Watch Space Settlement 2021 from the National Space Society today (encore webcast)

Update for Feb. 12: The National Space Society will webcast an encore presentation of the Space Settlement 2021 symposium on Saturday, Feb. 13, at two different times for viewers around the world. 

A second encore presentation will begin at 11:30 p.m. EST (0430 on Sunday, Feb. 14), and will be available here.

The National Space Society's (NSS) Space Settlement 2021 event will stream on Thursday (Feb. 4), with Space.com simulcasting as a media partner.

The free event will start at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on multiple platforms alongside Space.com, including e360tv (which will stream to numerous services such as Android, Apple devices and Roku), the NSS Facebook page and the NSS YouTube channel.

The focus is the people, organizations and technology that are thinking ahead to settlement options in space, NSS said in a statement. A big focus lately in the space industry has been moon missions, as NASA continues to shoot for a 2024 astronaut landing along with a plethora of commercial vehicles through the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. 

But other destinations will be discussed, too, at the event.

Related: The history of the National Space Society

"We present the finest minds in this revolutionary [settlement] movement, with experts speaking about the latest visions of humanity's migration into space: where we will go, why we will go there, and how we will do so," NSS said in a statement.

"Highlights include: a STEM space settlement competition, today's incremental steps to space settlement, the classic ideas of Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill, new initiatives by visionaries such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and other NewSpace visionaries, and much more."

Invited speakers cover a span of space settlement options, ranging from astrophysicists who examine potentially habitable exoplanets to engineers working on planetary exploration. A few of the speakers include Janet Ivey (president of Explore Mars, Inc.), Alan Stern (principal investigator of the New Horizons mission that flew past Pluto) and Karlton Johnson (chair of the National Space Society's board of governors.)

More information, along with updates on the event, is available at the NSS Space Settlement 2021 website.

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace