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Why hold onto an idea that you are not implementing imminently? Give it away and you will find another idea. Give it away and you might find feedback to improve your idea. Give it away and you might find people who want to implement the idea with you. Give it away and one day you might find a service built to share your vision and serve your need. Today, we are announcing our new experiement with you to help ideas to flow. Simply describe and hashtag #ideaTODO in a tweet and we will retweet anything that is STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) related. Need some convincing? There are blog articles out there writing about it already at lifehacker, by a designer, and an entrepreneur. From the perspective of someone who stumbles on what I thought up as original ideas that were also thought up by others as original ideas, it was just good to know that there are like minded out there, and if collaboration follows, that's just amazing. It also opens that up to discussion and improves the idea. An idea is just an idea without at least a plan, if not the will and skills, to execution. But wait, what if people steal my idea and build an amazing business empire? Well, building a business empire takes a plan, will and the relevant skills to get things flying and stay in flight, if you aren't planning to build it soon or to stay with it for the next 5-10 years, someone will come up with that idea independently anyways. In the worse case, you get to see learn from someone the trajectory of your idea based on their execution. One way or another, you are going to get more learning opportunities out of that than keeping it safe. Simply describe and hashtag #ideaTODO in a tweet, we'll help it spread! Looking forward to an open, collaborative future. Ooozing optimism... We've recently been focusing on understanding the maker community in greater detail, specifically on the relationship between maker and (the dirty but essential word) money. In order to not create a bias, we are not going to go into further detail here, except to invite you to "Ponder Aloud" with us:
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If you, your society/organisation or anyone you know would like to contribute to this study, please get in touch directly (or just forward this link around). We'd publish the findings once we have significant participation to draw conclusions. We might have follow ups before we can draw any conclusions - well, as you know, we are always experimenting with new ways of doing things here!
Thе Gаlасtіс Fêtе is a otherworldly festival that сеlеbrаtes thе mіx оf аrt аnd mаkеr сulturе fоr ѕрасе-inspired реорlе оf аll аgеѕ аnd іntеrеѕts. Thе 1ѕt Gаlасtіс Fêtе wаѕ hеld bеtwееn 18-19 оf Julу, 2015 аt Create Space London. Gаlасtіс Fêtе іѕ yet another Cіtіzеn Invеntоr project to examine our relationship with space science and technology, this time, in collaboration with Create Space London - the most multidisciplinary maker space we know of in London, and the independent workshop leaders. There's much in common between art and science. The Gаlасtіс Fêtе іѕ fuеlеd bу ѕоmе оf thе bаѕіс еlеmеntѕ еѕѕеntіаl tо ѕсіеntіfіс іnԛuіrу and artistic process: сurіоѕіtу, сrеаtіvіtу, аnd dіѕсоvеrу. Using most of our senses - ѕее, lіѕtеn and touch - we are encouraged to rethink and infuse the relationship between art and space . What is space inspiration at the Gаlасtіс Fêtе? It is like a frіеndlу, fаmіlу-lіkе еxрlоrаtіоn еxро with іntеrасtіvе 2 dауѕ оf dеmоѕ, hаndѕ-оn асtіvіtіеѕ, fасіlіtу tоurѕ, рrеѕеntаtіоnѕ and реrfоrmаnсеѕ. Perhaps best to illustrate with the variety of activities that has taken place: Performance and installations:
Hands on activities:
All that, under one roof, served alongside lаѕеr сut ѕрасе thеmеd ѕоuvеnіrѕ, goodies bag, refreshments. Cіtіzеn Invеntоr еѕtаblіѕhеd a community рrоgrаm, Sрасе Tоwn Hаll, one year ago. Space Town Hall is a programme that enables ѕрасе сurіоuѕ, еnthuѕіаѕtѕ, technologists and іnnоvаtоrѕ to lеаrn, еxрlоre and dеvеlор thеіr ѕрасе interests with their peer and further their inspiration, іnvеntion and соntrіbution tо thе futurе dіrесtіоn оf space tесhnоlоgу and exploration - whіlе аlѕо ассеlеrаtіng thеіr personal dеvеlорmеnt, regardless оf аgе, bасkgrоund, ѕресіаltіеѕ оr quаlіfісаtіоnѕ. To facilitate that, Space Town Hall gаthеrs tоgеthеr рhуѕісаllу via the same name pop up events іn London with оnlіnе forums and listings for interactions beyond the physical meetups, whеrеvеr thеу аrе wоrldwіdе. Thе fіrѕt еvеr Sрасе Tоwn Hаll event tооk place durіng thе Wоrld Sрасе Wееk 2014 at Hub Wеѕtmіnѕtеr, Lоndоn аnd celebrated its оnе уеаr аnnіvеrѕаrу during the Wоrld Sрасе Wееk 2015 at Hub Wеѕtmіnѕtеr with an ever more accessible and diverse content. Ovеr thе раѕt уеаr, Citizen Inventor hаѕ fосuѕеd оn supporting the initiation and development of learning communities, such as Space Town Hall, disrupting the passiveness of the existing mainstream model of education. Sрасе Tоwn Hаll has been exploring and experimenting with the ways for outreach and ad-hoc learning for space technology and exploration, working together with space entrepreneurs, maker spaces and co-working hubs. Sрасе Town Hаll hаѕ dеlіvеrеd:
