President Bill Clinton to Serve as Honorary Chair;
Symposium Speakers will include Dr. Mae Jemison, LeVar Burton,
Miles O’Brien, Jill Tarter, Ph.D.

September 13-16, 2012
Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas, August 31, 2012 — The first major event from 100 Year Starship (100YSS) will take place September 13-16, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency in Houston, Texas. A DARPA-seed funded initiative building an inclusive, global aspiration for interstellar space travel, the 100YSS 2012 Public Symposium will bring together influential thought, scientific and cultural leaders to explore the technologies, science, social structures and strategies needed to make capabilities for human travel to another star system a reality within the next century.

President Bill Clinton has agreed to serve as the symposium’s Honorary Chair. “This important effort helps advance the knowledge and technologies required to explore space, all while generating the necessary tools that enhance our quality of life on earth,” said President Clinton. He is joined by Houston Mayor Annise Parker, Honorary Texas Chair, symposium Chair Dr. Mae Jemison and symposium Co-Chair Dr. Richard Wainerdi, President of the Texas Medical Center. Symposium guest speakers include:

* 100 Year Starship Leader Dr. Mae Jemison;
* Actor and advocate LeVar Burton;
* SETI Institute Co-Founder and Astronomer Jill Tarter, Ph.D.;
* Anthropologist and Director, Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Johnnetta B. Cole, PhD;
* Science and Space Journalist Miles O’Brien;
* Iconic Photographer Norman Seeff.

The 100YSS Public Symposium is open to the public and will feature technical and academic sessions, workshops, classes for the general public, networking venues, professional development, entertainment and an expo to ensure that attendees have an opportunity to consider and contribute to the wide-range of space and related topics needed to achieve long distance space flight.

Taking place the week of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s speech delivered at Rice University challenging America to send a man to the moon, the symposium will hold a salute to fifty years of human space flight and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The symposium’s technical session will include scientific papers on topics such as time-distance solutions; life sciences in space exploration; destinations and habitats; becoming an interstellar civilization; space technologies enhancing life on earth; and commercial opportunities from interstellar efforts.

For additional information on the 100YSS Public Symposium, please visit: http://symposium.100yss.org. The general public can register and purchase tickets by visiting: http://symposium.100yss.org/registration.

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The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence was selected in February by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to receive seed funding to form 100 Year Starship (100YSS), an independent, non-governmental, long-term initiative. Former NASA astronaut, engineer and physician, Dr. Mae Jemison, is the leader of the global, multi-partner organization with team member Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit research and development organization dedicated to the research that will enable interstellar flight.

In its first year, 100YSS will seek investors, establish membership opportunities, encourage public participation in research projects and develop the vision for interstellar exploration. 100 Year Starship will bring in experts from myriad fields to help achieve its goal – utilizing not only scientists, engineers, doctors, technologists, researchers, sociologists and computer experts, but also architects, writers, artists, entertainers and leaders in government, business, economics, ethics and public policy. 100YSS will also collaborate with existing space exploration and advocacy efforts from both private enterprise and the government. In addition, 100YSS will establish a scientific research institute, The Way, whose major emphasis will be speculative, long-term science and technology.