The 25th International Space Development Conference, one of the largest gatherings of space professionals and enthusiasts of the year, took place last weekend in Los Angeles, and Star Trek was a prominent part of the action.

Aside from the special guests directly associated with Star Trek — including Rick Sternbach, Michael Okuda and Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. — the vision of the future created by Gene Roddenberry served as a constant reference point for discussions on how mankind can further reach out into space and establish a permanent presence.

Topics at the conference — co-hosted by the National Space Society and The Planetary Society — ranged from returning to the Moon and using that as a steppingstone to Mars, to space tourism and private entrepreneurship, to plans for building colonies on other worlds, to various proposed designs for a "space elevator" (such as that depicted in the Voyager episode "Rise," though not nearly as elaborate), and much more.

In a series of talks on theories regarding faster-than-light (FTL) travel, the Starship Enterprise and its warp drive were held out as a goal. Experts presented theories on how FTL or "superluminal" velocities may be achieved, including alternative ways of looking at the universe that would allow for such speeds. For instance, Greg Meholic of The Aerospace Corporation proposed a model of the universe where the flipside of the "subluminal" realm that we're used to — where the speed of light is the upper limit of motion — is "superluminal space," where velocities are naturally always faster than the speed of light. He suggests it may be possible to shift an object from subluminal to superluminal space by changing the quark state of the object. Thus, you could traverse "normal" space by traveling in the superluminal realm, where the physics are different. Meholic also conjectures that "dark matter" — which scientists know to exist in great quantities but cannot observe or define — may be mass that exists in superluminal space, explaining why we can't see it but can still detect its gravitational influence. This, of course, was but one of the many intriguing theories put forth by the speakers in attendance.

Some of the headliners of the four-day event included Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon and a well-known Star Trek fan; Dennis Tito, the first "space tourist" who paid $20 million to visit the International Space Station; Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded manned craft to fly in space; Space Shuttle astronaut Rick Searfoss; X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis; and many other dignitaries in the field of space.

"Bored by the mundane and thirsty for adventure"

The opening night banquet on Thursday was devoted to the Orbit Awards, handed out by the Space Tourism Society to recognize critical players in the movement to build a commercial space tourism industry. Among the presenters, which included Dennis Tito and other elites, was Eugene W. "Rod" Roddenberry Jr. "Along with carrying on the family legacy, Rod shares his father's passion for the human potential," said the banquet's off-stage announcer in introducing Roddenberry. "Rod believes humankind will evolve beyond today's narrow-minded thinking and one day reach beyond the stars to become a united species."

Roddenberry took the dais and began off-the-cuff, "It's a real privilege to be here tonight. I feel I'm the only one here without a Ph.D. Slightly intimidating." But he then proceeded to present the next award: "Industry innovators are generally forces of nature — they can't leave well enough alone, and lucky for us it's that way. In many cases, they are the individuals who do not play by the rules, and are often ridiculed by those who exist in what people consider 'the norm.' Bored by the mundane and thirsty for adventure, they are driven to seek out new ideas and look for alternative viewpoints. These are the individuals who help propagate humanity's intellectual evolution. It is their determination to overcome adversity that brings us closer to a better tomorrow."

The Industry Innovator Award he was presenting went to Paul Allen "for his extraordinary support of the space tourism industry." Allen, who made his fortune as co-founder of Microsoft Corp., funded SpaceShipOne and its X-Prize winning flights, as well as other scientific endeavors. Unfortunately, though, Allen was not there in person, so Burt Rutan, whose endeavors were backed by Allen's philanthropy, accepted the Orbit Award on his behalf.

Roddenberry then presented the next honor, the Space Pioneer Award, to Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, a company which plans to make suborbital spaceflights available to paying customers in the next 2-3 years. Roddenberry said Branson "represents the modern-day private explorer and adventurer," and he was being honored "for working to bring the space experience to all people." Branson was also not in attendance, but he pre-recorded a charmingly humble acceptance speech in which he gave all the credit to others, including Rutan (whose designs are being adopted by Branson's company). The award itself was accepted by Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn, who cited Buzz Aldrin for inspiring the idea to found the company.

Finally Roddenberry introduced Hugh Downs, former anchor of the primetime news magazine 20/20 and currently chairman of the National Space Society's Board of Governors. Downs presented the final award of the night, the Orbit Award for Lifetime Achievement, to his old friend Aldrin.

In his remarks, Aldrin commented that since coming back from the Moon, space has continued to be his "hobby." "I have a passion, and everybody in this room has a passion, and we have our outlet. [But] not everybody has that passion, of all the people in our country and in the world — they have their own little things going on. If we're to get those people to support our exploration, we have to start taking them into space. And so I've, for a good while, been dedicated to that idea, that concept of tourism, and I think it's going to pay off," he told the rapt crowd.

It was a very lively evening, with a banquet hall full of dreamers, idealists and really, really smart people. The spirit of the event was perhaps summed up best by space entrepreneur Peter Diamandis (a good friend of Rod Roddenberry's) when he accepted his own award: "In us, in our DNA someplace, is this incredible drive and need to explore... It's our purpose in life to get off this planet, and we will never stop, we will never cease, we will never give up, no matter what it takes."

