Submission
By submitting your work (the “Work”) to Chicago Society for Space Studies (the “Organization”), you agree to the following terms:
1. Grant of License
You hereby grant the Organization a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, and royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display the Work in any and all media now known. This includes, but is not limited to, publication on
chicagospace.org, inclusion in digital or print newsletters, and promotional use on social media platforms.
2. Ownership of Copyright
You retain full ownership of the copyright to your Work. Because this license is non-exclusive, you are free to publish the Work elsewhere or grant licenses to other parties at your discretion.
3. Editorial Rights
The Organization reserves the right to edit, abridge, or format the Work for length, clarity, and grammar. We may also create derivative works, such as using excerpts for indexing, excerpts for social media or educational summaries, provided the core meaning of the Work is preserved.
4. Representations and Warranties
You represent and warrant that:
- The Work is your original creation.
- You are the sole owner of the copyright and have the full authority to grant this license.
- The Work does not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, or any other intellectual property rights of any third party.
- The Work contains no defamatory or unlawful material.
5. Attribution
The Organization agrees to provide proper attribution to you as the author of the Work. This will typically appear as a byline using the name provided at the time of submission.
6. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Organization and its officers, directors, and employees from any claims, damages, or legal fees arising out of a breach of the representations and warranties set forth in Section 4.
7. Governing Law
This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law principles.
Terms of Submission
By submitting your work (the “Work”) to Chicago Society for Space Studies (the “Organization”), you agree to the following terms:
1. Grant of License
You hereby grant the Organization a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, and royalty-free license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display the Work in any and all media now known. This includes, but is not limited to, publication on
chicagospace.org, inclusion in digital or print newsletters, and promotional use on social media platforms.
2. Ownership of Copyright
You retain full ownership of the copyright to your Work. Because this license is non-exclusive, you are free to publish the Work elsewhere or grant licenses to other parties at your discretion.
3. Editorial Rights
The Organization reserves the right to edit, abridge, or format the Work for length, clarity, and grammar. We may also create derivative works, such as using excerpts for indexing, excerpts for social media or educational summaries, provided the core meaning of the Work is preserved.
4. Representations and Warranties
You represent and warrant that:
- The Work is your original creation.
- You are the sole owner of the copyright and have the full authority to grant this license.
- The Work does not infringe upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, or any other intellectual property rights of any third party.
- The Work contains no defamatory or unlawful material.
5. Attribution
The Organization agrees to provide proper attribution to you as the author of the Work. This will typically appear as a byline using the name provided at the time of submission.
6. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Organization and its officers, directors, and employees from any claims, damages, or legal fees arising out of a breach of the representations and warranties set forth in Section 4.
7. Governing Law
This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law principles.