The 9th Interstellar Symposium main programming runs from Monday October 13 to Wednesday October 15, with pre-symposium seminars taking place on Sunday October 12.
Unless otherwise stated, most events will take place in Grand Salon C of the AT&T Conference Center .
Check-In
Sunday: TBD, 12 pm – 6 pm
Mon-Wed: Grand Ballroom, 8:30 am – 5 pm
Pre-Symposium Seminars
Checking-in is not required prior to attending the seminars.
Registration for these seminars is independent from Symposium participation.
Seminars will take place in rooms 202 and 203 on the main level of the conference center.
| 9:00 am | Room 202 | Dr. Ken Wisian Lieutenant Colonel John C. Wright | Conflict in Space: Space War – Not Just Science Fiction Anymore |
| 12:00 pm | Break | ||
| 1:00 pm | Room 202 | Jeff Greason | Space Propulsion: A Survey of Slower-Than-Light Interstellar Propulsion |
| Room 301 | Dr. Robert E. Hampson | “Tissue Engineering for Long Duration Space Flight” | |
| 4:00 pm | End of Pre-Symposium Seminar Programming | ||
Please note, there may be some slight adjustments to the programming over the next week.
Thank you – IRG9 Planning Committee
| 9:00 am | Opening Ceremony | |
| 9:30 am | Patron Presentations | |
| 10:00 am | Keynote Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak | Applying the DARPA Method to Becoming an Interstellar Species: The Plan, and Economic Guiding Principles, to Actually get it Done |
| 10:45 am | Coffee Break | |
| 11:00 am | Andrew Higgins | 50 Years after Everyone Stops Laughing |
| 11:30 am | Roman Kezerashvili | Propellantless Propulsion in Space Exploration |
| 12:00 pm | Lunch | |
| 1:00 pm | Mark Baumann | Aiming for Proxima Centauri |
| 1:30 pm | Jeff Greason | Thousand AU per Year Mission to the Oort Cloud |
| 2:00 pm | Livian Von Dran | The Semantics of Space Ecology |
| 2:30 pm | Gerald Jackson, PhD | Exoplanet Deceleration using Nuclear Fusion Propulsion |
| 3:00 pm | Coffee Break | |
| 3:15 pm | POSTER SESSION 1 | |
| 4:00 pm | TBD | |
| 4:30 pm | Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba | Next Frontier Economic Systems for the New Space Age |
| 5:00 pm | Break: End of Main Programming | |
| 7:00 – 9:00 pm | Public Outreach Event: Les Johnson | Traveler’s Guide to The Galaxy |
Please note, there may be some slight adjustments to the programming over the next week.
Thank you – IRG9 Planning Committee
| 9:00 am | Keynote UT Student Lead from Space Lab |
|
| 9:45 am | TBD | |
| 10:15 am | Bomb Shot | Al Jackson |
| 10:45 am | Coffee Break | |
| 11:00 am | Europa Clipper and Beyond | Blankenship |
| 11:30 am | Fusion Power Generation in Sustained Orbit Around Proxima b | Grace Bittlingmaier |
| 12:00 pm | Group Photo |
|
| 12:15 pm | Lunch | |
| State of the IRG | Dr. Joseph Meany | |
| 1:30 pm | Poster Session 2 | |
| 2:15 pm | Sagan Session | |
| The Fermi Paradox | Donald “Mark” Haynes | |
| Andrew Higgins | ||
| Les Johnson | ||
| Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak | ||
| 3:45 pm | Coffee Break | |
| 4:00 pm | Science Fiction Authors Panel |
|
| Johnson, Weisskopf, Ledbetter, Hampson | ||
| 5:30 pm | End of Tuesday main programming | |
| 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm | Banquet | Limited capacity, not included in main symposium ticket |
| Exoplanet Presentation | Michael Endl, Ph.D | |
Please note, there may be some slight adjustments to the programming over the next week.
Thank you – IRG9 Planning Committee
| 9:00 am | Bryan Troop | Does God Belong |
| 9:30 am | Boris Petrovic | Plant-Based Life Support Systems to Support Population Growth and Long-Term Food Autonomy in Multi-Generational Interstellar Habitats |
| 10:00 am | Justin C. Feng | Redshifted civilizations, galactic empires, and the Fermi paradox |
| 10:30 am | Pauli Laine | Human Interstellar Flight: A Contingency Plan for Survival? |
| 11:00 am | Coffee Break | |
| 11:15 am | All Hands | Working Track: Future of IRG |
| 11:45 am | Closing Remarks Dr. Joseph Meany, President |
|
| Jud Ready | Announcement of 2027 Symposium | |
Please note, there may be some slight adjustments to the programming over the next week.
