HENK ROGERS
Henk B. Rogers is a Dutch-born entrepreneur, clean energy and space exploration visionary who has dedicated the past decade of his career to the research, development, advocacy and implementation of renewable energy sources in his adopted home of Hawaii and beyond. Now he turns to his next Mission, to make a backup of life on Earth. Rogers spent his early career in Japan as a video game designer and publisher, Rogers went on to revolutionize the video game industry by securing the rights for the blockbuster Tetris. Rogers founded Blue Planet Energy Systems and developed Blue Ion, an industry-leading battery technology with proprietary system architecture and energy management software.
Rogers is Chairman of the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES). He owns HI-SEAS, a 1,200 sq. ft. Mars habitat where 6 crew live in Mars-like conditions for up to 12 months. He plans to be the catalyst to building off planet human habitats.
ROB KELSO – View IMS Presentation
Founder and CEO for Kelso Aerospace, and member of the Board of Directors for the National Space Society and also the NASA Alumni League, Kelso is a 37- year veteran of NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), Kelso formerly held a position as the NASA Shuttle Flight Director at NASA’s famed Mission Control Center. Since November 2012, Kelso has served as the Executive Director at the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES).
Kelso’s career in flight operations spans 21 years, beginning in April of 1981 as a flight controller on STS-1. In February of 1988, Kelso was selected to the Flight Director “Class of 1988” following the Challenger disaster, which took the life of Hawaii’s Ellison Onizuka. He directed 25 Space Shuttle missions during the 1980s and 1990s.
During his time in Flight Control, Kelso was instrumental in launching Department of Defense (DoD) spacecraft aboard the Space Shuttle, beginning with overseeing the first DoD launch from Mission Control while Ellison Onizuka served as the Astronaut in the Shuttle cockpit in January 1985 for STS-51C. He also served as NASA’s Mission Director, responsible for the launch and delivery of the Chandra X-Ray telescope, the last of the great NASA observatories sent into space by NASA.
After leaving the Flight Director Office at NASA JSC, Kelso served on JSC’s senior staff as Deputy Director for Safety and Mission Assurance, responsible for directing safety and quality activities supporting manned space flight. One of Kelso’s last roles at NASA was leading efforts to preserve and protect the Apollo lunar landing sites on the Moon.
Kelso has been the recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leaderships Medal, and NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in physics, and a Master’s in Business Administration.
MARK HOPKINS
Serving as the Chairman of the Executive Committee for the National Space Society (NSS), Mr. Hopkins will present on “Space Settlement as a Priority for Humankind”). Mark holds a BS in economics from the California Institute of Technology, an MA in economics from Harvard University and is a former Rand Corporation economist. Hopkins has written a number of publications concerning space economics and is responsible for most of the early economic studies of space settlements including the economic study in the NASA publication Space Settlements: A Design Study.
DR. ROBERT (BOB) RICHARDS
Presenting on “Opening the Lunar Frontier for all of us”, Dr. Richards is a space entrepreneur and futurist. Co-Founder of the International Space University, Singularity University, SEDS, the Space Generation Foundation and Moon Express, Inc., Bob also currently serves as President and CEO. Dr. Richards chairs the Space Commerce Committee of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, serves on the board of the Space Foundation and is a member of the International Institute of Space Law.
Bob convened, and co-chaired, the 2005 International Lunar Conference and is a member of The Hague Space Resources Working Group and the International Lunar Exploration Working Group. Bob studied aerospace and industrial engineering at Ryerson University; physics and astronomy at the University of Toronto and space science at Cornell University where he became special assistant to Carl Sagan. Bob is an evangelist of the “NewSpace” movement and has been a catalyst for a number of commercial space ventures.
DR. ERIK SEEDHOUSE – View IMS 2017 Presentation
Hailing from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Dr. Seedhouse is also the Manager of the suborbital spaceflight simulator and mission control center.
Presenting on “The Challenges of Establishing a Human Settlement on the Moon”, Seedhouse draws from his experience as the Former Director of Canada’s manned centrifuge operations and manager of the hypobaric facility at DRDC Toronto.
In 2009, Seedhouse was one of the final 30 candidates in the Canadian Space Agency’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. Erik is the Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Life Support Systems for Spacecraft and a published author, with more than 25 books to his name.
Dr. G. JEFFREY TAYLOR
G. Jeffrey Taylor received his undergraduate degree in physics from Colgate University and his Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from Rice University. He is currently a research professor in the Hawai`i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at the University of Hawai`i.
Dr. Taylor has done extensive work on the mineralogical and chemical make up of lunar samples and meteorites, publishing over 170 refereed articles. His main interests are in basic planetary science (understanding the processes involved in planetary formation, with emphasis on bulk composition of the Moon and terrestrial planets) and on the petrologic and geochemical evolution of planetary crusts.
He was a member of the Mars Odyssey Gamma-Ray Spectrometer Team and is a guest scientist on the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. With Linda Martel (Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology) he writes and publishes an online science magazine, Planetary Science Research Discoveries (www.psrd.hawaii.edu).
