LibertyCon 38

This year's topic: "Building Brains." Doctors Robert Hampson and Brent Roeder will discuss some of their more exciting moments in emerging brain science.

Omnipresent Surveillance at Scale – What’s new for 2026? Recent examples include fitness trackers on warships, flight and ship tracking, citizen/netizen intelligence networks. Is Hiding Possible Anymore, and can visual, electronics, and logistical signatures truly be hidden? Have any SF entries reflected this? How would realistic Mil SF change? Panelists and audience reflect on the last 12 months of developments, and try to predict what’s next?

Stephen Fleming presents "Who Owns the Moon / Space Mining" - The last year has seen a flurry of activity in extracting resources from “celestial objects”—the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets. How practical are these plans in the near term? And who owns these resources? What laws apply to their extraction and use? How much freedom to operate is there for space miners today, and what laws and policies still need to be addressed?

Join NASA’s leading astrobiologist Dr. Becky McCauley Rench for an exhilarating tour of the most intriguing worlds in our solar system and beyond as we explore the question that has captivated humanity for generations: are we alone? What can the runaway greenhouse of Venus, the dried riverbeds of Mars, the subsurface oceans of Europa and Enceladus, the organic haze of Titan, and the stunning variety of exoplanets across our galaxy tell us together? This talk connects the dots between these worlds, blending frontier science with big-picture imagination. Learn how NASA missions and modern astrobiology guide the search for life—from subsurface seas to distant atmospheres—and what these extraordinary worlds reveal about the possibilities for life elsewhere in the universe.

Low(er) Cost Space and it's Impact on War. SST = $54k/kg, Falcon 9 Heavy =$1400/kg, Starship single use = $450/kg. More payloads, cheaper replacements, practical space warfare? Who has the advantage? Stewart Cobb moderates.

Kevin Ikenberry will present "How GPS Really Works." GPS has made navigating our lives easy. But how does it work? Why do we blame GPS when things go awry? This session teaches the brief history of the GPS system and delves into how the system works -- and how the core principles are things we've known since middle school.

Stephanie Osborn presents Rock and Roll: The New Madrid Fault -- In the middle of North America there is a major fault system, buried under the sediments of the Mississippi River, that has the capability of devastating the central United States. Why do so few people know about it? What caused it? Will it break loose again?

Three and a Half Years On: Has Mil/SF helped up with the UKR/RU War and the Newest Lessons Learned?” We return to this topic because unmanned systems still dominating isn’t new, yet something else (tactics, AI) may be. Software based efficiencies in munitions assignment has come true since last year. What else is new?