World Space Week appears to be an Australian black hole
World Space Week is the largest space event on Earth and I can’t find anything happening in Sydney, or in Australia for that matter.
World Space Week runs from 4-10 October and encompasses well over a thousand events around the globe.
Since its United Nations declaration in 1999, World Space Week has grown into the largest public space event on Earth. More than 1,400 events in 80 countries celebrated the benefits of space and excitement about space exploration in 2013. With our new satellite navigation theme “Space: Guiding Your Way” we aim to inspire even more events around the world in October 2014.
It’s more than a little sad to see absolutely no take-up in Australia. And from what I can see there was nothing last year either so it doesn’t appear to be a case of events not yet being announced. I wonder, upon a star, what’s going on with Sydney Observatory and Parkes Radio Telescope?
For info on what’s happening elsewhere in the World for World Space Week see their website.
Last year for World Space Week the Powerhouse Museum had a program of talks including Dr Naomi Mathers who spoke on the topic “What does a Rocket Scientist do in Australia when Australia doesn’t launch rockets?”. There were also post-grad students demonstrating the robots in the Mars Yard and a demonstration by Geoscience Australia of a seismogram which used real Apollo 11 seismometer data to reproduce the very first lunar seismogram that recorded the Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the moon carrying out experiments. But like most Sydneysiders chances are you were on Sydney Harbour watching the International Fleet Review.
The clash with the October long weekend and differing themes of the school holidays makes it difficult to program as other priorities do come into play both for the Museum and the visitors. A small low key program is planned for this year as the team who has been responsible for space programs has been made redundant, including the Curator of Space Technology.
Instead some resources have been put into the Family Science Weekend at the Ultimo Science Festival this weekend (6&7 Sep). The scientists involved with the Mars Yard will be on hand to chat to visitors and it might be your last chance to listen to the space curator as she will give a talk at 2pm on Saturday called Catching Comets.
Thanks Mike,
That’s great to know. I was basing my article on the World Space Week website which has maps and lists of activities and which shows nothing for Australia this year or last year. Perhaps it would be useful for your marketing team to register your activities with World Space Week?
Appreciate you clarifying what’s coming up.
Evan
Hi Evan
You’ll actually find 12 Australian events posted last year for 2013, including the Powerhouse listing:
http://www.worldspaceweek.org/events/event-details/?eventID=4538
They need to allow formatting on their listings!
But you are right the lack of listing for 2014 is concerning.
Mike