Can we build a disaster response capability in a weekend? On the 12-13 Sept, Satellite Applications Catapult is hosting a hackathon event with the theme of Bring Your Own Disaster (and handle it!), opening their doors sharing the use of their facilities and tech gadgets all in one place: Oculus Rift, Leap Motion Controller, Arduino, all kinds of touch screen/surfaces, 3D projector to name a few. With all the technical gadgets of the day, can we, citizens, better use the them for a space age humanitarian effort, using open data that is publicly available online? Can a missions operations center for Tech Demo Sat be turned into a disaster search and rescue center? Can you use VR and gaming to carry out humanitarian effort? Can drones be delivering relief and supplies? Join the discussion at Facebook group. Registration for the event: http://www.inventorthon.com/register-now/ Nepal Earthquake and related open dataset will be used a seed case, addressing scenarios ranging from detecting problems to routing relief efforts. By all means, Bring Your Own Disaster (and handle it!). We've recently published a post on flood data if you need some ideas beyond the seed case of Nepal Earthquake. Citizens, what would you invent? Invention, where to start? How about start with something free - open data? In the UK, we are in luck. The United Kingdom is the country ranked #1 at the Global Open Data Index:  A snapshop from http://index.okfn.org/place/ How much open data we can find and piece together around "flood" as a topic? After all, flood has killed people and animals, destroying infrastructures and homes and it spreads infectious diseases. What would you make of:
Where would you take it next? Disease surveillance and waterbourne outbreaks? Is there anything on World Health Organisation that you can use to derive some intelligence: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/?theme=home We'd be intrigue to know hear from you on your citizen flood watching/prevention effort! Share with us in the comment below or tweet to us @citizeninventor Space Town Hall, Citizen Inventor's space-focused initiative, has been launched for 6 months now. It surely has been some very busy 6 months. We are firmly on our way towards a shared journey on space exploration at the citizen level, establishing a regular avenue for the space curious to get-together in 2 streams:
With David Turner joining us recently joining "the board of regular contributors" at our meetup group, it's looking like a third stream of events is taking shape - pub based discussions at David's favourite pubs around London! We've always been run by community effort for community, so it's great that we are staring to see takers on our offer to exercise your right to make things happen. There are many ways to make things happen and we know everyone is busy. So in the last 6 months, Steph has been working hard to refresh the sites and provide some guidelines to those who want to contribute more regularly. Not that we particularly think that guideline is important as everyone has their own way of doing things and we support diversity, but we thought knowing your rights in the community would be a good place to start and here is a few ideas on how you could contribute - but if you have something else in mind, do say! If you would like to contribute more regularly, you can do anything that creates a better shared journey to space exploration (legal things only please) - join our "board of regular contributors". The only thing we ask is that you share the learning like we always do! Space Town Hall is moving fast, it's onto the 5th co-learning class on the coming Saturday (RSVP before too late) - remember we said it's ad-hoc learning? Yea, so don't wait for a restart, like life, things doesn't always restart - we have designed it so that it is possible for people to join at any point of the series. So, wait no more, join us!  ^ That's how much fun we are having in our co-learning sessions!
