Will We Travel the Spaceways?

Starships, Worldships and Interstellar Nomads is the greatest Hawkwind album title never used — and it's also the name of the latest installment of the Science Café colloquy. Tonight at 7 p.m. at Herbie's Vintage 72 (405 North Euclid Avenue; 314-289-4440 or www.slsc.org) astronomer Bill Kelly and the Saint Louis Science Center's vice president of aerospace science, Gregg Maryniak, discuss the possibility of humans journeying to the stars. As in, leaving our own galaxy and venturing out to the ever-expanding universe. What kind of craft will be necessary for such a journey? Something massive enough to hold dozens of technicians and scientists — something as big as a small moon? ("That's no moon.") Sure, it seems like the stuff of science fiction, but just because science-fiction authors have been debating and hypothesizing for decades how we'll get there doesn't mean the scientists haven't been working on the problem also. One thing's certain: Whatever type of spacecraft is built, it better have a lot of Sun Ra on the iPod. Admission to this evening's discussion is free.
Thu., April 16, 2009