About the Space Consortium
What is the Space Consortium?
The Space Consortium was founded in Fall 2017 when a concerted effort supported by the Harvard Provost Office brought together faculty members from Harvard and MIT to work towards a common goal: creating the first academic space hub for multidisciplinary space research. Today, the consortium serves a network of over 1,700 affiliates (students, faculty, alumni and space enthusiasts) in the US, working on a wide range of topics, including Space Astronomy, Space Genetics, Space Economics and Financing, Space Debris and Near-Earth Objects Detection and Tracking, Space Mining, Space Design and Architecture, and Space Law and Policy. Strengthening relations between the multiple disciplines of the field is a key driving force for the Consortium, along with coordinating and nurturing the community to increase work and engagement with the general public and the private space sector.
That coordination effort led to the organization of “Space Night at Harvard”, an event dedicated to showcasing these research groups as well as the great variety of space student organizations in Cambridge, to colleagues, students and the public. The following year, this effort grew into a week-long series of space events open to all, organized during the week of April 22nd (Earth Day) called “Space Week at Harvard” & “The Space Film Festival”. These events then grew into “Boston Space Week” and its sister event “The Boston Space Film Festival” in 2023, with events held on four different campuses (Harvard, MIT, Boston College and Tufts University).
In short, the Space Consortium is a Massachusetts-based community and coordination initiative open to all, which aims to bring together space academics, students, professionals and local space enthusiasts. Our common goal is to connect, network and share resources with each other and with the public, notably through public outreach efforts.
During Boston Space Week, the Consortium promotes fruitful exchanges between an array of affiliated top experts, business and community leaders, faculty, researchers, educators, students, alumni, and space enthusiasts which allows the community to engage with critical discussions related to the multidisciplinary issues affecting the aerospace industry today.
All Space Week events are free and open to all. Through experts’ lightning talks, keynotes, a space career fair, and a week-long Space Film Festival, Consortium members and the greater Boston community are invited to discover the intricate hot-button topics in the field. Participants have access to an exclusive and unique networking opportunity with renown space researchers.
Past topics have included space ethics, space sustainability, Mars and Moon exploration, space medicine, space mining, the latest NASA missions and instrumentation, public-private partnerships, Space Design, and Space curation. Past speakers have included Jeffrey Hoffman (Former NASA Astronaut and Deputy PI of the Mars MOXIE experiment), Professor Kim Kowal (Chandra X-ray Observatory), Astronaut Soyeon Yi, and Richard Dalbello (VP of Business Development and Government Affairs, Virgin Galactic).
All are welcome in the Consortium. If you would like to join the Consortium executive team, our space academic team or our incredible group of volunteers, feel free to email contact@spaceconsortium.com, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
What does the Space Consortium do?
It catalogs:
1) Local academic (= university-affiliated) space research projects & initiatives
2) Space-related public events: To receive information on local space events, join our new Google group HERE and our local space events joint calendar HERE
3) Contact information of local space student organizations HERE
4) Local space courses HERE
5) Local academic space faculty & researchers (HERE & In Progress). The Consortium is currently building a catalog of local space faculty & researchers (including a summary of their area of expertise and – when provided – their contact information). If you are looking for a specific space research expert in MA to come speak to your community, or are yourself a local space research expert and would like to be listed on our academic space faculty & researchers page, please email us at contact@spaceconsortium.com.
6) Free-to-access space research articles (In Progress). The Consortium is currently building a catalog of free space research articles and other resources generously provided by our academic members and soon to be available on https://spaceconsortium.com/resources
It organizes & coordinates:
1) Local recruiting & networking events (such as the Consortium’s Fall & Spring Space Career Fairs, Interfaculty Space Dinners and the Space Holiday Party!
2) Large-scale public outreach events, such as Boston Space Week and the Boston Space Film Festival
3) Get-togethers for its local academic members and space student organization leaders
All Space Events are meant to be accessible to all, certain events will have a price tag notably movie tickets to the Space Film Festival. However, all individuals on financial aid can request free access to Consortium events by emailing us at: contact@spaceconsortium.com, including future subscription plans to the Local STAR Gazette.
It relays:
Information on local space events, new space courses, new space initiatives, local space grants & research opportunities.
To receive them, feel free to join our Google group HERE. If you are organizing an event and would like to see it shared with our Google group, via our seasonal newsletter or monthly Local STAR gazette, please send your event information to: input@spaceconsortium.com and (whenever possible) fill out the following local space event google form.
It launches this year:
1) The Local STAR (Space Transdisciplinary Academic Research) Gazette
2) A new graduate Space Law, Policy and Ethics (SLPE) online course (see interest form here)
3) A new Space Ethics Workshop for its Academic Members
4) A new Fall Space Career Fair
5) New upcoming Boston Space Week 2024 events & activities thanks to the precious support of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium!
Also, for our alumni, we would love to organize get-togethers for all of you in the near future and are looking for your up-to-date contact information.
Please reach out to us at contact@spaceconsortium.com to let us know about your latest news (personal or professional) and to provide us with the best email to keep in touch with you and phone number, so that we could add you to our new Space Consortium Alumni WhatsApp Group!
Recent developments
Our New Local STAR Gazette is here!
This monthly gazette aims to recap all space-related news and events in the Cambridge and Boston area.
Have events or major space news coming up, and you would like to see them featured in next month’s gazette? Feel free to fill out this event form and/or to send your information for publication to input@spaceconsortium.com.
Please fill out this interest form if you would be interested in receiving the November Local STAR Gazette. We will be experimenting with the Gazette for the next two months, with the 1st gazette being freely available on our website and sent alongside our consortium newsletter this month, then sent for free next month to all who filled out the interest form. Then, if enough readers are interested in it, the Gazette will be made available through a monthly subscription via our website starting in December.
Space Week 2024
This year, Boston Space Week, 6th Ed. will focus on the theme: “Space Safety and Security”
It will take place from April 22nd to April 28th 2024, and, among other noteworthy events, will feature a Space Career Fair, activities such as “Space Night”, and a week-long Space Film Festival where space experts discussed some of the most iconic space movies of the past two decades.