On February 18 - 20, in my home town of Boulder, Colorado, the Lunar and Planetary Institute is holding a very interesting conference called The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference 2010 (NSRC2010). It's to promote the awareness of the coming revolution in access to space provided by private companies.
This revolution is not only coming, it's practically here. I know some folks who plan quite seriously to be launched into space next year. If you're interested in this field, then this is the conference you want to attend:
NSRC2010 will provide a forum to learn about the research and EPO [Education and Public Outreach] capabilities of these new systems, their experiments, and EPO integration processes. NSRC2010 will also provide input on vehicle design requirements for science and education.
That sounds like a fascinating meeting to me. I'm hoping to attend myself, but I'm unsure if I'll be in town then; I'll ...