posted 02-08-2018 06:49 AM               

Starmus V announces a star-studded 2019 line-up, featuring five original members of the Apollo mission crew

Starmus has announced a stellar line-up of Nobel Prize Winners and prominent figures from science and art for its fifth festival, next year. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, Starmus V will take place in Bern, Switzerland from June 24-29, 2019, and is set to be the biggest yet, featuring Brian May, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Richard Dawkins, Elizabeth Blackburn, Chris Hadfield, Sir Martin Rees and Helen Sharman.

Founder Garik Israelian said the fifth festival will also welcome Bill Anders, Charlie Duke, Rusty Schweickart, Al Worden and Walt Cunningham, five of the original Apollo Mission crew, and is designed to provoke tough questions about our place in the universe. "Next year marks the 50th anniversary of one of science's most important milestones," said Israelian. "It's the right time to question the value of space discovery and how a growing understanding of the cosmos helps humanity to progress."

Starmus V will welcome 11 Nobel laureates to the stage, as well as luminaries from the worlds of art and music, for discussion, debate and engagement across a broad body of science, from microbiology and biochemistry to astrophysics and neuroscience. The Starmus board (Stephen Hawking, Brian May, Peter Gabriel, Richard Dawkins, Alexei Leonov, Jill Tarter, Robert Williams, David Eicher, Jack Szostak and founder, Garik Israelian) has devised a 2019 programme that brings together the most intelligent, creative and artistic people on the planet.

Starmus is a celebration of scientific collaboration and retains a strong sense of purpose, added Israelian. "Humanity's biggest and best achievements are a result of scientific collaboration. In the same year in which we celebrate the milestone achievement of the Apollo crew we should remember that the trend towards isolationism takes us further away – not only from further scientific discovery – but also from the essence of what makes us human.

"At Starmus we hope to inspire a new generation of scientists who can help to answer society's most difficult and pressing questions, from how to reverse the environmental decay of our planet, to finding new planets to colonise."

The Starmus board will announce a further line-up of speakers from art and music later this year. The musical content of the Festival is promised to be stellar, as always. The complete bill will be announced when tickets go on sale this coming June. Tickets will go on sale from 15 June 2018 and can be purchased at starmus.com.

posted 02-17-2018 03:42 PM               

Also, you have to take into account that some of the participants may have to cancel. In Trondheim Buzz Aldrin, Alexei Leonov and Stephen Hawking couldn't make it and I can tell you that especially Buzz's no-show disappointed quite a few people who came especially to see him. Fortunately for me I had met him on a few previous occasions, but in my case cancellation by Schmitt would have been a minor disaster, and he had canceled on one previous Starmus event.

posted 12-26-2018 09:58 AM               

Starmus V Prepares for a Historic Line-up of Apollo Space Pioneers, Science Luminaries and Rock Stars in 2019

Fans from around the globe will descend on Zurich, Switzerland from June 24-29, 2019, to celebrate the world's most notable science and art festival, Starmus V. This year will feature the festival's most important program to date, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, one of science's most important milestones. Starmus V will also host a special ceremony announcing the 2019 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication winners, supported by Omega. Kaspersky Lab will also join Starmus V as an honored partner.

Anticipation is building for the world's most celebrated collaboration of science, art and music. In addition to astronaut Michael Collins joining as the keynote, Starmus V will host a remarkable line-up of presenters hand-selected by the Starmus board (Stephen Hawking posthumous, Brian May, Peter Gabriel, Richard Dawkins, Alexei Leonov, Jill Tarter, Robert Williams, David Eicher, Emmanuelle Charpentier and founder, Garik Israelian.) The 2019 festival Starmus V will also feature seven of the original Apollo Mission crew, science legend and champion Bill Nye along with rock stars Brian May and Rick Wakeman.

According to Garik Israelian, Starmus founder, the 2019 festival has been designed to ask tough questions about our place in the universe at a pivotal point in human history: "The importance of Starmus V cannot be understated. At a time when the world retreats to isolationism, collaboration is needed to strategically present the ideas, evidence and challenges we collectively face – and uniquely confront. We believe the biggest and best achievements of the human race are a result of that scientific collaboration."

