The sixth edition of the Starmus festival, a one-of-a-kind event that brings together astronauts, Nobel laureates and influential scientists with different music stars, will be held in Armenia this summer. Several previous events had been held in the Canary Islands and the organization hopes to hold a special edition at the end of the year in La Palma if they finally have the support of the central government and that of the Canary Islands.
The festival was founded by Garik Israelian, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and Brian May, an astronomer and guitarist for Queen. The Armenian edition will be held from August 31 to September 9 and will commemorate the first controlled landing on the surface of Mars, achieved in 1971 by the Soviet Union with the spacecraft March 3.
The event will be attended by famous astronauts such as the Canadian Chris Hadfield, and the Americans Charlie Duke, who stepped on the Moon in 1972 when he was 36 years old, becoming the youngest person to have stepped on the Earth’s satellite, and Charles Bolden, who was NASA administrator during the Government of Barack Obama. They will be joined by Nobel laureates in science Kip Thorne, an expert in black holes and gravitational waves, Emmanuelle Charpentier, co-creator of the CRISPR gene editing technique, and Donna Strickland, who paved the way for the most powerful pulses of laser light in the history and is the third woman to win the Physics award since 1901.
Among the musicians will be the rock band Sons of Apollo; keyboardist Rick Wakeman; Serj Tankian, Armenian-American singer from System of a Down; jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan and Andrey Makarevich.
Armenia has been selected for its contribution to astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration. For much of the 20th century it played a key role in the Soviet space program and today houses scientific facilities such as the Byurakan Observatory and the Aragatz Station.
One of the most prestigious guests of previous editions was the British physicist Stephen Hawking, who died in 2018. Since 2016 Starmus has been awarding the Hawking medal that recognizes merit in scientific dissemination at an international level, an award that personalities such as Hans Zimmer, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, and Brian Eno.
Israelin, born in the Armenian capital 59 years ago, highlights: “this country has played an extraordinary role in the past, present and future of how we understand and explore our universe.” “I look forward to welcoming this extraordinary group of thinkers and creators to share their ideas,” he added in a statement provided by the organization.
In suspense is the other appointment that the festival had planned for this summer on the island of La Palma and in which it was expected to summon personalities such as the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, the founder of Space X and Tesla, Elon Musk, and musicians like Bono or Peter Gabriel. In December, the Tourism Minister, Reyes Maroto, announced an item of three million euros to support the festival on the Canary Island, according to Efe. The regional government was expected to contribute another million. The event could take place in December if it finally has enough support, according to the organization.
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