University of Queensland team to speak at NASA symposium

A University of Queensland team has been named to make a presentation at the forthcoming NASA 100 Years Starship symposium.

The symposium, held in Orlando, Florida from September 30 to October 2, is mounted by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA’s Ames Research Centre.

The event is expected to attract roughly 2000 industry experts from throughout the US and internationally.

The team, led by University of Queensland researcher Dr John Cokley, will present their views on what it says will become some of the key drivers of the post-Shuttle space travel industry, which include travel, journalism, media, shopping and “the experience of space”.

These are the findings of a joint Australian-US university research team led by Dr Cokley. Dr Cokley’s team includes aviation management expert Professor William Rankin of the University of Central Missouri, UQ’s Dr Pauline Heinrich, and design doctoral candidate Marisha McAuliffe of the Queensland University of Technology.

The team’s research included personal interviews with the CEOs of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space travel company.

“Most people think that space exploration is only driven by engineers and space rock scientists,” Dr Cokley said.

“But our research over the past three years strongly suggests that space tourism and space travel writing, as well as the infrastructure that surrounds the space tourism business – spaceports and terminal retail outlets – are also strong economic, as well as emotional, drivers for the industry.”

Dr Cokley and Professor Rankin have worked closely and published together on space research since 2004, and Dr Cokley and McAuliffe have just published an article in the Journal of Futures Studies on a teaching innovation for students using a space-station scenario built in the online Second Life environment.