As I write this, sitting in the sun with a beer, looking out over the Adelaide Oval and surrounding parks, I must admit that writing this is a struggle. In front of me, Adelaide is putting on a display of truly spectacular weather, and behind me, over four thousand of the worlds leading Space explorers, academics and professionals are meeting to discuss the future of human space science. It’s a truly amazing experience, and the Melbourne Space Program is right there in the middle of it.
For a brief moment today, the full cohort of the MSP IAC delegation is present in Adelaide. Twenty members have made the trek. Twenty. That number represents almost a third of current members in the program. This is an incredible turnout and just goes to show how dedicated the members are, and it’s been great to see this level of enthusiasm.
As we are half way through the conference, I thought It would be a good idea to put out a quick update to let the world know how we are going. Also, since two of our number are heading back, a quick recap of their experience and what they learned will probably be interesting to hear (even if they are both on the regulatory team…).
Here is what they had to say:
It was a productive few days for both of us. We were only here for a short time, but met several prominent academics and learnt about all the new areas of difficulty that the exploration of space created for the legal community. Space traffic management has been a common theme, setting up regulatory framework for the existing space debris, while also making companies and countries that launch new missions accountable for the debris that they may call.
There’s just so much content and so many people. You can spend all your time meeting and talking and listening, and you still can’t see it all. There aren’t enough hours in the day.
They are not wrong. Words can’t do justice to the sheer scale of this event. There is something for everyone: the engineers are surrounded by hardware and technical sessions, the regulatory team have endless panel discussions and everyone is taking the opportunity to talk to the leaders in the industry face to face.
“I referenced so many of these people in my assignments, I never really thought I’d meet them” – Angad Keith
I think that quote says it all.