Chicago isn’t a city known for its deep ties to the space industry, and the Memorial Day holiday weekend isn’t always the best time to attract people to a conference. Nonetheless, a few hundred people, ranging from industry professionals to long-time activists, journeyed to a hotel near O’Hare International Airport last weekend for the 2010 International Space Development Conference (ISDC), the annual conference of the National Space Society (NSS).
Although many people would have attended the conference regardless of the location and date, others were clearly drawn by the choice of topics presented at the event. While it can difficult generalizing a sprawling multi-track conference like ISDC, two key areas garnered plenty of interest from attendees: the latest developments from the entrepreneurial “NewSpace” sector of the space industry and the current, sometimes heated debate about the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program.
Chicago isn’t a city known for its deep ties to the space industry, and the Memorial Day holiday weekend isn’t always the best time to attract people to a conference. Nonetheless, a few hundred people, ranging from industry professionals to long-time activists, journeyed to a hotel near O’Hare International Airport last weekend for the 2010 International Space Development Conference (ISDC), the annual conference of the National Space Society (NSS).
Although many people would have attended the conference regardless of the location and date, others were clearly drawn by the choice of topics presented at the event. While it can difficult generalizing a sprawling multi-track conference like ISDC, two key areas garnered plenty of interest from attendees: the latest developments from the entrepreneurial “NewSpace” sector of the space industry and the current, sometimes heated debate about the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program.