Happy New Year! We hope you all have a great time over the festive period. Perhaps new year resolution is not everybody's thing and indeed some of us might just have a new day resolution, or a less periodic, ad-hoc, event-driven resolution, so let's talk about the next resolution. Our next resolution is to co-learn. Towards the end of 2014, we kicked off Space Town Hall, our space exploration and technology focused citizen science platform, where we opens up an avenue for hands on space projects to be discussed, shared and synergies to be created (over beer and pizza - to keep the energy levels, of course). If you have a space project that you'd welcome citizens to join, then we are more than happy to help spread the word through open directory! Check out Space Town Hall's logbook (blog) to keep up to date with progress. But the co- of the co-learning comes from participation. So beyond having an avenue where all things space by citizens can be discussed, we piloted learning by doing with Ray from Tranquility Aerospace. The new learning initiative started with a module one on DIY Orientation Thrusters. What have we been up to? Well, we had lesson #1: Overview: And so this year, we want to kick the year off with follow ups to our trial learning initiative. We're working towards a lesson#2 and lesson#3 in January and February, respectively. We feel very strongly about the fact that space exploration needs all kinds of people and everyone has a skill and that can be shared, technical or not - as long as you have the appetite to learn and share. Since this is not a traditional lesson, you need not do every lesson or have a start at lesson#1. The just-in-time concept applying to learning means we built into our system means we will look into explaining things as our hands on experience requires it to and not try to pre-program too much. Plus, it;s co-learning, there's no problem in copying notes and asking the community - on-demand catch up! Learn like how you once used to - by doing, by sharing with your fellow playmates.
Co-learn for a shared journey to space. Our next town hall is planned to be on 10th February evening, most likely to be with our usual generous sponsors for venue, beer and pizza! PS: As usual, we are always on the lookout for speakers, sponsors, volunteers. Space Town Hall launched and we won't be repeating it's report at the logbook, which described the event but also the rationale behind it and provide sign up links to people who have missed it! Here are some photos for the night. It was lively and we are focusing down the space theme but diversifying the audience, the diverse audience is exactly what we would like to see - but there's never enough of diversity, so keep it coming. How diverse? "Space exploration often sounds very technical but the diversity in skills and people required is often much wider than what we usually associate with. Steph mentioned the need for fashion designer and material scientist in an open source space suit project (EXOSKN) at the intro talk and Chris has illustrated the diversity at the international Space University: lawyers and engineers from different cultures worked closely together to make space projects happen." It's all about the co-learning! With each speaker offering a hands on space project for the community to sign up to, swiftly, we will be picking up one of the three project proposal at the Launch of Space Town Hall tomorrow (8 Nov 2014) to do some DIY on orientation thruster (rocket parts). DIY on orientation thruster is the very first "class" of Space Town Hall's learning initiative. The idea behind it is a development on our believe in learning by doing - the initiate: "is one of the avenue we want to pilot - a "just in time" and co-learning model of learning:
DIY on orientation thruster is less of a class and more like a learning by hacking for a day, with just in time information that is just enough for keep the hands on work going. It was sold out but a few spaces has been released since, so don't miss the chance and RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/CitizenInventor/events/215672812/ It's World Space Week is just round the corner. Every year's 4-10 Oct is the UN declared World Space Week (WSW). There are loads of space related events going on, be sure to check them out! We are launching Space Town Hall (http://www.spacetownhall.com/) too during WSW. On the 6th of Oct evening, Space Town Hall will launch its first gathering at Impact Hub, Westminister, London, UK. The idea of the Space Town Hall is that it provides an regular avenue for people who wants to do some hands on space projects to get together, regardless of boundaries and backgrounds. On this very first event, you will hear a couple of new initiatives on open space projects which you are encouraged to join from our 3 speakers. After that, socializing on all thing space over pizza and beer (generously brought to you by