Australia
Anton Gromov
Anton went to the last congress in Guadalajara (Mexico) and led from there a reportage. It was at this event that Mask showed its presentation of the Martian ITS missile, to which Anton became a direct witness. Instead of a single broadcast, he recorded short videos: impressions of communication Australia with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, before the presentation of the mask, impressions immediately after.
I asked Anton some questions.
What kind of congress is this, and what is he cool about?
The Congress is steeped in the fact that this is the largest space event in the world. At its level, only the American Space Symposium. Accordingly, it is possible to meet representatives of almost any organization. There are all the major world space agencies. In 2016 there were delegations Australia with senior leaders from the US, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, the Emirates, from other countries too. It’s at the main congress. But it’s probably not so important for our girls in particular, they hardly have anything to offer Australia to Charles Bolden. More importantly, there are many different organizations that are engaged in some new developments and educational programs. I already do not remember all. But even more of them should be at the youth congress, which I was not.
What happened specifically for you and what does not, the results of your trip?
Initially, I had an idea to go because of the Mask. Of course, if it was a one-day event, I would not go to Mexico for him. And as a result of the impression left such that now I’ll go and without such a “zavlekalova.” I’ve never seen such an atmosphere that conversations about the cosmos merge into noise because of their amount around. I do not work in the space industry, so I had no goals to establish any business contacts, but nevertheless I met many interesting people, including the Space Generation Australia [SGAC, международная молодежная космическая организация при ООН]. He talked a lot with like-minded people with the reddite spacex. I even drank a bit of beer with a NASA man who gave the first contracts to SpaceX, had a rather long conversation with Zubrin and was “sent” by Aldrin. So it turned out richly, despite the fact that I, I must confess, was a bit shy because of the fact that everyone was doing business conversations, negotiating deals, and I was just a popularizer) I also spent a lot of time in technical sessions that were also Australia informative , Despite the fact that it was not clear everything. In addition to purely pragmatic things, I personally have very strong impressions. Roughly as with White’s exit into outer space: the saddest moment in the world was when the exhibition was dismantled on the last day. For me it was 5 days of happiness)
Will there be any benefit sending a delegation from Russia, can they do something there, make contacts and so on?
There will be some benefit, of course. It depends on the enterprisingness of the girls, I think. In addition to reports and stories about what’s there and how, they can organize in Russia some international educational program, make representation of some cool organization or in some way Australia start cooperating with foreign colleagues. They learn a lot about who in general in the world is doing what, what organizations are, who will get acquainted with many people, will learn and tell everyone about the latest developments of different agencies. There are relatively many announcements at the congress. In 2016, told the news about the European mission of delivering soil from the fobos, if not mistaken, Australia details about the rover 2020, announced the purchase of a sea launch and so on. I remember how, on the eve of this announcement, I was walking next to a girl from S7, and she called us tomorrow morning for their announcement, not saying it would be). It is difficult to predict the outcome, but there certainly is potential.
Girls
Brief biographical note:
Anastasia Stepanova.
Journalist, student of the faculty “Mechatronics and Robotics” MSTU them. NE Bauman, participant of the Mars-160 experiment (her reportage) on terrestrial analogues of Martian stations in Utah and in the Arctic. She also participated in the selection of Mars One (interview).
Valery Skuratov.
A student of BSTU “Voenmekh” them. DF Ustinov (Faculty of rocket and space technology), a member of the youth section of the Northwest Organization of the Federation of Cosmonautics of the Russian Federation, a member of the Space Generation. Participant of the “Summer Space School”, teacher of the “University of Children”, participant of the lecture “Parsek”, administrator of “Courses in the basics of astronautics” in St. Petersburg. She was practicing in the rocket company “Lin Industrial”.
Daria Nemirich.
A student of the biological faculty of St. Petersburg State University, climber, member of the youth section of the Northwest Organization of the Cosmonautics Federation Russian Federation, member of the Cosmic Generation, member of Team Russia, who won the 4th place in the final of the Gemini Mars Design Competition.