"We ought to commit, absolutely, to permanence"

Aldrin was also the keynote speaker at the Friday luncheon, where he spoke in more detail about his space activism efforts, and expressed some of his views on how a public and/or private space program should proceed. "Before we really get serious about committing funds to sending people to Mars ... we ought to commit, absolutely, to permanence — a permanent settlement," he said to enthusiastic applause. "None of this one or two missions, or six landings the way we did at the Moon. To put that much effort into going there, we need a sustaining activity." Such a "sustaining activity," of course, whether it's commercialization or colonization, was a prominent topic of discussion throughout the weekend. But Aldrin raised another prospect not frequently covered: "We ought to think about the moons of Mars first." (Pop quiz: Who can name the two moons of Mars?)

Rick Sternbach, senior illustrator on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager who designed many ships and props, spoke twice at the event. On Thursday he was part of a special "Space Art Program" at the conference, and used slides to illustrate the evolution of space art over the decades, both in depictions of technology and of otherworldly landscapes. "Pointy spaceships were very sexy in the '50s!" he observed. But in later decades space artists adapted their styles to the growing body of knowledge, often becoming experts themselves in engineering and astronomy. "As our telescopic observations got better and as our ideas developed on how to actually get out into space, the artist was there doing renderings of what these destinations might look like," he said. Sternbach is an active member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists.

"In no way should you attempt to combine matter and antimatter in your garage"

On Sunday, Sternbach was joined by Michael Okuda in the large auditorium to talk about the Art of Star Trek. Okuda was scenic art supervisor and graphic designer for every Star Trek series since TNG and every movie since "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."

Sternbach began the session: "This is a space development conference, and, all right, what does Star Trek have to do with it? Star Trek has had a long relationship with those who put the space program together. We looked to the space program for inspiration, and I would imagine that those in the space program looked to Star Trek to see what the future might bring.

"And I must put up this disclaimer: In no way should you attempt to combine matter and antimatter in your garage to try to get us out there any quicker, okay?"

He continued, "Mike and I were very fortunate to have come together on Star Trek because we both grew up looking at the space program, following everything that was going on. We understand the hardware, and the programs and the people, and we put a lot of that knowledge into the show, without beating people over the head with it. You know, Trek was not the kind of show where you could just willy-nilly invent technology. We wanted to make sure — and we got the blessings of the writers and producers — to take some of the interesting things that were going on around us and work those in."

While showing slides detailing the design of such ships as the U.S.S. Voyager, the Equinox and the Delta Flyer, Sternbach described some of the thinking that went into those designs, which involved no small amount of attention paid to such things as docking hatches, escape pods, etc. "What can we extrapolate about space technology and how do we mix that with what looks cool? I mean, we may never build something like [the Delta Flyer], but it was a good stylistic exercise, and it stayed within the plausibility of the show."

From the very beginning of TNG in 1987, Sternbach and Okuda established "an internal consistency to the hardware" that they felt appeared plausible. "We ate a lot of noodles, we had a lot of pizza, and we sat there and said, 'Hey, what if it worked this way?'" Sternbach recalled.

"You know, the Original Series had a good start on some of this technology, and we fleshed it out, we refined it, we gave the producers notes on how this stuff should work, and you saw it in the series," he noted.

Okuda also talked about the transition between classic and latter-day Trek. "We always joke that, when you're asked to design something, the producers want it to be exactly the same, but completely different," he grinned. "You never want to lose sight of where you're coming from, your roots. At the same time, if you do exactly what you did before, it's boring. So when we started to talk Next Generation, we very, very much wanted to respect what had come before, but it did need to be totally different."

In his behind-the-scenes slide presentation, Okuda demonstrated some of what went into the set designs for Star Trek: Enterprise. "In 1964, when Matt Jefferies designed the original Enterprise, we really didn't have much of an idea of what a spaceship would look like. Now, we have a lot closer of an idea."

"This [NX-01] bridge was a very deliberately paid homage to Kirk's bridge and Picard's bridge, but it much less sophisticated. It was a much more mechanical bridge — a lot of the control surfaces were a lot clunkier."

And yet, the set itself was far more sophisticated. "Fortunately by the time we did this, the year 2001, the cost of computers and flatscreens were dramatically down. So things that we couldn't do as recently as Star Trek: Voyager were suddenly possible."

Speaking of flatscreens, Okuda related this interesting bit of trivia: "In the early years of Star Trek: The Next Generation, we had these really cool desktop viewers that had just a single button on them, and at the time we first did them, people would make consistent fun of them. But if you watch ... you'll see a [turning] point in the show — the day that Patrick Stewart bought his own PowerBook and started to use a trackpad, he started to work his desktop viewer as a trackpad."

Sternbach related further, "Patrick used to come up to the Art Department, because we used Macintoshes a lot, and he said, [in a British accent] 'Lads, how do I do this, how do I do that? When I press Cut, where does the text go?'"

Okuda added, "He would also come up and play Tetris a lot."

"We'd love to be called"

Okuda and Sternbach were asked if they've had any discussions regarding the recently announced "Star Trek XI" project produced by J.J. Abrams. Okuda replied, "I'm sure I speak for Rick in saying that, we'd love to be called." Sternbach added, "They've got my resume — now we just sort of sit back and see what happens."

Okuda was also asked if he and wife Denise (who was scheduled for the conference but could not attend Sunday) will ever update the "Star Trek Encyclopedia." "We haven't been asked," he replied. "We understand the sales are down. We would love to if and when the time comes."