Dragoncon Livejournal Community Archive

Did you attend any Space Track talks? Did you get pictures? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! If you have pictures from any Space Track talks I would dearly love to have copies. Please send them to space@dragoncon.org. Thanks.

Have to say that Dragon*Com was pretty amazing for the Space Track this year!! Most of the panels were full and more than a few had to turn people away.

We also had our first true 'celebrity' guest. If you missed the James Marsters 'MoonShot' talk, you missed a fun time. Yes, he was late to the panel but he more than made up for it. Was anyone else surprised at just how knowledgeable he was on all the information regarding the Apollo 11 Moon landing?! I certainly was. He was also as nice and cooperative as any track director could wish for. Huge thanks to James Marsters and it was great to hear the song he wrote about his experience shooting 'MoonShot'.

Space Track also got to be a part of the Richard Garriott talk which turned out to be a really good move since he focused most of his talk on his trip to the ISS. : ) Turned out that he has a connection to another of my guests this year - Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Commnader Dick Scobee of the Challenger Shuttle tragedy. She was his high school science teacher and they have remained very close friends. Garriott told me just before his talk that he wasn't going to leave Con immediately, instead he had changed his plans to stay and join Dr. Scobee Rodgers on her talk on Sunday! I kept that news to the Space Track only, thereby ensuring we had an audience of only space enthusiasts for that talk. Garriott had me fooled for a few moments. He looked so formal in his suit and tie; then he turned his head and his very long 'rat's tail' braid came into view!! : ) A very interesting and charming man.

Speaking of Dr. Scobee Rodgers, what an AMAZING WOMAN!!!! I had no idea of her background and as she spoke she enthralled the entire room. Never expected to be so moved by a talk anywhere at Dragon*Con but she had the entire room crying. No lie, everyone including Garriott, had tears. Given that I'm very emotional to be begin with, I wept like a baby. She is made of very strong stuff.

I could go on and on, the entire track turned out so great but I'll edit and just mention our final panel, 'Salute to 30 Years of the Shuttle & Farewell Shuttle Party'. What a blast!! : ) We had shuttle trivia with good prizes. We had a double chocolate cookie with a shuttle on it and we had LN2 ice cream!!! We also got a little crazy, playing with the LN2. Frozen grapes, frozen smarties candies and frozen tortilla chips that when you put them in your mouth allowed you to blow smoke! There are pictures out there just waiting to truly embarrass me!

Thank you to everyone who joined us this year. It's you who make doing the Space Track so much fun. I'm already planning big things for 2012. It will be my 10th year with Dragon*Con and my 5th year as Space Track Director. I LOVE feedback! Send me any comments, suggestions, etc. at space@dragoncon.org.

Be happy. Be safe. Until next year -

{{{{hugs}}}}

rain
Director Space Track

My Space Track guests are awesome! I cannot thank all of them enough for what they do. Year after year it's my great guests that have helped my track grow. They may not be stars in the same terms as Dragon*Con's front page guests but they are top level rock stars to me and my Space Track!

My thanks for all you do:

Richard Altstatt
Dr. John Bradford
A.C. Charania
Dr. Scott Edgington
Stephen Fleming
Dr. Pamela Gay
Dr. Stephen Granade
Kriss Hougland
Richard Jakiel
Les Johnson
Dr. William Keel
Dr. Sarah Milkovich
James Owens
Stephen Ramsden
Trina Ray
Kim Steadman
Dr. Angelle Tanner

- rain -
Director - Space Track

Here's a preview of some things to look out for on the 2010 edition of the Dragon*Con Space Track (Hilton Hotel, room 203).

  ** As we have for the last few years, we will have a collection of Solar Telescopes available to everyone on the 3rd floor pool deck of the Hilton Hotel.  Weather permitting, between approximately 11:30am and 3:30pm each day, take a few minutes to see what's happening on the surface of the Star that gives us life.  After an unusually quiet period (over a year), our Sun seems to finally be waking up.  There are a series of sunspots and many prominences that can be seen now.  Each day, Stephen Ramsden will be there to explain what you're seeing.  FYI - you will see Stephen and his solar telescopes on the forthcoming '4 Days of Dragon*Con' airing on many PBS stations sometime this month.

 ** Speaking of telescopes and live viewing - our nighttime Live Astronomy will be something very special this year.  We will be using a telescope from the Southern Hemisphere, located in Chile!  Very little chance of bad weather in the mountains of Chile to interfere with sky watching.  lol  So many sights in the night sky that we, in the Northern Hemisphere can't see, such as, The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, the Andromeda Galaxy!  Join Dr. Keel in the Space Track room, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights after regular programming ends and choose the sights you want to see.  Runs until we can't stay awake any longer or the Sun rises!  The front page of the Space & Science Tracks web page has a slide show of astronomical pictures.  All are from our Live Astronomy sessions except the first 10. Those first 10 pictures are Dr. Keel's first images taken from the same SARA telescope in Cerro Tololo, Chile that we will be using this year!

 ** The Atlanta Astronomy Club will also be making a return. As they did last year, they will set up their telescopes right after sunset also on the Hilton' 3rd floor pool deck. It can be hard to really see what' in the skies above Atlanta but it is spectacular! Take a break from the craziness of Con for a little while and wander on up.