Ksenia Lisitsyna.
Graduate of BSTU “Voenmeh” them. D. F. Ustinova and Universitetet i Nordland (Norway), web master, climber, member of the North-Western organization of the Federation of Cosmonautics of the Russian Federation, member of the Space Generation. Participant of the Summer Space School
I asked the same questions to all the girls.
What will be your task at the congress? Do you have a concrete plan for what to do every day?
Anastasia: We will fly to both congresses to meet new people who are interested in astronautics. At a large astronautical congress, we will share technical and scientific sections among ourselves in order to cover the program as much as possible. I, as a participant in isolation experiments, are primarily responsible for them in those short reports that we will conduct from the congress. Of course, I will try to find a lot of personal contacts that will help me in the future. Upon our return to Russia, we will lecture on what we saw and heard, and, as a result, we will mount the video of our trip. The congress is so large that one person can not cover a small fraction of what is happening. I know for sure that I plan to meet with the Martian Society of Australia, to discuss cooperation between our countries. And we will plan the trip itself in the summer, when it comes clear with the very fact of participation and the availability of tickets / visas. In summer, the program of the large and youth congresses will be published.
Valeria: My task will be to prepare short but interesting reports from the sections on the architecture of space missions and the creation of rocket and space technology, as well as communication with space specialists Industry. I, as a student of the graduate course of the rocket and space technology department, can correctly convey what the participants of the congress will share with us.
Daria: At the moment one of my main tasks at the forthcoming congress is Oral presentation with a report at the student session. The report will be devoted to the mission that we, together with the team of children under the direction of Alexander Khokhlov, designed for the Gemini Mars Competition (for more details)
Specifically for the report, we stated the thesis entitled “The trajectory analysis and possible architecture of manned Venus and Mars flyby mission in 2021-2023 years”, which literally translates as “Analysis of the trajectory and the possible structure of the manned flight mission of Venus and Mars in 2021-2023 “. The thesis was filed in early March, the organizers promise to conduct the selection of works until April 23. In addition, at the Congress I will attend medical and biological reports and report short reports about them.
And after returning to Russia I will give more detailed lectures on the past event. Specifically, there is no plan on the days, since all the speakers are still unknown.
Xenia: I am a member of the Advisory Council of the Space Generation. My task is to establish contacts with representatives of the space industry. I gladly bring packs of business cards from the trips and acquaint the colleagues who stayed in Russia with foreign experts, tell about the opportunities, grants and ideas. As a software development student, in Adelaide, I will concentrate on the software used for working in space, space and near space research. Over the day, organizers are working on the plan. So far only the dates of the youth conference and the annual congress are known.
How do you prepare for the trip?
Anastasia: As soon as there is clarity, I will begin to communicate with people around the world from the aerospace industry and negotiate for meetings at the congress. We will begin active preparation after the successful completion of the project.
Valeria: Now we are engaged in social services. Networks and interviews dedicated to the project. Then we will determine in what form it is better to do reports from the Congress.
Daria: In early March, I wrote and sent a thesis to this conference. So far we have just started this project, so we have not had time to take very active steps yet.
Xenia: I constantly follow the news, get to know people, maintain relationships with colleagues. To effectively participate in such events you need to be aware of the cases. The main training will begin for a month and a half before the trip, when the list of participants becomes known.
What do you sacrifice for the trip?
Anastasia: If Honestly … .ichem! I’m going to skip school and everything.
Valeria: What we all sacrifice is time, for study or work, but it’s really hard to call it a victim, rather it’s a great opportunity for us and for people who are interested to know , What will happen at the astronautical congress, plus we develop useful skills, and our project plays an important role in popularizing cosmonautics.
Daria: If you look formally, I’ll miss a couple of weeks of studying at the university and the music school, as well as a few classes on mountaineering and climbing. But if you look from the point of view of the benefits, then say that I do not quite sacrifice something correctly. The trip is very important for all of us (and for me in particular), because it will allow you to acquire new skills, experiences and acquaintances, which will be useful in the future at home, in the same study, for example, or the popularization of space biology.
