The Interstellar Research Group (IRG) in partnership with the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) hereby invites participation in its 8th Interstellar Symposium, hosted by McGill University, to be held from Monday, July 10 through Thursday, July 13, 2023, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This is the first IRG meeting outside of the United States, and we are excited to partner with such a distinguished institution!
Registration is available at:
8th Interstellar Symposium
For more detailed information, please visit the Symposium website at:
https://irg.space/irg-2023/
TOPIC AREAS:
Physics and Engineering
Propulsion, power, communications, navigation, materials, systems design, extraterrestrial resource utilization, breakthrough physics
Astronomy
Exoplanet discovery and characterization, habitability, solar gravitational focus as a means to image exoplanets
Human Factors
Life support, habitat architecture, worldships, population genetics, psychology, hibernation, finance
Ethics
Sociology, law, governance, astroarchaeology, trade, cultural evolution
Astrobiology
Technosignature and biosignature identification, SETI, the Fermi paradox, von Neumann probes, exoplanet terraformation
KEY DATES:
Plenary Presentations
Abstract Submission Early Bird Deadline January 15, 2023
Abstract Submission Final Deadline April 21, 2023
Paper Submission Deadline
Conference Manuscript Submission June 23, 2023
Revised Manuscript for Journal Submission September 8, 2023
Work in Progress Posters
Abstract Submission May 20, 2023
8th Interstellar Symposium – Interstellar Research Group (irg.space)
8th Interstellar Symposium Program
The 8th Interstellar Symposium runs from Monday July 10 to Thursday July 13, with pre-symposium seminars taking place on Sunday July 9.
Sunday July 9 Seminars
Seminars award continuing education credits and are not part of the main Symposium program. Registration for these seminars is independent from Symposium participation.
10:00 am – 1:00 pm | Brent Ziarnick “Vanquishing Dark Skies: The Role of National Space Forces in Security, Safety, and Prosperity through Space Exploration” |
Joseph Meany “Mars Agriculture” |
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm | Break | |
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Laura Montgomery “Space Law: An Overview, Past, Present, and Future” |
Alex Ellery “Self-Replication Technology Route to Space Industrialization” |
Monday July 10
9:00 am – 9:30 am | Opening Ceremony |
9:30 am – 10:00 am | Patron Presentations |
10:00 am – 10:30 am | Coffee Break |
10:30 am – 11:30 am | Keynote Frank Tipler “The Ultimate Rocket and the Ultimate Energy Source, and Their Use in the Ultimate Future” |
11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Joseph Gottlieb “Should we colonize (interstellar) space?” |
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm | Claudio Maccone “Human Interstellar Expansion driven by Gravitational Lensing” |
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm | Lunch |
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm | Panel Presentation Alan Stern, Stephane Lintner, Setthivoine You “Helicity Fusion Propulsion Drive: The Company, the Technology and the Applications” |
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm | Coffee Break |
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm | Alex Gmerek “Searching for Extrasolar Life – An Astrobiology Payload for Interstellar Missions” |
3:30 pm – 4:00 pm | Louis Friedman “Real Interstellar Exploration Will Be Virtual” |
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Tour of McGill University Laboratories Laser Thermal Rocket / Shock Tube for Lightsail Dynamics / Implosion Driven Launcher / Magnetized Target Fusion |
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm | Welcome Reception Cinq à Sept Delta Hotel Outdoor Patio |
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | Public Outreach Event McGill – Leacock Building, 132 |
Tuesday July 11
9:00 am – 10:00 am | Keynote Dr. Rebecca (Becky) McCauley Rench “The Search for Life and Habitable Worlds at NASA—Past, Present, and Future” |
10:00 am – 10:30 am | Aradhana Choudhuri “Applications and Design Guidelines for High Power Lasers in Space Exploration” |
10:30 am – 11:00 am | Coffee Break |
11:00 am – 11:30 am | Philip Lubin “Large Scale Directed Energy for Relativistic Flight” |
11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Presentation from Limitless Space Institute |
12:00 pm – 1:30 pm | Lunch Michelle L.D. Hanlon “Identifying and Safeguarding Cultural Heritage in Outer Space” |
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm | Sagan Meeting “How would you select a crew of one hundred people for the first interstellar mission?” |
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm | Coffee Break Poster Session 1 |
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm | Jerry Carson “Direct Fusion Drive based on Centrifugal Mirror Confinement” |
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm | Pascal Lee “N ~ 1: Alone in the Milky Way” |
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm | Science Fiction Author Panel Delta Hotel |
Wednesday July 12