International Space University). We will be in a cafe setting, so there's plenty of table space if you have a DIY space project show - bring them along! There are 2 ways to register if you haven't already: 1) for free via meetup: http://www.meetup.com/CitizenInventor/events/201748742/ 2) make a donation via eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/space-town-hall-the-launch-tickets-12923182587 Registering via one of the above site would guarantee an entry. Space Town Hall is a Citizen Inventor initiative but it cannot be a regular and open without you. If you have an open space project that you are looking for contributors and/or want to join a space project, Space Town Hall have a directory to help you. The only requirement for submission is that it has to be something that citizens are more than welcome to work on. If you have a project you'd like to showcase or wants to call for participation and/or have an idea that you want to test out, let us know via email if you'd like to speak next or just bring it along and bounce it round! We're looking to run an exciting regular community event in central London called the Space Town Hall. Exciting details of which would be announced shortly-ish. It's what you'd expect from Citizen Inventor and from Town Hall, it's all inclusive, yes, designers, makers, media types, the curious - anyone who is willing and ready to share! There's a lot to get done before that, as you know we are run by community for community and we are now calling for designs for our Space Town Hall. We are non-profit and in fact, everything only happened thanks to sponsors and volunteers to date, so we cannot pay you anything for the design. Sorry! But if you are willing, we will make sure we credit you on the website to give you the publicity in place of money and we thank you gratefully for helping to make space popular. Are you still reading? If not, we won't be offended. If you are, here's your chance to claim your fame to making space popular! Here's the criteria and deadline:
Acceptance and follow up: We will email you by 5 Sept to let you know if your design has been selected, if so we'd need your help to create the same design in black and white, as well as both b/w and colour in web resolution (72dpi). Whatever you do, have loads of fun. Enjoy the design process. It was fun at the first ever SpaceUP UK! It was 2 full days of action in a perfect layout at the trendy King's Cross Impact Hub, with the support of 2 friendly staff. Here is a full view of the room(s) while we eagerly awaits for everyone's arrival!  People came from all parts of Europe, as well as all parts of UK to host sessions and participate in discussions. People of NASA and of ESA came along too! The event has been reaching far and wide. On social media, it reached 2.4 million audience on earth, and a little bit beyond. In fact, SpaceUP:UK has reached slightly beyond the crust of Earth with @Astro_Alex setting the records by tweeting to us from the orbit, yes, from the orbit! Three seem to be the magic number during the weekend! There were three rooms, three organisers, three sponsors and three breaks for each day. Incidentally, three astronauts said "Hi"s too. @Astro_Alex said hi from the Orbit and @Astro_Wheels from Mission Control, Houston. Tim Peake said Hi on Skype from Start City at Russia and we continued on for a good half an hour (+) of Q&A! It was amazing and much appreciated for Tim to take some time to talk to us during the busy training schedule in Russia. Don't forget to take the tea into space, Tim!  The days were packed and the three rooms were running at capacity. Exhibitors has created a great atmosphere and discussion areas. Unexpected conversations came up at the ISU stand when Steph and Chris started to talk about art and how it mixes with space. It was a perfect event for discussions, discussions and discussions:
Citizen Inventor had 2 modest booking at the Mars room to discuss how to kick off projects on cubesats together, as well as how to get EXOSKN, the open source space suit project off the ground. A lot of useful discussion and the rooms were packed with extra chairs on both sessions. So thank you all for contributing on the day. More importantly, please help to keep the discussion and everything else going, join us and take some actions! Watch out for upcoming events to get more projects off the ground. It's never too late to join.
Towards the end, Kate (one of the organisers) was spotted to be under the influence of a different gravity in Mars (room), or was it the effect of Pubs nights?
If you've missed all these, well, don't miss the next one! But you can still catch a glimpse of SpaceUP:UK with regards to the schedule and topics covered at SpaceUP:UK's schedule page. Links to presentations are getting updated in time, so keep checking back over the next month or so. Media coverage will be updated there over time too, so keep polling the site.
