Workshop Summary
It was amazing to get everyone together. 90 participants from 13 countries attended the first global sunshade convening, the IAA’s Sunshade Workshop in Nottingham.
Workshop Chair Chantal Cappelletti prepared these slides with the results of the participant survey. In future months, we will also be sharing the videos of the plenary sessions. For now, I hope these reflections give you a sense of the room, improve your understanding, and continue to help you connect with new collaborators.
The Nottingham organizing team says: “This workshop was not just an exchange of ideas, it was a step toward redefining how space science can contribute to a sustainable future on Earth. We look forward with great enthusiasm to the next edition. ”
Paul Gambill, author of the Inevitable and Obvious blog, shared this thoughtful update. A quote that stands out: “when I arrived at Nottingham, I assumed we’d probably build a sunshade eventually, but I couldn’t tell whether that meant the 2040s or the 22nd century. I didn’t yet see where it fit within our current trajectory. I left the workshop thinking the overlap between space industrialization and climate need gives it a much more concrete path than the pure-climate-funding frame ever could.”
Matteo Ceriotti detailed the many contributions made by his working group at the University of Glasgow, and working closely with collaborators at TU Delft and the University of Pisa. Pedro Neves shared this update, presented the work that he conducted at JPL on dust cloud feasibility. Christian Bellinazzi discussed overall impressions, as well as sharing an animation of his work on solar sail flight models.
In his closing remarks for the conference, Morgan reflected on the objectives that the workshop had initially set out to achieve, and the feedback from the participants on how well we think we achieved them. Read his post here.
The Nottingham team is already planning to host this again in two years. Mark your calendars!