9:00 am – 10:00 am | Keynote Stephen Webb “Silence is Goldern: SETI and the Fermi Paradox” |
10:00 am – 10:30 am | Tom Bone “Bremsstrahlung Power Conversion for Fusion Power and Propulsion in Space” |
10:30 am – 11:00 am | Coffee Break |
11:00 am – 11:30 am | Joseph Meany “Mapping Nutrient Cycles for Establishing Extrasolar Colonies” |
11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Jeffrey Greason “Sunbeam: Near-Sun Statites as Beam Platforms for Beam-Driven Rockets” |
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm | Lunch |
1:00 pm – 1:30 pm | Clément Vidal “The Spider Stellar Engine: A fully-steerable extraterrestrial design?” |
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm | Lucas Beveridge “X-ray and γ-ray Beam Interstellar Communication and Implications for SETI” |
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm | Lynn Rothschild “Star Trek meets ET: (synthetic) biology as an enabling technology for space exploration” |
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm | René Heller “Maneuvering Interstellar Light Sails” |
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm | Coffee Break Poster Session 2 “Work in Progress” |
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm | John Bradford “Prospects for Enabling Human Hibernation for Ultra-Long Distance Space Travel” |
4:30 pm – 5:00 pm | James C. Bennett “Development of a Model Framework for Examining Language and Cultural Issues in Human Starfaring Civilizations” |
5:00 pm – 5:30 pm | Joseph Cassady “A Near Term Interstellar Mission Enabled by the Space Launch System” |
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm | Banquet Delta Hotel |
Thursday July 13
9:00 am – 9:30 am | Presentation from Breakthrough Initiatives |
9:30 am – 10:00 am | Colin Warn “The Promise of Beamed Energy for Spacecraft Propulsion and Power” |
10:00 am – 10:30 am | Alex Ellery “Hybrid Symbolic-Neural Approaches to Artificial Intelligence for Interstellar Missions” |
10:30 am – 11:00 am | Coffee Break |
11:00 am – 11:30 am | Robert M Freeland II “Infrastructure Development Leading to the First Long-Duration Interstellar Probe” |
11:30 am – 12:00 pm | Stephen Fleming “Multi-Aperture Telescopes at the Quantum Limit of Superresolution Imaging” |
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm | Gregory Matloff “Aerographite: A Candidate Material for Interstellar Photon Sailing” |
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Tour of the Canadian Space Agency |
Les Johnson, NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (Program Committee Chair)
Andrew Higgins, McGill University (Conference Chair)
Laura Montgomery, Ground Based Space Matters, LLC
Alex Ellery, Carleton University
Stephen Fleming, University of Arizona
Joseph Meany, Independent Science Consultant
Sonny White, Limitless Space Institute
Kenneth Roy, Retired Professional Engineer
Please also visit:
8th Interstellar Symposium – Interstellar Research Group (irg.space)
Contact information:
Please send a message to:
registrar@irg.space
All media needs to be accredited to access the venue center. A link to media accreditations will be provided.
Find here information on the submission process
Abstract Submission
Abstracts for the 8th Interstellar Symposium must relate to one or more of the many interstellar mission related topics. The previously listed topics are not exclusive but represent a cross-section of possible categories. All abstracts must be submitted online via email to: registrar@irg.space . Acceptable formats are text, Microsoft Word, and PDF only. Submissions of Contributed Plenary Lectures and Work in Progress Posters must follow the format described below.
Presenting Author(s)
Please list only the author(s) who will actually be in attendance and presenting at the conference. (First name, last name, degree – for example, Susan Smith, MD)
Additional Author(s)
List all authors here, including Presenting Author(s) – (first name, last name, degree(s) – for example, Mary Rockford, RN; Susan Smith, MD; John Jones, PhD)
Abbreviation(s)
Abbreviations within the body should be kept to a minimum and must be defined upon first use in the abstract by placing the abbreviation in parenthesis after the represented full word or phrase. Non-proprietary (generic) names
should be used.
Abstract Length
The entire abstract (excluding title, authors, presenting author’s institutional affiliation(s), city, state, and text)including any tables or figures should be a maximum of 350 words. It is your responsibility to verify compliance
with the length requirement.
Abstract Structure
Abstracts must include the following headings:
Title The presentation title.
Background Describes the research or initiative context.
Objective Describes the research or initiative objective.
Methods Describes research methodology used. For initiatives, describes the target
population, program or curricular content, and evaluation method.
Results Summarizes findings in sufficient detail to support the conclusions.
Conclusion States the conclusions drawn from results, including their applicability.
List of past conferences...
Past Conferences
2013 – Huntsville, AL, USA
2014 – Oak Ridge, TN, USA
2016 – Chattanooga, TN, USA
2017 – Huntsville, AL, USA
2019 – Wichita, KS, USA
2021 – Tuckson, AZ, USA