For the very first time, SpaceUp is coming to London on the 5-6 July: SpaceUp UK organised by a small group of volunteers. Catch this chance, come along and show that you care and wanted something like this to happen in the UK more often! Tickets are available at spaceupuk.org now and check the website for useful information which would be post up over time. Unlike a traditional conference, an “unconference is a participant-driven meeting”. Preparing for it sounds heavy perhaps getting to understand the concept is a better way to describe it. But none the less, this great guide will give you a lot more details on how to prepare to attend an unconference (pdf). But in short, going to an unconference is like going to a conference, democratised - that means you are the speaker (as well as the audience)! But wait a minute, you did not think it’s all just powerpoint in a lecture hall, did you? But equally, don't be shy, if you are not up for being the only speaker in the room, you can always start and discussion and get everyone exchanging ideas (and here is some useful guideline on etiquette). The format, length, topic of session can vary a great deal and here are some examples for inspiration: 60 seconds to landT-5 talkRound table/forum discussionVirtual PresentationInteractive Session
Ok, so now get your thinking hat on and pick your style. Don't forget to get the tickets! It is an unconference, how exciting will you make it?
Spread the word, spread the love! There' s the ESA Summer of Code for students, but if you are no longer a student and still wanted to do space related coding - watch out for the Hackathon at the Satellite Applications Catapult which is now open for registration. The dates are 28-29 June, 2014. And there's nothing more exciting than the first ever SpaceUp unconference in the UK on 5-6 July, 2014 - get your early bird ticket for 25GBP before the 25 May. If you are unfamiliar with unconference, here is what wiki said: "Typically at an unconference, the agenda is created by the attendees at the beginning of the meeting. Anyone who wants to initiate a discussion on a topic can claim a time and a space. Unconferences typically feature open discussions rather than having a single speaker at the front of the room giving a talk, although any format is permitted." - but don't worry, keep an eye on the SpaceUp UK site, it will be releasing more tips and information in the run up to the day, so watch this space - just save the date and get the tickets already! Come to tell and hear about space at SpaceUp UK. There much to get excited about SpaceX's resupply mission that has just launched a few hours ago. The count down started at T-60. After lift-off, It took 10 minutes to reach the orbit before Falcon9 separates from Dragon. Dragon is expected to reach the ISS on Sunday and NASA is expected a space walk on Sunday too. Dragon is not only taking 2089kg of cargo up to ISS, but it will also be taking 1583kg of cargo back after it's due to stay for 3 weeks. It's going to get busy with 5 CubeSats being launched:
Did I say it's going to get busy? It's not just for the scientist - but you too. Zac from KickSat has been putting out a call/contest to everyone on earth to participate in listening to the sprites signals. A tweet from BIS has just came in saying "@g8fjg has received signal from #KickSat CubeSat from 22KM East of London. Short bursts recorded and another satellite in the same orbit." And for those who would rather watch, NASA is beaming video down, yes, beaming! With OPAL (Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science) on board of the cargo, NASA is expecting to laser beam video to earth. Why laser beam? "OPALS will demonstrate up to 50 megabits per second, and future deep space optical communication systems will provide over one gigabits per second from Mars." - source from NASA. NASA hopes to boost the connection speed by 50 times! And of course, this missions is developing towards a reusable launcher, Falcon9 v.1.1 could show some landing legs on return. A detail of the launch schedule and the content of the cargo is described here and here. Over the weekend of Space App Challenge 2014, some 671 space projects were born to answer 54 challenges over 95 locations - that is without counting the 75 virtual project's physical location! Wow. The 54 challenges were in 5 themes: Technology in Space, Human Space Flight, Asteroids, Earth Watch and Robotics. It sure was hard to pick a challenge to do out of the many, but when the clock strike 9 in the UK, Exoskn - an open source space suit project was born in the virtual location to answer to Kennedy Space Center's space wearable challenge, alongside 28 more projects across the world. It was one of the 75 virtual projects that got nominated for global judging but that wasn't the end. It's now making an open call for participants, looking to expand and keep moving forward with wearable electronic tinkerers, fashion designers, material scientist... name your role and skills! Here is where it got to after 36 hours (excuse the speaker, she hasn't really got any clear mind to speak by then...) : exoskn from Citizen Inventor on Vimeo. Factory might sound like a big word and if you have joined us on our February field trip, you'd realise how office like and friendly the facility that satellite "factory" can be like! On 22nd Feb, we went to visit