Starmus V will welcome 12 Nobel laureates to the stage, as well as luminaries from the worlds of art and music, for six days of discussion, debate and engagement across the sciences, from microbiology and biochemistry to astrophysics and neuroscience. The 2019 programme will bring together some of the most intelligent, creative, and artistic people on the planet.

Other speakers include Sir Martin Rees, Brian Cox, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Helen Sharman. The Starmus board will announce a further line-up of sensational musical artists at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Switzerland - Tickets will go on sale from January 23, 2019 and can be purchased at starmus.com.

posted 06-06-2019 10:18 AM               

€170 per a day still isn't cheap, plus flights to Zurich; but after nearly a decade since my last astronaut event I figure this is probably one of the final big Apollo gatherings I'll see without heading to the US.

posted 06-21-2019 08:49 AM               

Legendary moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, a Starmus supporter and speaker at the four previous editions of the festival, is coming to Zurich this summer to participate in the fifth edition of the festival.

"I am happy to announce that I am returning to Starmus. I have been to this wonderful festival together with Neil Armstrong in 2011 and I am very much looking forward returning to Starmus V this month in Zurich for exciting and historical festival."

posted 07-01-2019 05:03 PM               

In most other respects the event was better than I expected - the talks were fascinating, despite having heard each of the Apollo speakers before. I think the passage of the years since I last saw them in the early 2000s has made them all more reflective (as you'd expect from guys in their 80s), and the increasingly obvious threat of climate change has coloured the way several of them see the relevance of Apollo: as an archetype of the mobilisation of a generation to achieve an urgent goal.

The setting and purpose of Starmus (to fuse arts, music and space-science) lent itself to people like Rusty Schweickart, allowing him to really go into the philosophical meanings he took away from his unexpected minutes of 'unemployment' during his EVA. Jack Schmitt was in his usual robust good humour, Charlie Duke often became emotional recalling things such as the deep trust he had for the flight control teams, Al Worden took the opportunity to read his poems, and discuss how they came out of what he now recognizes as a 'flow state'; musings and ideas that came to him at the end of long days of debriefing, having cleared all the party guests out of his house every midnight. Walt Cunningham seemed a little frail, but still spoke with humour about Apollo and his own mission. Gerry Griffin was brilliant, very interesting and a deeply entertaining speaker.

Buzz, as I've recounted in the movie thread, reduced a cinema full of people to hushed stunned wonder when we discovered that we'd just watched the Apollo 11 film with him in the audience with us. Everyone quietly crowded around him at the end, hundreds of people; it was genuinely magical.

That aspect really was the strength of Starmus for me personally, the touches of showbiz. With huge visual screens, excellent sound systems and a proper 'stadium' light rig the astronauts' presentations were very well produced. Seeing Rusty on stage, backed by a 15 feet high crystal clear live image of him there, next to the main screen where a pin-sharp shot of him standing on the LM is showing just as he describes that moment - it does amp up the 'wonder' factor.

While it wasn't a true meet and greet event there was some mingling - I saw Charlie Duke walking through the public reception areas once or twice without minders and Jack Schmitt was happily posing for selfies on a few occasions. Similarly most of the Apollo guys attended many of the talks; whilst their seats were cordoned as VIP they seemed quite relaxed with people nipping in for a quick word between sessions.

Only downsides were the venue staff (not the Starmus people but the Samsung Hall staff) seemed indifferent and the food on offer was minimal and frequently not available; taking a coffee break to find the only cafe shut at 4.00pm for example. Also, it is expensive - €170 a day just for a ticket. Other than that there was the slight sense of it being a sort of conference 'work jolly' for Brian May and the other vip organizers to hang out with famous astronauts (and vice versa), to which we were welcome to come along but mainly just to watch; if you enjoy the more personal mingling events this might not sit well with you. Having met them all previously I was happy just to enjoy the talks and take a couple of days to revisit Apollo with the people that lived it.