File under: “Dubious Symposium Topics of the Quarter“:

The National Space Studies Center at Air University sponsored a Space Education Symposium 25-28 September. The theme of the symposium was “Building an Educational Foundation for Understanding Our Shared Dependency on Space” and featured presentations and panel discussions from distinguished personnel in space education from the military, civilian and agency communities.

Now that’s a conference I’d like to sit in on. More:

“The National Space Studies Center is funded by Congress through the efforts of Congressman Terry Everett of Alabama who strongly supports national space efforts, especially in the area of increasing efforts to educate the public on the uses of space and how to protect these critical assets.”

Briefly flipping through the PowerPoint presentations, it seems like the main ideas include a generally declining number of space-oriented engineers and scientists, concern over national security (in relation to space, of course), increased revenue for major communications firms, future space travel, and, well, why universities seem to be losing interest in teaching space studies. Can’t say much of this seems prudent considering Earth still exists, and plenty of problems still need to be ironed out here, but it’s interesting to note that Space Education Symposiums are happening anywhere, especially within the Department of Defense (though I suppose that’s where they’d be happening outside Trekkie Conventions). And think of the symposium after-parties: Out of this world!*

Related:
—Interest in Space Wanes Despite America’s Space Dependency
—Symposium Highlights America’s Space Dependency
—Russia’s space city

• What. You don’t like punnery?