the Pocket Spacecaft's facility at Bristol. The train was not helping, nor was the flood, but some of us made it for a very educational day! It must be said home of the Pocket Spacecraft is like a tucked away alternative world. To reach Pocket Spacecraft's facility, one would ask direction at the Cinema's entrance by the water side, be directed upstairs through bar and cafe, Finally through a secure corridor of the Pervasive Media Studio and you'll reach the open planned HQ. Michael has presented to us the tips and tricks for getting satellites into space, sharing the greatest detail from his experiences on everything from regulations, details of open sourced space projects, place for souring parts to make your own cubesat, technologies for controlling landing, altitude, propulsion etc, to tools for listening to spacecrafts. And of course the process and the ambition to launching thousands of thin film Pocket Spacecrafts in an affordable way. There's no lack of detail on all topics covered, it's like a week of space symposium compressed into a day! Regulations for spacecraft is actually very intriguing, when it is stationary, in the atmosphere and out of the atmosphere, it is considered as a different kind of instrument and are subject to different regulations! And of course, we need to ensure wherever we go in space, we leave it rather untouched and there's where the Heritage rules and Planetary protection rules comes in. Needless to say different country have different regulations too! And of course, we visited the facility for making spacecraft. Most electronics are printed out over at a FABLAB, in the HQ, we can see:
And that is not yet the end of the day! We then learn how to listen to satellites! Listen? Yes, like tuning on your FM radio, listening to satellite is like tuning into the channel of the satellite (as oppose to BBC R6 for example). But because the signal is much weaker, the antenna and the "radio" have to be a bit more powerful - so we learnt a lot about the different types too.
In our usual style, we continued the Q&A through drinks (and a very nice dinner too, thanks!). Oh, and we had a small brainstorming around interplanetary internet on the train on our way back after dinner. Keep an eye on that space.
It's been a while since we are back from ESTEC but we still have updates coming in! Of course we cannot relive the experience but it's as close as we can get with photos and presentations as reminders: We have uploaded photos up on the meetup site: http://www.meetup.com/CitizenInventor/photos/20243732/ If you've got some to add, it should be easy enough to add photos to the event! On top of event photos, here is the power point presentation from our animated super-guide Robert - on areas of researches that is conducted at the facilities, as well as interesting cases of technology transfers. Technology transfer programme aims to facilitates the transfer of space technology to non-space area - ever thought of using satellite technology for your formula one video game? Read on! If you are looking for a summary description of the satellites, launchers and mission timeline, you'll find them all here in the presentation too. To those of you who have seen Steph from Citizen Inventor talking at TEDxEastEnd a few week's back at the end of Jan (photos here, video later), here is your next chance to get hands on with the spacecrafts that has been waved around on stage (courtesy of Pocket Spacecraft). And of course, curiosity is all you need - so come along to tour around and have a play with spacecrafts. Sign up here: http://www.meetup.com/CitizenInventor/events/149322422/ We shall be heading off to Bristol to Pocket Spacecraft's home on the 23 Feb, where you'd be able to see the facilities for manufacturing one of the spacecrafts that has been waved on stage. You'll be surprised to see the facilities (it's friendlier than you ever imagined) and you will have your hands on the spacecrafts! We'll announce the exact plan closer to date. But to ensure you got the date saved and train ticket booked: We will start the day at 11am and the event is expected to last for most of the day, pub to follow in our usual tradition, of course. While we are at it, February certainly seems a busy month - we've just announced another two more events organised by our friends as well. If you have any citizen science related project, event, articles - feel free to keep them coming! http://www.meetup.com/CitizenInventor/ Remember, let curiosity take you to places you have never imagined. Looks like we are indeed starting the year by spreading around geographically - we had our field trip to ESTEC in the Netherlands on the 18th Jan. It's our first field trip, and first oversea trip too! We received amazing hospitality at ESTEC from Robert, who has been answering every single question from all of us in great details, We absolutely love his space walk! ESTEC has been extremely generous and Robert half of the day showing us buildings that are not usually open to the public on the weekend, such as ERASMUS. Speaking of being a collaborative community, it all started and happened thanks to Brodie, one from our community (and wears the think tank hat too), and of course, the amazing team at ESTEC, especially Anja who has helped to make it all happen. Definitely love this kind of spirit and the energy on making things happen!