DR. BERNARD FOING – View IMS Presentation by Dr. Tai Sik Lee
Prof. Bernard H. Foing is Chair of ESA-ESTEC Staff Association Committee and Senior Exploration Officer. He has worked at ESA ESTEC as study scientist, Research Unit Coordinator, Project scientist of SMART-1 (first ESA mission to the Moon, launched in 2003), Head of the Research Division, and Chief scientist. He has been active at ILEWG/COSPAR (International Lunar Exploration Working Group, sci.esa.int/ilewg) as president (1998-2000), and now as Executive Director. He has been Co-Investigator of SOHO, XMM, BIOPAN, SMART-1, Mars Express, COROT, Expose on ISS, ExoMars.
He obtained a PhD in France on Astrophysics and Space Techniques using a sounding rocket, with collaborative stays in the US (Lockheed Palo Alto, Sacramento Peak, Boulder, Harvard Observatory). He worked 3 years in Chile as astronomer for ESO European Southern Observatory. He has published over 620 articles, including 195 refereed papers, in space science and technology, Moon-Mars exploration, astrophysics, astrobiology, instrumentation. He edited 20 books, organized over 55 international conferences and symposia. He is special professor at Vrije U. Amsterdam and Florida Tech, and full member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
DR. JOHANN-DIETRICH WOERNER
Johann-Dietrich ‘Jan’ Woerner became the ESA Director General on 1 July 2015. Previously, from March 2007 to June 2015, he served as Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Jan Woerner was born in Kassel, Germany, in 1954. He studied civil engineering at the Technical University (TU) Berlin and TU Darmstadt, from where he graduated in 1985. In 1982, as part of his studies, he spent one year in Japan, investigating earthquake safety of nuclear power plants. Until 1990, Dr. Woerner worked for consulting civil engineers Koenig und Heunisch.
In 1990 he returned to TU Darmstadt, where he was appointed as a professor of Civil Engineering and took over as Head of the Test and Research Institute. Before being elected as President of TU Darmstadt in 1995, he held the position of Dean of the newly established Civil Engineering Faculty. Jan Woerner headed the university from 1995 to 2007 and succeeded in making it the first autonomous university of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Jan Woerner has been awarded numerous prizes and positions, such as the Prize of the Organization of Friends of Technical University Darmstadt for ‘outstanding scientific performance’. He was also appointed to the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and to the Convention for Technical Sciences (acatech) and is a representative of the Technical Sciences Section of the Leopoldina, the national academy of sciences of Germany.
Jan Woerner has received honorary doctorates from New York State University at Buffalo (USA), technical universities of Bucharest (Romania) and Mongolia, the Saint Petersburg University for Economics and Finance (Russia) and École Centrale de Lyon (France). He has received the Federal Cross of Merit (Officer’s cross, 1st class) of the Federal Republic of Germany for his continuous efforts regarding the next generation of scientists and Germany as a location for Science, Technology and Engineering. He has furthermore been awarded the honours of Knight of the French Légion d’Honneur.
Jan Woerner was Vice President of the Helmholtz Association and also a member of various national and international supervisory bodies, advisory councils and committees. He was a member of the administrative boards of École Centrale Paris, École Centrale de Lyon, TU Berlin, the Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, the Arts and Music University in Frankfurt and has been a member of a number of supervisory boards including Carl Schenck AG, Röhm GmbH, TÜV Rheinland AG and Bilfinger SE. Furthermore, he was appointed to the energy expert group of the German Government.
Before joining ESA as Director General, Jan Woerner was head of the German delegation to ESA from 2007 to 2015 and served as Chairman of the ESA Council from 2012 to 2014.
BRIAN SHIRO – View 2017 IMS Presentation
Brian Shiro’s lifelong ambition is to promote both the exploration of space and improvement of sustainable living on Earth. This has led him to pursue many synergistic opportunities in the earth and space sciences in a career spanning fifteen years. In that time, Shiro has led or participated in numerous field expeditions to remote locations around the globe, including Antarctica, Alaska, Canada, and various tropical Pacific islands. His most recent fieldwork has focused on applications in environments analogous to the Moon or Mars. In 2009 and 2010, he served as crew Geophysicist on a month-long simulated Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, Canada and as Commander on a two-week mission at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. In both cases, he led projects searching for permafrost and groundwater to glean lessons astronauts may use one day on other worlds. His planetary analog experience also includes two PISCES-facilitated projects. In 2012, Shiro contributed to the NASA RESOLVE lunar rover field campaign on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and he currently serves as a research collaborator and mission support manager for the NASA HI-SEAS Mars analog mission on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
Shiro was a Highly Qualified NASA astronaut applicant in 2008 and 2012, placing him within the top 10% of applicants. Recognizing the growth of commercial spaceflight opportunities, he co-founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Astronauts for Hire (A4H) in 2010 to help build the next generation commercial astronaut workforce. Shiro serves as A4H’s President/CEO and is a Director on its Board of Directors. Through A4H, he has completed astronaut training in a high-gravity centrifuge, zero-gravity parabolic flight, emergency survival skills, and spatial disorientation. Brian is also a private pilot, scuba diver, marathon runner, and regular speaker at area K-12 schools on earth and space science topics.