 ** Do you love graphic novels?  Even those found online? Well the Space Track is having the world debut of the graphic novel 'Hanny & The Mystery of the Voorwerp'.  The mystery of what, you're asking?  Come find out Friday night at 10pm in the Hilton's Crystal Ballroom.  There will be music. There will be give–a–ways. There will be people dressed as what they think a Voorwerp might or should look like (maybe one of those people will be you!). Prizes for those Voorwerp costumes. Even a little space science just to explain. Of course, the comic.  : – )

 ** Attention - All James Marsters fans!! Yes, Marsters will be doing a talk on the Space Track this year.  : - )  Yes, it is true but this has nothing to do with Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Torchwood, Caprica or even DragonBall Z.  This is Space!  Many of you may have missed James in the movie 'MoonShot' which aired on the History Channel in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Well, we at the Space Track certainly didn't and we've invited him to talk about a very different kind of role for him.  Playing Living Legend, astronaut Buzz Aldrin! The second man to walk on the Moon!  This talk is SPECIFIC to his role and the movie but we welcome everyone to attend.  Saturday, 2:30pm in the Hilton Hotel's Crystal Ballroom.

 ** The Space Track is very honored to be hosting Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee. She and the other relatives of the Challenger astronauts choose to keep alive the goals that their family members gave their lives for - the importance of space science education!  To do so, together they founded The Challenger Center for Space Science Education.  Continuing that theme, Dr. Scobee Rodgers has teamed up with husband and wife authors, Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta on a new series of young adult space science adventure books called 'Star Challengers'.  Dr. Scobee Rodgers, Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta will join the Space Track on Saturday, at 1pm in the track room - Hilton Hotel, room 203.

 ** Some other interesting and fun topics - our JPL scientists will be returning for more stories from behind the scenes.  There will be a number of talks on what is happening with the US Space Program.  Our female scientists will again talk about the challenges faced by women in pursuing careers in science and engineering and ways to help the women in your life over come them.  We will also be updating the status of the great Space Observatories; talking about the discoveries that make our solar system very different than the one you learned about in school and lots of talks on what's happening with the various probes out in our solar system, including the Voyagers which are in the process of LEAVING our solar system!

Check out the full (tentative!) track schedule here and you can check on the tentative Science Track schedule here.

We look forward to seeing you all this year!

--
 - rain -
Director - Space Track
space@dragoncon.org
Dragon*Con 2010

Of course, I no sooner post about the James Marsters talk when I get the news that they've changed the time. That's why we say the schedules are 'tentative'! lol

So, now it will be: James Marsters: Astronaut – The Story of Apollo 11 Saturday, at 2:30pm.

Yes, the Space Track welcomes James Marsters to discuss his role as Buzz Aldrin in the made for TV movie 'MoonShot'. This movie was done as part of last year's 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Marsters was fabulous as astronaut and second man to walk on the Moon, Living Legend, Buzz Aldrin.

I remind everyone again -
PLEASE NOTE - The Marsters panel will be completely devoted to 'MoonShot' and Marsters role in that movie. All questions must be related to that topic and will be screened. This is STILL the Space Track and that's the focus of this panel. We hope to see you all there and suggest that anyone interested in asking a question of James Marsters should rent 'MoonShot' in preparation.

Dragon*Con guests on TV is not generally news since so many of them are actors and are expected to be on TV. What makes this slightly different is that these guests are from my Space Track. The Space Track has our own version of television celebrities and more and more of the guests I've had on my Space Track are entering that category. Wish I could claim the credit but they're just so good in their own right that I'm just lucky that they like to come to Dragon*Con. lol

I wouldn't normally publicize the chance to catch these guests on TV but these two get around to a lot more of Dragon*Con than just the Space/Science/Skeptics/Podcasting Tracks and I think many of you will know at least one of them.

Dr. Kevin Grazier, whom many of you know as the Science Liaison to BattleStar Galatica, Eureka, Zula Patrol, etc. and a huge fan of the Brit Sci-Fi shows, is, in his daytime job, a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on the Cassini Project at Saturn. He is also an astronomer, writer and professor (and a HUGE animal advocate).

Dr. Pamela Gay, is an astronomer, podcaster, writer and university professor. She has also spent the last year working with the US arm of the International Year of Astronomy in charge of new media. She was the beautiful lady who gave away a number of the Galileoscopes (telescopes) during various functions at Dragon*Con this year.

Both Dr. Gay and Dr. Graizer will be on the History Channel series, The Universe tonight, Tuesday, October 6th, at 9:00pm. This episode of 'The Universe' focuses on 'Star Wars'; not the movie series 'StarWars', but the concepts and possibilities of wars fought in space. Such a topic is always near and dear to the Dragon*Con community. lol

Tune in and check them out. Given that it's the History Channel, you can be sure that if you can't catch it at the 9:00pm time slot, it WILL be on multiple times over the next week. :- )

Everyone recovered yet? lol

--
rain
Space Track Director

I really should have let Skeptics Track announce this since they have closer ties to him then we do - but - they haven't done so yet, so I am!

ADAM SAVAGE, co-host of the MythBusters TV show will be coming to Dragon*Con in 2009!!

That's right folks. The word just came in although the rumors have been circulating since Tuesday when Adam posted it on his twitter page. (that's a pretty big give-a-way!) It's now been confirmed and the craziness can begin. Throw out the schedules, things are moving around. lol You know jonnyX is plotting already. Could Adam Savage be an Evil Genius? Okay, we know he's an evil genius but could he become one our OUR Evil Geniuses?!

We don't really know yet how this will impact the Science Schedule. Depending on how involved he wants to be, Skeptics may have full ownership. More info when we get details!

(Grant, Tori, Kari must have had good things to say about us!)

Sorry for the scoop Derek!

rain