Australia - Lost in Space Jeff Kingwell (Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems) and Philip Young (National President, National Space Society of Australia). Wednesday 28 July, 1999, 7-9pm It's 30 years since that famous moon-booted footstep. What's been happening to the space business since then? In particular what has Australia been doing in space and has it been it `the right stuff'? What roles do business, governments or the UN have in space? Would `terraforming' other planets be ethical? What about mining asteroids? Space tourism? And what everyone wants to know - where is the money to be made in space? These and other questions will be tackled by our two spaced-out speakers for the evening, Jeff Kingwell (Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems) and Philip Young (National President, National Space Society of Australia). And to introduce you to them: Philip Young Philip's passion for space began at the age of seven, when he stood in the back yard of his home in Wentworth Falls trying to hear Laika, the world's first doggonaut, bark. This interest was confirmed when his parents were informed that he was just taking up space in his junior secondary years at Katoomba High School, and further reinforced by his final-year physics teacher at Normanhurst Boys High School who recognised that there was a deep vacuum where his mind dwelt. Armed with a degree in physics from the University of Sydney, Philip embarked on a career as a jazz musician which he abandoned when his bass motifs were revealed. He spent time on the buses but, since he was a bad conductor, this job is not current. For the last seventeen years he has been working in the computer industry and is at present Partner Development Manager for Sun Microsystems. Philip joined the National Space Society of Australia in 1993, has held various chapter and national positions, and is currently the Society's National President. Philip's poem They say your fate is in the stars, they put it in the papers, Or charge you two-and-six to hear about tomorrow's capers. Ten thousand thousand folk will part with money just to see The future that the heavens reveal through aster-ol-ogy. The toilers in astronomy and space are forced to bid For meagre research grants and find it hard to make a quid. It seems unjust that those who work to know what's really there Are valued less than those who pose but really speak hot air. Yet truth is strange and comes from places that you'd least expect - The mouths of babes, the utterances of some cult or sect. It's not our fate but will that takes us to the Moon and Mars, And if we make it so our destiny is in the stars. Jeff Kingwell Jeff Kingwell first revealed his anomie by reclining, from an early age, on suburban car port roofs looking at the stars and planets. He compounded this anti-social behaviour by proclaiming a wish, from year nine, to become a research astrophysicist, an ambition he has been comprehensively unable to attain. Once embarked on this deviant tendency, Jeff got part way to the stars through a career as a meteorologist. Contrary to popular belief, however, astrology plays no role in modern weather forecasting, at least in the version that he practised. Gratified by the enthusiastic public interest and immeasurable support for atmospheric science, Jeff reasoned that this could only improve as the altitude of one's work increased. Also, he sought a quiet life. He therefore commenced a career as a manager of space projects. After about thirteen years he thinks there is quite a bit of space in Australia, really. Jeff's 'pome' Space is big, isn't it? Australia too Must be a connection somewhere Dreamtime skywatchers Earliest navigators Oz was first, again Desert rockets Better than bombs But was it for us, really? Moonsteps Heard here quickest Oz first, again Ozzies in space Pretty expensive fare Who pays the ferrymaster? Rupert, the world's greatest Space investor Oz first, again Lots of spacers Think we've dropped out Oz last, again But you can't built much With wingeing Our space future is before us. © Kingwell 99.
Science in the Pub™, © 2000. Stutchbury, R, Burton, M.