On April 12th, NASA Ames Research Center will hold an incredible celebration of space exploration. Last year, the Yuri's Night event was utterly amazing. In a hangar decorated with neon lights, Anousheh Ansari, space tourist and founder of the X Prize that bears her name, gave the keynote address. Thousands of people stayed to watch science demonstrations, scientific lectures, and women dancing with glowing hula hoops. Wired compared the event to burning man.

This year, the organizers tell us that it will be much more like the Maker Faire. Visionary Stewart Brand will make some remarks and SIMS creator Will Wright will lead the plenary session. Other luminaries will lead salons about a host of scholarly topics. Lots of sculptures and technical projects will be on display. Of course, there will also be performances by The Flaming Lotus Girls, Capacitor, and new band that includes Phil Lesh of The Greatful Dead.

Update: Since this post went live, several people have written to me to point out that there will be a tremendous number of technical exhibits including:

2008 Tesla Roadster

360 Degrees

Ames Amateur Radio Club

BD-5 Jet

Brainwave-reading technology for consumer applications

Bumble Bee and Cyclefuge

Burning Man Earth

CalCars.org — Bringing Plug-In Hybrids to Mass Production

Color Space

Cosmonauts Monument — in video

Countdown Generator

Crucible of the Firmament

Earth From Above: globeSynth

Eat Drink Sleep and other works

The Electric Earth — Understanding Pre-Earthquake Signals

Epimorphism

Finger Painting With Planets

Fire Sculpture Robots

Flight Path

High Resolution NASA Imagery

A Home Forever

Homebrew Robot Demos

Homebuilt Aircraft N42PE

Hover Test Vehicle

(NASA Ames Research Center)

(NASA Ames Research Center) Hunab Ku

The Hydrogen Economy

I.T.

Infestation Field

Interactive Wall

IRG Robots Demo

JPods. Solar powered automated guideways. Moving people and cargo in a Physical-Internet.

LED Art, Art Bikes, and Bike Culture

Lego Play Area

Max Robot

Methane Machine

Microbial Mats: Earth’s Earliest Ecosystems — Microalgae: Earth’s Latest Source of Energy?

Multi-Touch Audio Table

Mutopia: Seedpod #7

OpenStreetMap GPS Dance Spectacular

Past Proprioception, 2006

Photozig Web Albums Live

PointFocus Reflective Lenses

Return to the Moon!

RocketCam Greatest Hits

Russian Space Pin Collection & Yuri Gagarin Bust

The Rosetta Disk

Search for Life's Signature in the Universe

Share a Ride and Sustain the Earth

Sierra UAV

SOFIA Interactive Infrared Display

SolFocus — Focus on Solar for a Sustainable Future

Space Photo Booth

SPORE Demo and Astrobiology

Strange Attractor

Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments (SOAREX)

development; hybrid rocket propulsion; and novel planetary rover design.

development; hybrid rocket propulsion; and novel planetary rover design. Superdrawathon

Swarm

Telescope Viewing Area

Tin Girl

To NASA and Back

Viewpoints from Hyperspace

Wind-Powered Hydrofoil Boat

Wrightspeed X1

The Y-Prize Bus

Yuri Frees the Stars

Many other cities will hold Yuri's Night parties, but we expect the one at NASA Ames to be the best.

Photo: rmatei / flickr