Gerald K. O’Neill and the Future that Calls Us

Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 7 pm CDT with Emily Carney via Zoom via Webinar on Zoom

Join HAL5 as we welcome Emily Carney to speak on the subject of ONeills vision for the Future.

About Emily Carney

What impelled a mid-career Princeton physicist to propose that perhaps life outside of Earth could better be served in a space settlement away from the Moon, or a planetary surface? Why did this idea capture the minds of thousands from the 1970s to the present time? This talk sets out to discuss Dr. Gerard K. O’Neill’s early career, interest in spaceflight and ultimately space settlements, and how his vision inspired one of the biggest grassroots movements in the space community. His career as a satellite entrepreneur and his work as a writer will also be discussed. Emily Carney is a spaceflight enthusiast and author hailing from Saint Petersburg, Florida. Her first vivid space memory was seeing Columbia launch in late 1981 (STS-2). Even though she was very young (three years old) and the launch was 140 miles away from where she stood, she’ll never forget it. From then on, she was obsessed with the space shuttle, and spaceflight in general. In 1997, Carney enlisted in the United States Navy, and at one point worked as a nuclear propulsion mechanical operator aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73). When she was honorably discharged in 2003, she went back to college and earned a degree in education. She only taught for a brief time, but after she left the education field, her passion for spaceflight was reignited. Carney worked as a freelance writer from 2008 to 2011, and during that time she started a spaceflight blog, This Space Available (accessible via https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/). She also co-hosts a weekly podcast, Space and Things, with Dave Giles (https://spaceandthingspodcast.com/). In 2011, Carney wanted to start a Facebook group for space enthusiasts, but was struggling to find a good name. Her husband, Steve, suggested “Space Hipsters” as sort of a sarcastic placeholder, but the name stuck. The group grew more quickly than she could imagine, and at present time it totals over 20,500 members. Space Hipsters boasts members from all around the world, and includes space enthusiasts, writers, artists, scientists, engineers, aspiring astronauts, and even a few actual astronauts.



The event is free and open to the public.

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