Departure Node, to Private, Educational and Direct-Action Sites
Aldrin: Buzz Aldrin official site, including biography. He lectures under the auspices of his company, Starcraft Enterprises.
The Alpha Space Foundation (ASF) and its partner AEGIS (Alpha Entertainment, Gambling and International Shopping) are working on strategies to counter the threat of the doomsday asteroid strike: (1) a comprehensive NEO telescopic detection system; (2) space shields to destroy or divert those on Earth-impacting orbits; and (3) several self-sufficient space settlements designed to ensure the continued existence of the human race if a gargantuan asteroid or comet should penetrate the shields and collide with the Earth.
The Artemis Project is a direct action organisation led by the Artemis Society International with the specific objective of establishing a permanent self-supporting colony on the Moon. The Society seeks to raise investment through movies, television, publications and merchandising.
AspireSpace is a private rocket-launching group based in Essex, UK. In 1992 their Aspire 1 rocket achieved amateur UK records for altitude (3.5 km) and speed (faster than sound).
ASTRA (the Association in Scotland To Research into Astronautics) is closely associated with the Space Settlers' Society and holds meetings and exhibitions. It was formed in 1953, is organised by well-known author Duncan Lunan, and has been pressing for waverider development since 1967, arousing the interest of JPL.
The British Interplanetary Society is a learned society with a strong reputation for innovative technical work, including the first ever serious engineering studies of a manned lunar spaceship (1939) and an interstellar probe (Project Daedalus, 1978). It was founded in 1933 and is the world's longest-established organisation devoted solely to the exploration of space and astronautics. It publishes Spaceflight magazine monthly, on sale in the UK in W.H. Smiths, and a monthly technical Journal. It organises evening lectures and technical symposia in London for members.
CCNet (the Cambridge Conference Network) is archived here, from Feb. 1997 onwards, fully indexed. CCNet is a scholarly electronic network, with reports sent out every few days, moderated by Benny J. Peiser of Liverpool, UK, whose focus is on all aspects of catastrophic events in and from space which have affected the Earth in the past or are likely to do so in the future.
Encyclopedia Astronautica, edited by Mark Wade, is an authoritative reference source on the space programmes of the world, especially those of Russia and China.
Davies: Paul Davies, author of The Fifth Miracle and many other fascinating science books.
Dragon in Space -- an unofficial Chinese space site run
by Chen Lan, who has considerable connections within the Chinese space community.
Espenak's Eclipse Home Page has details of all solar eclipses forthcoming in the next couple of decades, including maps of their tracks of totality, and a fun animation of the August 1999 eclipse. Run by Fred Espenak.
The First Millennial Foundation is a direct action organisation founded by Marshall T. Savage to carry out the plan described in his inspirational book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps (Little, Brown & Co., 1994). The first chapter begins: "It is our destiny to colonize space." The Foundation aims to begin by building an island hotel and theme park, from there to expand to a floating sea colony, thence to generate the capital and organisation to begin construction in orbit, and so on.
Forward: Dr Robert L. Forward, space engineer, tether expert and sci-fi novelist.
The Foundation for the Scientific and Technological Research of Frontiers is an Italian-based pro-space project organised by Adriano Autino. Goals include developing the philosophy of mankind as an interplanetary species, promoting cultural discussion of research priorities, raising financial support, providing information on frontier research and educating the public in both developed and developing countries.
The Frontier Status reports are archived here. They are free weekly chronicles of the progress of the emerging space frontier, edited by Dale M. Gray, and contains all the latest space news with numerous links to relevant sites. There are also occasional thoughtful editorials, usually posted on the
Space Policy site.
Gray: Dale M. Gray, a space historian and specialist in frontier civilisations, is the president of Frontier Historical Consultants.
The Greater Earth Initiative is a joint grouping of several European-based space organisations and has published a space manifesto.
Hardy: David A Hardy, FBIS, is President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists (IAAA), and author / designer / illustrator of books such as "Visions of Space" and "Atlas of the Solar System".
