Let's Talk About Sex ... In Space, That Is.

If humanity is going to make space another home for civilization, eventually people are going to be doing, you know, "it" in space. After, you know, "it" come the babies, and children, and that most feared of human beings: teenagers. How will humanity cope?

Laura S. Woodmansee, author of the book Sex in Space, has some of the answers. She will be sharing the results of her research in a multimedia lecture and book signing presented by the Mars Society of San Diego and hosted by the San Diego Air and Space Museum in September.

Woodmansee is a Science Journalist, Entrepreneur, and volunteer JPL Solar System Ambassador. A member of the National Association of Science Writers, Woodmansee earned her Master's degree in Broadcast Journalism from USC's Annenberg School for Journalism. Apogee Books is releasing her latest book, Sex in Space this month. Her previous books include Women Astronauts and Women of Space: Cool Careers on the Final Frontier.

Visit her website at www.LauraWoodmansee.com

Then go listen to her speak.

When? Friday, September 8, 2006, at 6:30 p.m.

Where? San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. (Directions)

Admission? FREE, FREE, FREE. But RSVP is required to the Mars Society's Gerry Williams at filmist[at]mac.com.

To learn more about the Mars Society San Diego visit their website at MarsSanDiego.org and for the San Diego Air and Space Museum visit www.sandiegoairandspace.org

August Allspace Dinner Recap.

Members of the Mars Society, the Planetary Society, and the National Space Society got together at Acapulco Restaurant last Sunday under the auspices of The Alliance for Space. Over margaritas and tacos, we talked about some of the historic events happening in space today.

For instance, the new definition of planet. We liked the planet/pluton proposal. (Not that it matters. We had no vote in the matter.) There's also NASA's big news with the selection of SpaceX and Kistler Rocketplane as COTS finalists. We were glad SpaceX got picked. It turns out we all think pretty highly of Elon Musk.

Which of the non-finalists will switch gears and compete for Robert Bigelow's America's Space Prize? Whatever happens, we all agreed we're rooting for San Diego's own SpaceDev to do something in space with their plans to fly a spaceplane using hybrid rockets.

We talked about the plans by the Mars Society to conduct a four-month long mission in the Arctic next summer.

And then we went way out there and started talking abour terraforming the planets. We got to talking about Venus and Mars and how Venus has the gravity we need but Mars has the "better" climate. This got us talking about how much better it would be if Earth's sister planets were located in the Sun's sweet zone for life. By the time dinner was over, we had moved Venus and Mars to the trojan points of Earth's orbit around the sun. Venus especially would be great to have nearby. It's got that gravity that is almost Earth-like, easier for humans to adapt to than Mars would be. Once we decided to move Venus and Mars it seemed a shame to leave Mercury way down there out of reach so close to the Sun. So we thought about moving Mercury and all its minerals too. After all, if you're going to think big, then think BIG. How to do it? Our resident nuclear physicist dismissed objections with a wave. "That's just an engineering problem," he said. (Under the new definition of planet would Earth and its new neighbors lose their planet status if they all shared the same orbit? The new definition requires a planet to have cleared its neighborhood of other objects. If we move the terrestrial planets to Earth's orbit, the neighborhood would no longer be cleared. Hmmmmm.)

Join us next month at Killer Pizza From Mars in Escondido. When? Sometime in late September. Stay tuned. How? Join the AllSpace mailgroup. (See the sidebar.) Or just come back here.

Technorati: Astronomy, NASA, Space Exploration.

AllSpace Mexican Dinner: Sunday August 20

Come join your fellow San Diego spacers for a Mexican dinner. Anybody with an interest in human spaceflight is welcome to come. Members of space advocacy groups are especially invited to attend.

When? Sunday, August 20th, at 6 pm.
Where? Acapulco Mexican Restaurant in Old Town. 2467 Juan Street (Map.)

Mars Society BBQ Friday August 11

The Mars Society of San Diego is having a barbecue potluck social this Friday night, August 11, 2006, at 7 pm. The barbecue will happen in Dave's backyard in Mission Hills.

Bring your own drinks, plant or animal flesh for the grill and a dish to share.

For more information and directions to the the event RSVP to Gerry at filmist[at]mac.com or Dave at tdaver[at]sbcglobal.net.

For more information about the Mars Society of San Diego visit their website at marssandiego.org.

The Big Chinese Dinner Recap.

A handful of us met at Sunrise Buffet for dinner and space talk yesterday. The food was great and so was the conversation.

We talked about Bigelow Aerospace's fantastically successful inflatable habitat launch. We compared his more secretive operation with the wide open operation of Elon Musk.

We also talked about NASA's COTS program and compared it to Bigelow's America's Space Prize, which, like COTS, is offering money to the company that can fly a spacehip to orbit and dock with a space station. In NASA's case, the ISS; in Bigelow's case, his proposed inflatable habitat.

We also divided up some tasks to try and increase turnout for the next dinner and to increase the number of readers of the AllSpace mailgroup. (See the link for the mailgroup in the right hand column of this blog. Go there and join, already.)

We agreed to meet again next month. Here are the preliminary details on that.

When? Sunday, August 20th, at 6 pm.
Where? Acapulco Mexican Restaurant in Old Town. (Map.)

Come on back for more later.

San Diego Space Advocates Unite!

Come to Sunrise Buffet Chinese restaurant in Kearny Mesa to discuss plans for the AllSpace group as well as talk about the exciting space events recently. For instance, there's the successful space shuttle mission, and the historic flight of Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable test habitat module. These are exciting times for spacers. Come meet some fellow travelers.

Date: Sunday, July 23, 2006
Time: 6 PM
Place: Sunrise Buffet at 3860 Convoy Street #121, San Diego, CA.

San Diego's Alliance for Space

This site will be the blog for the Alliance for Space of San Diego. AllSpace, as it is known, is intended to link San Diego members of space advocacy organizations with each other and to provide information on events and activities related to space travel. AllSpace is being formed by a handful of San Diegans who are members of groups like The Mars Society, The Planetary Society, The National Space Society, and the Space Frontier Foundation.

Come back again for updates.