{"id":59,"date":"2015-09-09T11:25:55","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T15:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/st197\/?page_id=59"},"modified":"2015-09-14T11:26:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:26:12","slug":"humans-in-space","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/humanslashnature\/events\/humans-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Humans in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHumans in Space,\u201d with Roger Launius (Smithsonian Institution).<\/strong><\/p>\n

December 1 at 7:00 in Lovejoy 100<\/p>\n

\"Imagining<\/a>

Imagining Space: Achievements, Predictions, Possibilities, 1950-2050.<\/p><\/div>\n

Trips to the Moon, humans in Earth orbit, and plans for exploring Mars all dominated thinking in the twentieth century. Even so, as the twenty-first century dawned an expansive vision for human spaceflight has not emerged. The Space Shuttle has been retired without a clear follow-on human spaceflight vehicle in the United States, and efforts to generate public excitement in lunar and Mars exploration have faltered. What does the first half of the twenty-first century hold for humans in space? In this presentation I will survey more fifty years of space exploration, reviewing the major human programs from the first efforts through the successful spaceflight programs of the recent past and offering comments on the possibilities available in the decades to come.<\/p>\n

Roger D. Launius is Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. He has written or edited more than twenty books on aerospace history. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A graduate of Graceland College, he received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 1982. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the American Astronautical Society. He also served as a consultant to the Columbia<\/em> Accident Investigation Board in 2003 and presented the prestigious Harmon Memorial Lecture on the history of national security space policy at the United States Air Force Academy in 2006. He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues, and has been a guest commentator on National Public Radio and all the major television network news programs.<\/p>\n

Student Discussions:<\/strong><\/p>\n