So Much Space at SXSW 2020!!
The Forrest Four-Cast: January 11, 2020
Scheduled March 18–20, the Space track is a new addition for SXSW 2020. Ten of the coolest panels and presentations within this track are as follows:
The Apollo 11 Moonshot: Making the Impossible Real (March 18): Best-selling author Charles Fishman explains what happened after President Kennedy entered America into the space race — and how the success of tackling that immense challenge shaped the nation for decades to come.
Artemis Generation: NASA’s Next Giant Leap (March 20): Astronauts and administrators cover specifics of the Artemis Program, which will send the first woman and next man to walk on the surface of the Moon and build a sustainable presence to prepare for missions to Mars and beyond.
Female Trail Blazers in Space: Reaching for the Stars (March 20). Former astronaut (and current Girl Scouts of America CEO) Sylvia Acevedo talks with Kathy Sullivan (the first American woman to walk in space) about their incredible personal journeys, the opportunities that they have seized, and the barriers that they have overcome in getting to space in a male-dominated industry.
Future Investment Opportunities in the Space Industry (March 20): Space is a large and exponentially growing global market with both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs estimating it will grow to a multi-trillion dollar industry by 2040. Dylan Taylor (Voyager Space Holdings) and Sirisha Bandla (VIrgin Orbit) examine the space investment ecosystem, diving deep into the explosive growth of this new market
The History and Future of Fashion in Space (March 20): This presentation addresses the history of the connections between the fashion and aerospace industries, tracking the evolution up to today and setting up a proposed framework for their continued collaboration.
Launching an Austin Space Startup: Why, Where and How (March 19): Hear from Tom Markusic, the founder and CEO of Firefly Aerospace on why his rocket company chose Austin as its home. Markusic will also discuss Austin’s future in becoming a more robust ecosystem for the space industry.
NASA’s First Planetary Defense Mission: DART (March 19): Asteroids have been hitting the Earth for billions of years. Now, Earth hits back with the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART. Attend this panel to learn more about what happens between now and DART’s first launch in 2021.
Shaping the Trillion Dollar Space Economy (March 20): Robert Jacobson (Desert Sky Holdings), Jeffrey Manber (NanoRacks), Lisa Rich (Hemisphere Ventures) and Rick Tumlinson (SpaceFund) discuss the long-term impact of the space economy, as well as how we can all be involved in the many exciting new opportunities that lie ahead.
Should Humans Explore the Moon or Mars Next? (March 18): Everyday Astronaut’s Tim Dodd leads a discussion about which planet we should aim for next. Other speakers include Amy Shira Teitel (author), Emily Calandrelli (Xploration Outer Space), and Hans Koenigsmann (SpaceX).
Space Gold Rush (March 18): Today, innovative entrepreneurs aren’t looking to the West for the next “Gold Rush,” but to the sky. When will this most current generation of 2049-ers take to the stars, and how will the space rush change our world and our lives?
Space Race: NASA Tech Supercharges Autonomous Cars (March 19): With autonomous vehicle technology currently stuck in the trough of disillusionment, what can self-driving developers learn from the space industry to bring robo-taxis down to earth?
Attend all this far-out space-related content at the SXSW Conference by purchasing a badge. Save $250 on the walkup price if you buy before 11:59 pm Pacific Time on Friday, January 17.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; posts also focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