It was a very informative trip. We heard a lot about the facilities, the research and the technology transfer from space to other areas of application. We heard about the researches in drop tower, Zero G flights (31 cycles of drops), and the radiation exposure experiments, some of the information can be found at the Erasmus Experiment Archive. We also got to see, close-up, the scorch mark made on re-entry on the capsule and hear about the way experiments and technologies are set up for testing rover design for Mars on simulated Mars landscape. Also thrilled to discover a battery research center there - definitely something to watch out for. There was a lot of information on the international space station in ERASMUS, while some of us entertained ourselves with walking in the European and Russian sections of the international space station, others were taking the chances to have discussions with Robert.
Just before lunch, we heard a lot more about the material experiments and the space specific material issues - like rusted metal is really harmful because rust will be flying around freely - by extension this can happen to a lot of harmful substances. Then there was also a discussion on 3D printing moon base using moon dust as materials, we saw a sample of the 3D printed building block (using not lunar soil but the experiment was guided by the properties of lunar soil), you can read more about it here. And of course, for project/programme managers and collaboration facilitators of all sorts, there's the Concurrent Design Facilities which is a kind of hot room where decisions are evaluated and made with all experts negotiating their requirements on the spot. Meeting twice a week for 4 hours each week, the mission planning could last for 10 years.
It has also been such an amazing field trip with so many joining us from the Netherlands, let's shorten the distance across the channel!
Keep an ear on @citizeninventor on twitter, we'll sort something out for sharing photos! It was most exciting to hear about Interplanetary Internet first hand from Scott from JPL@NASA and the very generous Mike from IPNSIG. Interplanetary internet of things is not that far away, it turns out we cannot really call Mars but texting would be fine. I think that's great and some of us might ask why do I want to do that - think Mars One, think space colonies, they are not that far away but for a local target - think Earth. Such internet has a use in rural areas on Earth - the infrastructure is up in the sky, it's less likely to be affected by disasters and it will not require the rural area to build as much roads and infrastructure for internet - think conservation. We've had the great pleasure of an hour or so of Q&A with Scott - there were no rush and everyone's question is answered in great details. All aspects of discussions covered - from technical details to the softer aspects and thoughts of darkening the skies with satellites! Q&A for our Christmas special was not held at the pub but we brought the pub over instead. Wine started to show up as the webcast concludes; minced pies, and yule log and nibbles were consumed after a hangout with Scott over the internet, as we chatted about all things space to round the year off. Thanks to Westminster Hub, we were generously given their library, loads of helpful staff and lovely big screens to conduct this Christmas, International event and mini party!
Here is more information for those who are interested in getting started/going: http://citizeninventor.wikia.com/wiki/Project_Resources The presentation delivered by Scott is also on the page. It's open to all for contribution, so as you find out more, feel free to share it back on this open wiki!