Thank you – IRG9 Planning Committee
| 8:00 am – 12:00 pm | Tour of Firefly Tour of the Firefly Bertram facility, Rocket Ranch, consisting of the manufacturing area, along with where they test and integrate their rockets. Limited capacity, not included in main Symposium ticket |
Learn More About Our Plenary Speakers
Andrew Higgins
“50 Years after Everyone Stops Laughing”
A professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He has 30 years of experience in shock wave experimentation and modelling with applications to advanced aerospace propulsion and fusion energy. Andrew Higgins has a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Prof. Roman Kezerashvili
“Propellantless Propulsion in Space Exploration”
A Professor of Physics at the New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Theoretical Physics. He holds two doctorates—a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and a D.Sc. in Theoretical Physics—and carries the honorary academic title of “Professor of Physics.” He is also an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics and internationally recognized for his influential contributions across several fields, including nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, theoretical and mathematical physics, condensed matter physics, and astronautics.
Mark Baumann
“Aiming for Proxima Centauri: Analysis of relativistic spacecraft
trajectories”
A research Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin and an Adjunct Professor at St. Edward’s University. He earned an M.S. in computational and applied mathematics and a Ph.D. in physics from UT Austin. His research focuses on computational relativity and astrophysics.
Jeff Greason
“Thousand AU per Year Mission to the Oort Cloud”
A serial entrepreneur with 26 years in the commercial space industry. Chief Technologist of Electric Sky, developing power beaming technology & electric launch vehicles. Chairman of the Tau Zero Foundation, developing advanced propulsion for interstellar missions. Contributed to commercial space regulation; worked at XCOR Aerospace, Rotary Rocket, and Intel. 29 patents.
Livian Von Dran
“The Semantics of Space Ecology”
An entomologist at The Spring Institute for Forests on the Moon and a grant writer and science communicator at Interstellar Research Group. He is interested in astrobiology, lepidopterology, and the applications of entomology to astrobiology, space biology, space ecology, and space exploration.
TBD
More information coming soon.
Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba
“Next Frontier Economic Systems for the New Space Age”
An Aerospace engineer, futurist, and Ph.D. student, pioneers space accessibility through projects like Omega Spaceport. A Titans Space astronaut-candidate and PoSSUM Academy graduate, she blends research, leadership, and outreach to advance global aerospace innovation, inspire future generations, and champion sustainable human presence in space.
TBD
More information coming soon.
Albert Allen Jackson IV
“Bomb Shot”
A consultant at Triton Systems LLC in Houston. Al was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, graduating from high school at Texas Military Institute in San Antonio in 1959. Al received his Bachelor and Master in Mathematics and Physics from University of North Texas in Denton Texas, 1965. He entered the US civil service with NASA in January of 1966 and became full time Apollo crew trainer on the Lunar Module Simulator, subsystem the Abort Guidance System. Al also received a Ph.D. in physics in 1975 from the Relativity Center at the University of Texas at Austin, then returned to the Johnson Space Center 1975 working for MacDonnell Douglas, Computer Science Corporation and Lockheed-Martin working on flight planning software, Orbital Debris and engineering simulation. Retired in 2010.
Dr. Blankenship
“Europa Clipper and Beyond”
More information coming soon.
Grace Bittlingmaier
“Fusion Power Generation in Sustained Orbit Around Proxima b”
More information coming soon.
Bryan Troop
“Does God Belong”
Received his MD degree at St. Louis University, and a masters in theology from Eden Seminary. He passed boards in Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, and Hyperbaric Medicine. He has enjoyed training surgery residents, and currently enjoys teaching bioethics at Ponce University of Health Sciences.
Boris Petrovic
“Plant-Based Life Support Systems to Support Population Growth and Long-Term Food Autonomy in Multi-Generational Interstellar Habitats”
Founder of the Nikola Tesla Institute. He works in research and development of new energy sources, wireless energy transmission, and the enhancement of human energy. He promotes the legacy of the great scientist Nikola Tesla as a virtual being in the metaverse through a virtual reality AI platform called TESLAI. His organization, ExoTesla, develops Virtual Reality simulations and metaverse applications. Boris is also the Co-Founder of Veganaut, a Space Agriculture and Biotechnology company aiming to apply plant-based nutrition methods and technologies toward sustainable space settlement. Through his work, Boris bridges frontier science, deep tech, and planetary-scale vision, advancing new paradigms in energetics, consciousness, and regenerative space civilization design.
Justin C. Feng
“Redshifted civilizations, galactic empires, and the Fermi paradox”
A postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, specializing in general relativity and gravitation. He received his Ph.D. from UT Austin in 2017, and previously held positions at National Taiwan University (Taipei) and IST, University of Lisbon.
Pauli Laine
“Fusion Power Generation in Sustained Orbit Around Proxima b”
A senior specialist at the FDF C5 Agency, a freelance astrobiologist, and a PhD candidate. He holds a MSc in Information Technology from Tampere University of Technology, in Cognitive Science from the University of Jyväskylä, and a BSc in Software Engineering from Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences.