Fri, May 15, 2009
SpaceX's Elon Musk, Virgin Galactic's Will Whitehorn and Orion
Propulsion's Tim Pickens On Hand
The National Space Society (NSS) is promising that Day One of
the 28th annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC)
will dedicate itself to an in-depth look into the emerging
privately funded sector of the space industry.
The space industry is undergoing an unprecedented
transformation. The Space Shuttle will be retired in less than two
years, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs. Although hiring
by the emerging privately funded sector of aerospace may ameliorate
some of this job loss, the suspension of manned spaceflight by our
civil space program for at least five (5) years will nevertheless
create unprecedented losses in experienced personnel who can not be
replaced. This gap in both time and employment will also have a
profoundly negative rippling effect, not just in the space
industry, but also in peripheral and complimentary industries such
as energy, life sciences, travel, education and
telecommunications.
The cost of accomplishing humanity's goal of exploring and
understanding life beyond our atmosphere cannot be realized unless
the space industry diversifies itself. The private sector has a
unique ability to innovate, as it is not subject to many of the
bureaucratic pitfalls that can sometimes hamper government. It can
create economies of scale that make products and activities cheaper
and better. By utilizing procedures and by taking paths that either
do not work or do not apply in a government setting, these
business-minded pathfinders can take the average citizen or company
to places that heretofore were unrealistic.
Featured speakers on Thursday May 28, 2009 to include:
- 9:00 AM - Dr. George Nield, FAA Associate Administrator, Office
of Commercial Space Transportation.
- 11:00 AM - Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic.
- Noon (lunch) - Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX.
- 2:00 PM - Robert T. Richards, Vice President and COTS/CRS
Program Director Advanced Programs Group, Orbital Sciences
Corporation.
- 3:00 PM - Bob Richards, Director of Space Technology at Optech,
Inc. and CEO of Odyssey Moon Ltd, a competitor for the Google Lunar
X PRIZE.
- 3:00 PM - William Pomerantz, Director of Space Projects at the
X PRIZE Foundation.
- 4:00 PM - Tim Pickens, Founder and President of Orion
Propulsion.
- 7:00 PM (dinner) - Richard Garriott, 6th private citizen to
travel to the International Space Station.
These bold entrepreneurs and private spaceflight advocates are
shifting the paradigm previously thought to be the exclusive domain
of governments, to open up a frontier previously unattainable to
the general public, flying virtually anyone that wants to go into
space.
ISDC 2009 will take place from Wednesday May 27th to Sunday May
31st at the Omni Resort at ChampionsGate in Orlando, FL.
The conference provides a unique opportunity for students, space
enthusiasts, and the general public to engage aerospace
entrepreneurs and executives, NASA officials, academics and key
decision and policy makers in an open and positive discussion about
space exploration, research, and development.
The National Space Society's 2009 International Space Development
Conference will engage the public and decision-makers in an open
and positive discussion about how space exploration, research and
development will help solve our problems and usher in a new era of
hope.
Additional Details:
- On Wednesday May 27, 2009 the conference will kick off with an
exclusive pre-event, the 6th Space Investment Summit (SIS),
bringing together the emerging privately funded space industry with
the established world of finance in order to exchange goals, ideas
and advice. Investors and established aerospace firms will be
presented with business plans from some of the most exciting new
companies in space-related business, while expert panels will
discuss important issues like exit strategies for aerospace
startups, as well as early and mid-stage financing.
- On Thursday May 28, 2009 entrepreneurial and commercial space
enterprises will discuss the current state of efforts to decrease
the cost of access to space. The recent successes of privately
funded space companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard
Branson's Virgin Galactic have signaled the emergence of a new
privately funded sector of aerospace. The featured speakers will be
SpaceX Founder Elon Musk, Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson,
Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn, and NASA Manager of
Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Alan Lindenmoyer.
-
On Friday May 29, 2009, ISDC will
focus on NASA's plans to explore the Moon, Mars and beyond. At the
core of NASA's future space exploration is a return to the moon,
where we will build a sustainable long-term human presence. As the
space shuttle approaches retirement and the International Space
Station nears completion, NASA is building the next fleet of
vehicles to bring astronauts back to the moon, and possibly to Mars
and beyond. This new generation of space vehicles under Project
Constellation includes the Ares launch vehicle family, the Orion
crew exploration vehicle, and the Altair lunar lander. Featured
content will be a NASA Space Policy panel, and an in-depth look at
the status of Orion and Ares I by senior managers from Lockheed,
Boeing ATK and Aerojet. The featured event will be the annual NSS
awards Gala on Friday evening.
- Saturday May 31, 2009 will include numerous speakers, panels
and discussions on aerospace sciences and education. The United
States currently ranks 17th in science amongst the world's 30
richest countries and U.S. students are even further behind in
math, ranking 24th. If this gap is not closed we run a serious risk
of not providing our next generation with the skills necessary to
maintain the United States as a spacefaring nation. Space is widely
considered one of the most exciting activities we can share with
students to inspire them to pursue an education in math and
science. Another critical problem our country faces is dwindling
supplies of energy and resources. Some of the answers to these
critical problems await us just beyond the atmosphere of our
planet. Harnessing the virtually unlimited power of the sun,
through the development of an infrastructure of space-based solar
power satellites (SSP), for example, would create energy
independence for our country.
- Sunday May 31, 2009 will feature visionaries, scientists and
entrepreneurs looking to the future of space settlements, ways to
use and inhabit Mars and the methods to protect our planet from
near Earth objects such as asteroids. Sunday is the final day of
the conference and will also host sessions and meetings focused on
space advocacy and space outreach.
The National Space Society (NSS) is an independent, grassroots
organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring
civilization. Founded in 1974, NSS is widely acknowledged as the
preeminent citizen's voice on space. NSS counts thousands of
members and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the
world. The society also produces the annual International Space
Development Conference.
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