SpaceUpHOUSTON: Grassroots Space Conference

[Chris Bergin]

Grassroots Space Conference Announces Houston Dates:

Astronaut and Others to Attend February Event

SpaceUp Houston Opens Registration and Invites the Public to Play With Moon Rocks and Telescopes,
and Mingle with Fellow Science and Science Fiction Fans
Houston, TX - January 15, 2010 – SpaceUp Houston has announced availability of tickets for its February 12-13 “unconference” to be held at The Lunar & Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston, TX. Tickets are available at http://spaceuphou.eventbrite.com. The third conference of its kind, SpaceUp Houston will include spontaneous sessions created by attendees as well as telescope viewing of the night sky, costumed Star Wars characters courtesy of the 501st Legion, and a Saturday evening presentation by Astronaut Clay Anderson. Other sessions at the two-day event will include a commercial spaceflight panel and a space show-and-tell.  Lunch will be provided with every ticket to the event.
Attendees have previously arrived from across the country with ages ranging from seven to seventy years old. SpaceUp Houston, as described on the unconference’s website, “will nurture new and radical concepts, will help develop partnerships, and is meant for you to create a future worth living in.” Previous attendees had this to say about SpaceUp events:

“Awesome.”
“Inspiring.”
“SpaceUp was about the people.”
“The conversations people care about by the people who care about them.”
Space unconferences have been held in San Diego, CA as well as Washington, DC to promote discussions on cutting edge technologies, space outreach, and the future of the space industry in the United States. This will be the first SpaceUp event in Houston; it has been planned and promoted by members of the Houston tech industry as well as space enthusiasts from across the country. Major sponsors for SpaceUp Houston include The Boeing Company, United Launch Alliance, and Telestream’s Wirecast software. The event will be livestreamed on February 12-13 at http://spaceuphouston.org.

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A SpaceUp is a space unconference, also known as a user-generated conference or a BarCamp. Participants will decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event.
SpaceUp, founded in 2010, has successfully been held in San Diego and Washington D.C. SpaceUp Houston will build upon their success by involving the Houston-Clear Lake community in sharing and discussing the possibilities for space exploration covering NASA programs, hobbyist projects, start-up companies, research, and the arts. SpaceUp strives to include children, university students, and anyone who has a passion for space exploration. There are no spectators at SpaceUp Houston, only participants. All attendees are expected to give a demo, present a talk, or participate in a panel or roundtable. Above all, SpaceUp events are designed as catalysts for future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics development.
SpaceUp Houston has partnered with the Clear Lake Area National Space Society (CLANSS) which has 501(c)(3) status.
The official SpaceUp Houston Twitter stream can be found at http://twitter.com/spaceuphou
For more information visit the SpaceUp Houston website at http://spaceuphouston.org
or call Dennis Bonilla at (202) 670-4740 or email SpaceUp Houston at [email protected]

[mrhuggy]

I don't know if this is any where else on here, i haven't seen it.

A couple of weekends ago they was a SpaceUP unconference both in Houston and San Diego and there was a lot of people taking part from the commercial space sector.

One of the panels has been posted by Spacevidcast on youtube and is very interesting talk by SNC, Boeing, ULA, ATK, SpaceX and proberly some i missed.

[ugordan]

Looks like an interesting hour and a half to spend when time permits. Don't let the video thumbnail fool you, it appears to have presentations from all CCDev and COTS companies.

[alexw]

Looks like an interesting hour and a half to spend when time permits. Don't let the video thumbnail fool you, it appears to have presentations from all CCDev and COTS companies.

   Skimming and listening in the background, not a whole lot of new information. ULA got asked about Blackzones, gave an amusing response about how they never existed. SNC said they made their own analysis as well, and Dreamchaser can abort to a runway anywhere within the entire launch envelope. Boeing said their CST-100 group is mostly Shuttle people, SNC said looking to hire from the Shuttle base for spaceplane skillsets. ATK said they'd be looking at 200-300 jobs at KSC for Liberty.

   But one thing jumped out: the panel were asked about impediments to moving forward. The standard responses were along the lines of comments about NASA oversight, about alternatively meeting some certifications by demonstrated performance, and ULA emphasized particularly the need to get on with it [commercial space], quit wasting time.

   The ATK, guy, however, said that "way up near the top of [his] list for impediments" was fixed price contracts, how that was a very tough sell to a board of directors.

    FWIW, the ATK guy had also said that the Ariane V core was a "drop in" upper stage for the 5-seg.

    Remarkable.

   -Alex

[Namechange User]

   The ATK, guy, however, said that "way up near the top of [his] list for impediments" was fixed price contracts, how that was a very tough sell to a board of directors.

    FWIW, the ATK guy had also said that the Ariane V core was a "drop in" upper stage for the 5-seg.

    Remarkable.

   -Alex

Just to make sure the proper context is conveyed here, the "ATK guy", his name is Brian Duffy by the way, said fixed price *development* contract *could be* a real impediment.  In fact he was directly dovetailing his remarks from a previous comment made about fixed-price contracts and the level of insight/oversight from NASA and the risk associated with that.  Things that have been suggested many times on here by some. 

Before everyone uses an improper context to bash ATK I suggest you check it out for yourselves and come to your own conclusion.  I recommend starting at 1:15:20

[TexasRED]

Hah, he was my baseball coach. Though I thought he was at LM now.

[Namechange User]

Hah, he was my baseball coach. Though I thought he was at LM now.

He said he was for a while at KSC, I caught that as I was skipping through it.  Didn't here how he ended moving to ATK.

[baldusi]

Before everyone uses an improper context to bash ATK I suggest you check it out for yourselves and come to your own conclusion.  I recommend starting at 1:15:20

Please read "The Innovator's Dilemma". Then you'll understand that most people is not actually bashing ATK but seriously questioning the capacity of the organization to transform it's whole business culture and structure from a huge budget cost plus fee to a small budget fixed price structure. Growing to the big buck contract is difficult. But reducing infinitely more difficult.

[Namechange User]

Before everyone uses an improper context to bash ATK I suggest you check it out for yourselves and come to your own conclusion.  I recommend starting at 1:15:20

Please read "The Innovator's Dilemma". Then you'll understand that most people is not actually bashing ATK but seriously questioning the capacity of the organization to transform it's whole business culture and structure from a huge budget cost plus fee to a small budget fixed price structure. Growing to the big buck contract is difficult. But reducing infinitely more difficult.

First of all I saw your comment last night on a thread that is no longer with us.  It was bashing ATK and you should not attempt to spin it any other way nor try to disguise it as a lecture you are attempting to give me.  There is ample evidence throughout this forum to validate my point.

Second, if you really understood this you would understand my comment above and the context in which Mr. Duffy was speaking.  Finally a SAA with NASA for some amount of money will not anywhere near cover all of development and therefore does not constitute some stand-alone, relatively small, FFP contract.