International Space Development Conference
The ISDC provides a nexus for industry, government, scientists, advocates, and the public to meet and discuss the latest issues in space technology, science, policy, commerce, medicine, exploration, settlement and much more.
Attendees included Buzz Aldrin, Max Hunter, General Daniel Graham, Dick Rutan, and a number of space oriented professionals.
It was intended as a one of a kind convention, but was successful enough that the attendees acclaimed it the "First Annual" Space Development Conference and voted to hold the second meeting in Houston with Art Dula as chairman.
The conference theme is "Global Collaboration in 21st Century Space", inviting all nations of earth to join in the greatest human endeavor, to become an interplanetary species.
Former Indian president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam spoke at the Friday night Gala dinner about an international initiative involving six nations to build a Space Based Solar Power system (SBSP).
Participants are encouraged not just to describe an ideal "future state," but to think about the technical, economic, or advocacy steps that must be accomplished to achieve a specific goal.
2007's ISDC held two pre-conference events; the Symposium on Space Venture Finance on Thursday, May 24 and the bi-annual meeting of the Aerospace Technology Working Group (ATWG) from May 22 – 24.
Senator Harrison Schmitt, Alex Tai, chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic, local space entrepreneur John Carmack, NASA astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid, Mars Exploration Rover project leader Dr. Steve Squyers, Mars exploration visionary Robert Zubrin, lunar advocate Dr. Paul Spudis, Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson, and legendary science fiction author Ben Bova.
Speakers and special guests included Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan, Elon Musk, Hugh Downs, Dennis Tito, Gregory Olsen, Bill Nye, Kim Stanley Robinson, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson and dozens of others from various scientific, entrepreneurial and artistic fields.
ISDC 2005 was held in Washington, D.C. May 19–25, 2005 at the Sheraton National Hotel with the NSS Space Pioneers Awards banquet held at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, hosted by NSS Board of Governors chairman and former ABC-TV "20/20" host Hugh Downs and the Honorable Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation.
NSS members met and debated aerospace pioneers like Burt Rutan, Elon Musk, and Peter Diamandis, while hearing the latest on the explorations of Saturn, Mars and extrasolar planets.
Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites received the coveted Wernher von Braun award from German rocket engineer and Project Apollo space pioneer Konrad Dannenberg, then shared his personal vision of the future.