The Intersol Paderborn Solar Observers Network is a German-based organisation which contains observers from Ukraine, Germany, New Zealand, Uruguay and many other lands, and has many interesting links, professional and amateur, to other astronomy and space organizations.
The Lunar Embassy has laid a claim to the surface of all bodies in the solar system apart from the Earth and Sun, and is in the process of selling them to anyone who is interested. It is unclear whether such land claims will be recognised by whoever reaches the Moon and planets first. It is unclear how they propose to sell land on the gas giants. One of those irritating Web sites with a black background against which coloured text is hard to read, and annoying movie images which never stop loading.
The Mars Society, founded by well-known author and visionary Mars activist Robert Zubrin.
Mir space station: this is the official
"Keep Mir Alive" web site.
The National Space Society is a pro-space, grass-roots, non-profit organization with 25,000 members worldwide, chaired by Buzz Aldrin. If you want your voice heard in decisions regarding the future of space exploration, you might consider joining.
Oberg: James Oberg is an outspoken and expert commentator on space affairs, and has written several books (on Mars exploration, terraforming, the Soviet space programme, etc.).
The OURS Foundation is a non-profit cultural and astronautical organization, established 1990 and based in Switzerland. Its primary purpose is to introduce, nurture and expand a cultural dimension to humanity's astronautical endeavours.
The Planetary Society is one of the largest space interest groups in the world, founded by Carl Sagan and others. Current president is Bruce Murray.
SETI@Home -- download their program (if you've got enough memory!) and join the search for extraterrestrial intelligence at home.
The SETI Institute is the home for scientific and educational projects relevant to the nature, distribution and prevalence of life in the universe.
The SETI League is a worldwide private SETI venture.
SETI site run by Rashid Faizulin in Russia containing his work based on the article "Five Years of META" (Apj, Sept. 1994) by Horowitz and Sagan.
The ShareSpace Foundation "will create new ways to share the space exploration experience democratically among all Americans and at the same time stimulate private-sector activities through its research" -- Dr Buzz Aldrin.
Spaceguard UK is the national focus in the UK for studies into the threat posed to the Earth by collisions with asteroids and comets, and has recently established the privately funded Spaceguard Centre at the former Powys Observatory.
Spacelobby is an American group, postal address c/o Michael, Space Lobby, PO Box 7729, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC 20044-7729. Any Web site???
SpacePub organises social meetings for space supporters at a London pub on the last Thursday of the month. Join their mailing list, or start space pub socials in your own town!
The Space Settlers' Society is based in Glasgow and currently reachable through the homepage of its founder and current president, Andy Nimmo. Founded in 1980, it has helped in the formation of Parliamentary Space Committees and run several UK postcard write-in campaigns.
The
Space Studies Institute was founded by Gerard O'Neill to continue research into key technologies for realising the high frontier. Contact details: P.O. Box 82, Princeton, New Jersey 08542, USA.
Spacewatch, founded by Tom Gehrels and Robert S. McMillan in 1980, is a survey of the smaller bodies -- asteroids and comets -- in the solar system. It is based at the University of Arizona. It finds potential targets for space missions, provides astrometric support for spacecraft mission planning, and finds objects that might present a hazard to the Earth.
Technologies of the Frontier -- alternative title of the Foundation for the Scientific and Technological Research of Frontiers (q.v.).
The Terraforming Information Pages run by Martyn Fogg -- authoritative and attractive site by the author of a major book on terraforming other planets and of many scientific papers on Mars.
The Universal Lunarian Society is based in the USA and has been selling sites in the lunar crater Copernicus for 50 dollars an acre since 1989 (according to a recent report in The Sunday Times). Their objective is to build a domed city-colony called Lunaria. (No Web presence???)
The X-Prize Foundation is based in St Louis, USA. In 1996 it promised a $10 million reward to the first private organisation to build and fly a reusable spacecraft carrying three persons in to low Earth orbit and back. Currently there are at least ten teams competing for that prize.
The World Space Foundation (no Web presence?).
Last revised 28 May 2003 / 34th Apollo Anniversary Year