Regular Acceptance: Abstracts Due June 30, 2021

The Interstellar Research Group (IRG) hereby invites participation in its 7th Interstellar Symposium, hosted by the University of Arizona to be held from Friday, September 24 through Monday, September 27, 2021, in Tucson, Arizona. The Interstellar Symposium has the following elements:

The Interstellar Symposium focuses on all aspects of interstellar travel (human and robotic), including power, communications, system reliability/maintainability, psychology, crew health, anthropology, legal regimes and treaties, ethics, and propulsion with an emphasis on possible destinations (including the status of exoplanet research), life support systems, and habitats.

Working Tracks are collaborative, small group discussions around a set of interdisciplinary questions on an interstellar subject with the objective of producing “roadmaps” and/or publications to encourage further developments in the respective topics. This year we will be organizing the Working Tracks to follow selected plenary talks with focused discussions on the same topic.

Sagan Meetings. Carl Sagan famously employed this format for his 1971 conference at the Byurakan Observatory in old Soviet Armenia, which dealt with the Drake Equation. Each Sagan Meeting will invite five speakers to give a short presentation staking out a position on a particular question. These speakers will then form a panel to engage in a lively discussion with the audience on that topic.

Seminars are 3-hour presentations on a single subject, providing an in depth look at that subject. Seminars will be held on Friday, September 24, 2021, with morning and afternoon sessions. The content must be acceptable to be counted as continuation education credit for those holding a Professional Engineer (PE) Certificate.

Other Content includes, but is not limited to, posters, displays of art or models, demonstrations, panel discussions, interviews, or public outreach events.

Publications: Since the IRG serves as a critical incubator of ideas for the interstellar community. We intend to publish the work of the 7th Symposium in many outlets, including a complete workshop proceedings in book form. No Paper, No Podium: If a written paper is not submitted by the final manuscript deadline (To Be Announced), authors will not be permitted to present their work at the event. Papers should be original work that has not been previously published. Select papers may be submitted for journal publication, such as in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS).

Video and Archiving: All symposium events may be captured on video or in still images for use on the IRG and other sponsors websites, in newsletters and social media. All presenters, speakers and selected participants will be asked to complete a Release Form that grants permission for IRG to use this content as described.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Abstracts for the Interstellar Symposium must relate to one or more of the many interstellar mission related topics, such as power, communications, system reliability/maintainability, psychology, crew health, anthropology, legal regimes and treaties, ethics, and propulsion with an emphasis on possible destinations (including the status of exoplanet research), life support systems, and habitats.

All abstracts must be submitted online here. Submitters must create accounts on the IRG website in order to submit abstracts.

PRESENTING AUTHOR(S) – Please list ONLY the author(s) who will actually be in attendance and presenting at the conference. (first name, last name, degree – for example, Susan Smith, MD)

ADDITIONAL AUTHORS – List all authors here, including Presenting Author(s) – (first name, last name, degree(s) – for example, Mary Rockford, RN; Susan Smith, MD; John Jones, PhD)

ABBREVIATIONS within the body should be kept to a minimum and must be defined upon first use in the abstract by placing the abbreviation in parenthesis after the represented full word or phrase. Proprietary drug names and logos may NOT be used. Non-proprietary (generic) names should be used.

ABSTRACT LENGTH – The entire abstract, (EXCLUDING title, authors, presenting author’s institutional affiliation(s), city, state, and text), including any tables or figures should be a maximum of 350 words. It is your responsibility to verify compliance with the length requirement.

ABSTRACT STRUCTURE – abstracts must include the following headings:

  • Title – the presentation title
  • Background – describes the research or initiative context
  • Objective – describes the research or initiative objective
  • Methods – describes research methodology used. For initiatives, describes the target population, program or curricular content, and evaluation method
  • Results – summarizes findings in sufficient detail to support the conclusions
  • Conclusions – states the conclusions drawn from results, including their applicability.

Questions and responses to this Call for Papers, Workshops and Participation should be directed to: info@irg.space.

For updates on the meeting, speakers, and logistics, please refer to the website: https://irg.space/irg-2021/

The Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (doing business as the Interstellar Research Group, IRG) is a non-profit scientific, educational corporation in the state of Tennessee. For U.S. tax purposes, IRG is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) educational, non-profit corporation.

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