Since 2005, Shiro has worked as a Geophysicist at the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii. In this capacity, he applies operational science principles to continuously monitor the globe for earthquakes, access their tsunamigenic potential, and issue tsunami warnings as needed. He is also currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where he applies geophysical exploration techniques to search the subsurface for resources that could support life on other planets. Shiro holds a B.A. (2000) with majors in Integrated Science, Geology, and Physics from Northwestern University, a M.A. (2002) in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis, and a M.S. (2010) in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota. He is also a graduate of the International Space University’s Space Studies Program (2005), which led to his giving an invited presentation on wildfire forecasting using space technologies to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in 2006.
KEYNOTE PANELISTS
DR. BRUCE PITTMAN
Bruce Pittman is currently working as the Chief System Engineer in the NASA Space Portal Office at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In this position, he supports the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters on programs ranging from orbital applications of the International Space Station and other orbiting commercial facilities to low cost, reliable access to space, reusable space infrastructure as well as cis-lunar commercialization.
The Space Portal’s latest initiative is a plan for returning to the Moon using public/private partnerships. Bruce also leads the Space Portal support of the Frontier Development Lab summer study program with the SETI Institute.
In addition to his work at NASA, Pittman is also the Senior Vice President and Senior Operating Officer of the National Space Society (NSS) as well as a member of the Board of Directors. He is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) where he is also the chairman of the Commercial Space Group.
Mr. Pittman received the NASA Exceptional Public Service medal as well as the Service to The Frontier Award from the Space Frontier Foundation and the Chris Pancratz Memorial Space Activist of the Year Award from the NSS.
DR. DAN RASKY
Dr. Rasky is an internationally recognized expert on advanced entry systems and thermal protection materials. He has developed his expertise working five years for the U.S. Air Force and more than 20 years for NASA. In the 1990’s, he and his research colleagues at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., invented a heat-shield material called Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) that has subsequently been used on several NASA as well as private industry spacecraft. For this achievement, Rasky received the NASA Inventor of the Year Award for 2007 – the first ever for NASA Ames.
In 2009, Rasky completed a one-year Interagency Personnel Assignment (IPA) with the Space Grant Education and Enterprise Institute, Inc., San Diego, Calif., where he served as a senior research Fellow supporting a number of emerging space companies and other organizations. One of these companies was Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif., also known as SpaceX. Rasky spent considerable time at SpaceX providing expert consultation about the design and development of the heat-shield for their Dragon spacecraft. As a result, SpaceX chose PICA as the heat shield material for the spacecraft. On Dec. 8, 2010, the Falcon-9 rocket carried the Dragon capsule with its SpaceX fabricated PICA-X heat shield into space. It survived the launch and re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere; consequently, the mission was considered an enormous success.
In addition to the SpaceX Dragon capsule, Rasky has made significant contributions to flight hardware used on eight NASA missions, including the NASA Stardust comet sample return mission. The Stardust return capsule used a PICA heat shield that enabled the mission, and was the fastest entry ever by a man-made object at Earth. It is now on display as part of the “Milestones of Flight” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. PICA also is being used for the primary heat shield for the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) lander mission.
Today, Rasky is the director and co-founder of the Space Portal at the NASA Research Park, Moffett Field, Calif. The Space Portal has a mission to “be a friendly front door for emerging and non-traditional space companies.” Through their initiatives and collaborations, the Space Portal has had a significant role in the establishment of several notable and successful NASA programs, including the Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) program, the Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program, and the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program.
Rasky also is the recipient of the Senior Professional Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Award, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, 12 NASA Group Awards, and eight Space Act Awards. He has six patents, 64 publications, and is an associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a senior member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
CLIVE NEAL
Clive R. Neal grew up and was educated in the United Kingdom. He obtained his PhD in geochemistry and petrology in 1986. He moved to the United States later in that year where he spent 4 years as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. While there, he studied mantle petrology and was introduced to the study of Apollo Moon rocks. He is currently a Professor of Planetary Geology at the University of Notre Dame. Neal has been involved in the study of the Moon since 1986 using Apollo samples, lunar meteorites, as well as remotely sensed data from missions including and since Apollo.
Neal has also served on mission and research review panels, including being the Chair of the Lunar Sample Allocation subcommittee 2005-2009, and was a member of the Senior Review panel for NASA’s Planetary Science Division in 2012 and chaired that panel in 2014. He is the current chair of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, a group that he chaired from 2006- 2010. Neal is passionate about NASA and in returning humans to the Moon and beyond in a sustainable, economically beneficial way. In 2015, he received the NASA “Wargo Award” for contributions to the integration of exploration and planetary science throughout his career.