BOULDER, Colorado -- Visionary Arthur Clarke will be at his beaming best. Noted physicist, Freeman Dyson, is sure to offer speculation on humankind's status in the Cosmos. Mix in Nobel Laureate and inventor of the laser and maser, Charles Townes, and you're likely to find yourself at the galactic center of pondering what next for space exploration.

These explorers of the future join a prestigious roster of freethinkers taking part in the Fourth Annual Telluride Technology Festival, to be held August 8-10, in Telluride, Colorado.

The festival is a celebration of the past, present and future of technology. The focus for this year is on the space program of today and next steps for the coming decades.

Tech Fest was sparked into being by a key historical fact from 1891.

From the Age of Electricity to the Space Age of today - both are founded on innovation, creativity, spirit and perseverance.

"Like a lot of people, I was of the belief that the landing of men on the Moon in July 1969 was just the beginning of an accelerated program," said Scott Brown, Tech Fest organizer. "We now need to get back on track. The dream hasn't been lost…but let's get going," he told SPACE.com.

This year's festival provides an open forum for shaping a space program that everyone can look up to, Brown said. "The space program was supposed be a great leap forward. But it fizzled on us. And that is not acceptable," he added.

A festival honoree and special guest this year is Sir Arthur C. Clarke, famed science fact/fiction writer, and mastermind behind geostationary communications satellites circa 1945. He will be beaming into the program via 3-D holographic image from Sri Lanka for a presentation and panel discussion concerning the future of space exploration. The World Bank and the government of Sri Lanka are sponsoring Sir Arthur's involvement.

Joining Clarke during the three-day festival is Lewis Branscomb, Chairman of the Presidential Space and Science Committee during the Apollo Program under President Lyndon Johnson, is on tap to bring a space policy perspective to the festivities.

Also among those participating: Bruce Murray, professor of Planetary Science at Caltech; Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute; Gale Anne Hurd, producer and screenwriter of the Terminator Series, and whose film career credits include Alien, the Abyss, and Armageddon. They join Tod Machover, director of music at MIT Media Lab; K. Claffy, resident scientist based at the University of California's San Diego Supercomputing Center; as well as Manuel Castells, a University of Southern California specialist in the social, cultural and political ramifications of change generated by technology and science.

Brown said that this year's festival brings together several visionaries who were also the original architects of how humanity could, quite literally, reach for the stars.

"I fall directly into the category of 'let's get going again'," Brown said. "There needs to be a unification of the voice that we need to push forward…to renew the vision," he concluded.