Taught by the MIT chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, this class will detail humanity's first interstellar mission. The year: 2070. Artificially produced radio signals have been detected from the Alpha Centauri system 4.3 light years away-Humanity is no longer alone in the universe. It has become priority one for NASA to begin construction on the first manned interstellar spacecraft to establish contact with the Centaurians-how will we get there? What will the spacecraft look like? How can humans survive the decades-long journey? What will we do when we get there? Learn the answers to these questions and more-today Earth, tomorrow Centauri.

This is a highly interactive activity in which MIT Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) takes you on the journey of planning a space mission. In coming decades, humanity will return to the Moon and visit Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Engineers and scientists will work together to develop these missions, and this will not alway be easy (as you will see!). Your goal during this class is to come up with a destination for a human space mission given scientific goals and constraints such as how long a human can survive on a spacecraft or the amount of money allotted for your space mission. You will have team discussions, present your findings, offer criticisms and lead the charge into the heavens.

Past, present, and future of space exploration, including new discoveries and technologies along with the basic science that allows this. This will include a presentation of data from the Moon collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in large format! Explore the floor of Tycho Crater and the Taurus Littrow Valley, the Apollo 17 Landing site. Meet students who have worked on space missions such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in government organizations such as NASA, the US Air Force Research Lab. Plan to participate in an inspiring dialog on the status and future of space exploration.