The Third Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop
“Long-Term Thinking–Present-Day Action”
November 9 through 12, 2014
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
The TVIW 2014 Symposium was held in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, from November 9-12, 2014, with the theme of “Long Term Thinking, Present Day Action.” The Doubletree hotel again provided the venue for all the activities. Over 70 scientists, engineers, space enthusiasts, artists, writers, editors, publishers, and academics gathered for this symposium.
All the talks were taped by our president and talented videographer John Preston, and are archived here:
It drew nearby talent, as well as attendees from private-, public-, and military-sectors from as far away as Germany, the United Kingdom, and California, gathering to hear papers and exchange ideas about this most audacious of deep space concepts.
The event began on Sunday, with two seminars, taught by Ken Roy and Les Johnson, on Terraforming and Space Propulsion respectively. They proved much more popular than we hoped.
Having a big kickoff party the night before has become a signature event of the TVIW. Like 2011, the Opening Night Reception was again held at the home of Robert Kennedy and Barbara Jackson. Thanks to the generosity of Baen Books, and Ultimax Group, Inc., for sponsoring it. It was a chance to meet informally with the various participants of the workshop, with the pioneering generation there to inspire the new generations.
Kicked off with an inspiring lecture by Dr. Sara Seager of MIT on Earth 2.0, the symposium was a single-track, two-day program of 19 plenary sessions, introducing four workshop tracks that allow participants to dive into systems engineering for world ships, life sciences, communications, and design concepts for interstellar travel (see agenda below). A buffet dinner, provided by one of our sponsors, was held on Monday night. Formal programming concluded Tuesday night with a panel of science fiction writers giving a discussion for our public outreach event, in conjunction with a space/science book sale (including tomes penned by some of our participants) orchestrated by one of our sponsors, Barnes & Noble.
Wednesday, there was a tour of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, followed by a group viewing of the film “Interstellar”, capping a conference that was never short on bold ideas.
Our deepest thanks go to our sponsors, without whom this workshop would not have been possible:
as well as generous individuals listed above, and the timely unheralded help by the remarkable John Treiber.
TVIW 2014 Organizing Committee:
Patricia Copeland, David Fields, Eric Hughes, Les Johnson (chair), Robert Kennedy, Martha Knowles, Yohon Lo, Dru Myers, John Preston, Ken Roy, Jim Woosley