It would be great for those of you who are inspired to start a project to spread the interest: http://www.citizeninventor.com/submit-project.html Everyone is free to list on the directory, as long as it involves collaboration (yes, even if it's not a collaboration with us) - the idea really is to spread the love and inspire further - of course, we also double up as a place to call for participation if you are looking for contribution. Early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Christmas is coming up (yes, it's far away but you can already see signs of it on the streets, in the shops etc...) and so is our first international and first Christmas x International special event - Making Interplanetary Internet on 5 Dec 2013, We have the great pleasure to have Scott from JPL @NASA and IPNSIG speaking about the rare and exciting opportunity to innovate with Delay & Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) and to realise the Interplanetary Internet! And yes, we will talk about DTN together with CubeSATs (those small satellites that cost less than 10k), of course. It's going to be our International Special too - the plan is to get together in our locality and to catch the webcast together and then discuss interesting project ideas around interplanetary internet. Feel free to host your local satellite discussion group. In London, we will be hosted in Hub Westminister and your London host will have a webex session up and running. Not in London? Feel free to organise your local satellite meetup. It'd be easy: 1) Find a space where you can get together 2) the local host need to sign up here so you'll get the webex details closer to date 3) tell people about it 4) tell us about it so we can spread the word, via one or more of the following means: • twitter: #spaceDTN, @citizeninventor; • on our projects page: http://www.citizeninventor.com/submit-project.html; • on our wiki: http://citizeninventor.wikia.com/wiki/CitizenInventor_Wiki • other suggestions welcome, afterall, we are run by community for community! 5) Get together and stream the webcast, discuss project idea, have beer and tell us about it! Going solo? If you cannot meetup with a local group, you’re still welcome to sign up! The idea of a local meetup group is to facilitate more project discussions. Having been focusing on the low down on hands on space hacks for our last couple of events, on the 20 Nov we had a change of perspective - before we get back to hands on development and wrap up the year with "Making Interplanetary Internet": http://interplanetaryinternet.eventbrite.co.uk/). We, together with Satellite Applications Catapult, hosted an intensive whirlwind of 6 space companies telling us about their entrepreneurial stories - the market they saw and the business they've created. To get a well rounded flavour, our speakers are from upstream (spacecrafts) and downstream (businesses that uses satellite data) space sector.  We had ping pong table at the Rainmaking Loft, which was perfect for anyone needed a warm up before the talks commence or an exercise after the pizza! We also had bean bags to cater for those who needed to relax instead. Sam from Satellite Applications Catapult started the evening by providing an overview to the exciting growth of the space sector in the UK, followed up by Steph's quick intro to what you can do as citizen for space. In a series of lightening talks, we've cut the chase and dive straight into the exciting innovation and enablers from our speakers:
It was interesting to hear the story of how the panel entered the space industry. Citizen Inventor has been talking about bio-payload but Graham from Avanti is well ahead of us there - he already looked at sending worms to space back at school! It was very generous for Satellite Applications Catapult and Rainmaking Loft to sponsor the pizza, beer and venue hosting. Special thanks goes to all those extra pairs of hands that have made a swift tidy up happen - so we can all go to the pub! In line with the usual Citizen Inventor style, we had our extended Q&A in the pub and some of us left the pub only when it kicked us out...
Finally, for those of us who like toys - watch this space. We're about to get some Christmas presents from Michael from Pocket Spacecraft... stay tuned! Our magazine has arrived! Issue One is, guess what, "Space - Exploration by Citizens".  Issue One will track Space exploration and technology developments with citizen participation, mainly covering open sourced, crowd sourced, hands on Space projects and some articles on citizen as astronauts and a hint of space tourism - some pointers to the possibility for us, the citizens, to participate in Space.
Unlike a traditional magazine, this online magazine would be updated as time goes on - subscribe to this issue (button on the front page) and get updates for all things "Space - Exploration by Citizens". Or if you've got news to add, let us know (yea, collaborative effort - without you, we won't be as open)! Our plan is to keep releasing magazines on all topics citizen science, so stay tuned via twitter @citizeninventor or via rss. You've heard from inspiring DIYers in Space technologies over the last couple of events, so you probably already know that space industry is more than the spacecrafts and planets. This time we want to showcase space technologies that can be applied to our day to day life without us thinking about it consciously - weather data, GPS and more, from our experienced panel of space startups. The Satellite Applications Catapult and Citizen Inventor are jointly holding an event on the 20 Nov 2013 in London inviting everyone who is curious about the space industry and its application. Driven by innovative new business models, reduced launch costs and advancements in technology the sector is providing unprecedented opportunities for hackers, developers and entrepreneurs. Come hear from our panel of space startups and be inspired to become an “astropreneur”! This time, the event will be in a lightening talk format to give you an intensive preview of everything space. Plenty of chances to network and ask questions served with beer and pizza, generously hosted by Rainmaking Loft. Maker, Hackers, Entrepreneur and the Curious - come and (re-)invent with space technology! Curiosity is all you need. Ticket for our third space talk is on sale now:
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