Space Studies Institute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Space Studies Institute is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1977 by the late Princeton University Professor Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill. The stated mission is to "open the energy and material resources of space for human benefit within our lifetime". The current president is Professor Freeman Dyson.
The Institute has sponsored research studies on several transport systems for the development of space. Their first program was in the development of prototype mass driver systems. They are also studying the use of an Orbital Transfer Vehicle as a component of space manufacturing. Other areas of research include a search for Earth-Sun Trojan asteroids, a design study of a Lunar Polar Probe to search for water and useful volatiles at the poles of the Moon, and studies of reuse of the Space Shuttle external tank. Dr O'Neill performed a pioneering study of a large space habitat named Island Three that could house 10,000,000 people.
[edit] Conferences
SSI began hosting a bi-annual Space Manufacturing Conference in 1977, although the conference had actually begun in 1974. The themes of the later conferences were as follows:
- 7th — Engineering with Lunar and Asteroidal Materials, 1985.
- 8th — Nonterrestrial Resources, Biosciences, and Space Engineering, 1987.
- 9th — Space Resources to Improve Life on Earth, 1989.
- 10th — Energy and Materials from Space, 1991.
- 11th — The High Frontier, Accession, Development and Utilization, 1993.
- 12th — Pathways to the High Frontier, 1995.
- 13th — The Challenge of Space: Past and Future, 1997.
- 14th — Challenges and Opportunities in Space, 1999.
- 15th — Settling Circumsolar Space, 2001.
