“The Future of the Vision for Space Exploration” is the title of a panel I’ll be moderating tomorrow in Washington DC. In fact, by the time you read this, I should be in transit and looking forward to renewing several good friendships. It’s the first session of the Seed/Schering-Plough Science + Society breakfast series, taking place in the House Energy and Commerce Committee Room on Capitol Hill, the goal being to discuss our future in space for an audience of policymakers and Congressional staffers.

The event’s organizers have lined up quite a panel:

• Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society and long-term advocate of a sound and far-reaching space policy, with extensive background at JPL and experience on missions ranging from Mariner to Voyager and Galileo.
• Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover project, co-investigator on several other Mars missions including the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory, and member of the imaging team for the Cassini Saturn mission.
• Gregory Matloff, author of The Starflight Handbook (Wiley, 1989) and co-author (with Les Johnson and C Bangs) of Living Off the Land in Space (Copernicus, 2007). Dr. Matloff is a long-time researcher into interstellar issues and author of over one hundred scientific and technical papers.
• Edward Belbruno, the master of ‘chaotic’ orbits that offer spectacular fuel efficiency, as proven in the rescue of the Japanese Hiten lunar mission and in ESA’s SMART-1 mission to the Moon. Dr. Belbruno is author of the recent Fly Me to the Moon (Princeton University Press, 2007).

It will be a quick turnaround — I should be back in 36 hours — but do be aware that it affects posting here. I never travel with a computer (and doubt I would have time to do any editing during the trip anyway), which means that any comments left on Centauri Dreams during travel time may go without moderation for up to a day or so. I’ll get to them as soon as I return. Larry Klaes will have the lead on Wednesday and I’ll be back with a new post of my own the following morning.