History Project


SEDS has recently celebrated its 25th year of promoting space exploration. Over its extensive history, a plethora of passionate future space explorers have been members of our organization and have since gone on to become leaders in today`s governmental and commercial space industries. The aim of the SEDS-History project is to re-establish contact with former SEDS members and to facilitate their continued participation and guidance in the future of the SEDS organization.

Anyone interested in helping document the history of SEDS, pass on contacts of former SEDS members, or actively help contact and network SEDS alumni should contact the Principle Organizer of the History Project, Emily Hardegree-Ullman at: hardegee@email.arizona.edu

In addition to the documentation below, the History Project is located at http://wiki.seds.org/index.php/SEDS_History.

Documentation about the Project

Rationale and Overview
Some background into the reasons why SEDS is undertaking this project and some of the work the organization plans to do to look at its past.

SEDS Historical Documents

SEDS Inaugural Meeting Notes
SEDS was founded at MIT in the fall of 1980. The officers kept the minutes of the meetings in a logbook, starting with the very first meeting on Thursday, October 30, 1980.
Letter to the Editor in Omni
Shortly after SEDS was founded at MIT, its president, Peter Diamandis, wrote a letter to the editor in Omni magazine deploring the status of the space program and asking students to help make a difference. The letter, published in Omni in early 1981, attracted students from around the nation to SEDS.
1982 SEDS International Conference
The first SEDS conference was held in July 1982 on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, DC. The meeting attracted students from around the country. A number of top-flight speakers gave presentations at the conference, including Dr. Mark Chartrand, then director of the National Space Institute (now NSS); Dr. David Webb, aerospace pioneer and now the head of the SEDS-USA Board of Advisors; and the young Republican co-chairman of the Congressional Space Caucus, a Georgia representative by the name of Newt Gingrich.
1983 SEDS International Conference
Students returned to Washington in July of 1983 for the second SEDS conference. The conference was longer than in 1982 and included more presentations by speakers dealing with many aspects of space exploration and development.