Xenia: There is no victim. Of course, the trip will take time, the forces will be spent, but I take it as a job. And work is not a sacrifice, but the use of your best skills to solve problems.
What words do you think to convince those reading this that you need to support?
Anastasia: It is more likely that this trip will build a long-awaited bridge between the Russian youth and the whole world. Dating and useful contacts will help in the future send more and more outstanding children from Russia and organize here we have similar congresses. The most important thing is to understand that much depends only on us, and only we create our cosmic future!
Valeria: I do not think it is necessary to convince us to support. We will make a report for all who will follow our activities. Those people who understand the value of our idea and the efforts expended will support us, and it is thanks to such people as our world is changing. I hope that such a financing format will be supported, and we will become guides of new ideas, we will tell about the problems and projects that are relevant at the moment. After all, even if you get to the conference, you will be able to listen to only a part of the reports, since there are often many parallel sections, and of course you can not do it.
Daria: Ordinary youth in our country , No matter how sad, it must be admitted, is in isolation from science, in isolation from astronautics and astronomy. Most do not know the names of modern cosmonauts, nor the current interesting space experiments and projects, nor even the names of Russian carrier rockets and ships. All this testifies not only to the fact that the current Russian popularizers of space exploration are sorely lacking, but also about the weak support of the state of the educational sphere in this field (and even in many other respects, which is really a sin).
So it turns out that everything should be taken in hand (in this case, in the hands of the people), if you want to change this order of things. Our task (apart from all the others) is to serve as inspiration for the same young people as we are. To make it clear that young people not only want and can engage in the popularization of science, but also is able to do it well.
We will show by example that the Russian young generation can be a part of the world’s space science at a decent level. And we hope to break once again the gender stereotype that girls are a weak sex that can not do anything in cosmonautics.
Xenia: Right now I’m participating in a meeting of the UN subcommittee on Peaceful exploration of outer space. Every day of communication and exchange of experience here brings more knowledge and skills than a month of work at home. I want young professionals from Russia to have the strength and inspiration to develop the industry in the future. But without assistance from the state systems can not do. By my trip I want to draw the attention of Roskosmos to the need to develop affordable grants for students and specialists.
Alexander Khokhlov
A few more questions I asked the main organizer of the trip, the engineer-designer of space instrumentation in the Central Research and Development Institute of Robotics and Technical Cybernetics (CSRI RTC) in St. Petersburg, a journalist and popularizer of astronautics.
Probably, the most important question – why for as many as four? Is not it a lot?
In the initial planning, only the option of maximum benefit was considered, that is, how now in 2017 to get the maximum effect from organizing a delegation’s trip to such an event. In this case, even croweding is not chosen by chance, if a person spends their money, he looks at what he spends, there is a personal interest. Therefore, we do not just send the girls to Adelaide, we tell them that in principle there is such an opportunity – and we call Roskosmos to follow the example of other national space agencies and start making grant programs for young people. While only there is a long-term prehistory, how the Russian Federal Space Agency ignored such questions. A delegation of 4 people, we solve several problems. For sponsors, the most important will be the opportunity to learn first hand what is going on at these congresses. Girls will share the program of a large congress, according to their qualifications. Approximately Valeria will write short reviews from sections on the architecture of space missions, the creation of rocket and space technology. Dasha about biological and medical experiments. Nastya about the projects of flights to Mars and about the isolation experiments. Xenia on the development of software for space missions and training astronauts. There are target tasks: Dasha, as a member of the team Team Russia, who won the 4th place in the final of the international student competition Gemini Mars Design Competition, will speak at the student section with a report on the manned flight project of Venus and Mars. Xenia is already a representative of SGAC at that time, so she will need to personally meet with representatives of the organization from other countries.
Nastya Stepanova, as a participant in isolation experiments and a journalist, will review the results of these works, which will be presented at the congress. A separate point is that all four girls are supporters of manned space exploration and space expansion. Therefore, at the congress, their emphasis will be on manned space flight, on the future development of space flight programs.
