Category Archives: Activism

Activism

National Space Society adds four to leadership team

An announcement from the National Space Society:

National Space Society Adds to its Leadership Team

 Washington, DC — April 24, 2013 — The National Space Society announces the selection of four new additions to its leadership team:  Dr. Stanley G. Rosen to the newly created position of Vice Chairman of the Society’s Board of Directors, Bruce Pittman as Senior Vice President and Senior Operating Officer, Dr. Paul Werbos as Executive Vice President and Chair of the Policy Committee, and Craig Andrew Max IV as Assistant Secretary.

In announcing the appointments, Kirby Ikin, Chairman of the Board welcomed the experience these officers will bring to the Society, stating  “The appointments will enable NSS to operate more efficiently and be better able to carry out its mission of providing grass roots support for space exploration, space settlement, and utilization of space resources down on Earth.”

Dr. Rosen, whose special role will be to coordinate the efforts of NSS senior leaders, is currently a Professor at the Department of Defense’s Defense Acquisition University.  Formerly be was a consultant with Toffler Associates, Director of Strategic Development and Integration for Boeing Satellite Systems, and Strategic Planning Director for the Hughes Defense Systems and Hughes Space and Communications organizations.  His previous work included scientific, engineering, program management, and strategy and policy development positions with the U.S. Air Force, and time on the staff of the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bruce Pittman currently serves as Director of Flight Projects and Chief System Engineer at the Space Portal at NASA Ames Research Center.  In 2011, NASA awarded him the Exceptional Public Service Medal for “exceptional leadership in pioneering the development of commercial space for public benefit.”  He was a founder and member of the startup team in a number of early growth companies including Space Hab, Kistler Aerospace, New Focus, Product Factory, Prometheus II Ltd., and Industrial Sound and Motion.  He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Space Investment Summit Coalition.

Dr.  Werbos is the Program Director in the Office of Emerging Frontiers in Research & Innovation at the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Since 1988, he has also led research in a variety of other NSF areas, including fuel cell and electric vehicles, emerging technologies, cyber systems, and the sustainability part of NSF Interdisciplinary Research.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), and the International Neural Network Society (INNS).  He is a winner of the IEEE’s Neural Networks Pioneer Award and of the INNS’s 2011 Hebb Award.  He is also serving on boards of NSS, Millennium Project, Lifeboat Foundation, and IEEE Energy Policy Committee.

Craig Max is an attorney with the law firm of Vanderpool, Frostick & Nishanian, P.C., with offices in Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Woodbridge,Virginia.  Specializing in tax planning, including working with nonprofits, he also is a Certified Public Accountant and Board-certified as a Trust and Estate Practitioner by the International Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.  He has been designated a Fellow of the American Academy of Financial Management and named a Top Attorney by Northern Virginia magazine; a SmartCPA and a LegalElite by SmartCEO magazine; and a SmartCPA and a Legal Elite by Virginia Business magazine.  He is the author of numerous legal and accounting publications and holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland.

Fuller biographies of these and other NSS officers may be found on the NSS website www.nss.org/about/leadership.html.

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About the National Space Society:
NSS is an independent, educational, membership, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen’s voice on space, with over 8,000 members and supporters, and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world. The Society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. To learn more, visit www.nss.org.

Activism, Education, Space Science

Videos: Planetary Society event at IAA Planetary Defense Conf.

On Wednesday of last week’s 2013 IAA Planetary Defense Conference held at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff., the Planetary Society organized a public event. It was hosted by Bill Nye the Science Guy and Planetary Society CEO and included Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold, the  Science Channel’s Meteorite Men. Below are videos of the event

Part 1:

What a night! More than 900 people gathered at Northern Arizona University on April 17, 2013 to celebrate science and people who have dedicated themselves to saving humanity from a killer asteroid. Master of Ceremonies Bruce Betts, the Planetary Society’s Director of Projects, gets the evening started, and is then joined by Planetary Radio host Mat Kaplan for a raucous What’s Up! recording session.

Part 2:

The 2013 PDC public event welcomes the co-star of the Science Channel’s popular reality show to the Northern Arizona University stage. Notkin describes his worldwide search for space rocks, and why they fascinate him.

Part 3:

The Planetary Society’s Director of Projects served as MC for the exciting public event at this year’s PDC. It was the perfect venue for Bruce to announce the winners in the latest round of Shoemaker Near Earth Object grants from the Society. These awards enable dedicated amateur astronomers and smaller professional observatories to vastly improve their ability to discover and track asteroids and comets that pose a threat to Earth.

Part 4:

The Planetary Society’s CEO was a wildly popular speaker at the PDC public event on April 17, 2013. Here’s his presentation to over 900 fans on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff

Part 5:

Moderator Mat Kaplan of Planetary Radio leads a lively and inspiring conversation in the grand finale of the PDC public event. Four outstanding young leaders in the planetary defense community join Bill and Mat on stage:

-Flight Dynamics Engineer Brent Barbee of the Goddard Space Flight Center
-NEOWISE Principal Investigator Amy Mainzer of JPL
-Applied Physics Research Scientist Cathy Plesko of Los Alamos National Lab
-Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy David Trilling of NAU

Activism, Living in Space, Space Settlement

Video: The Mars One astronaut selection program briefing

The Mars One organization had a press conference event in New York City today to talk about the selection of Applicants for their plan to put a settlement on Mars. The panel included:

  • Bas Lansdorp, Co-Founder and CEO, Mars One
  • Gerard ‘t Hooft, Nobel laureate and Ambassador of Mars One
  • Norbert Kraft, Chief Medical Officer, Mars One
  • Grant Anderson, Sr. VP Operations, Chief Engineer and Co-Founder, Paragon Space Development Corporation
  • Bryan Versteeg, Mission Concept Artist, Mars One

The event was  moderated by Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor at the Planetary Society.

Update: Here is a press release from Mars One:

Mars One starts its search for the first humans on Mars

NEW YORK, Monday, 22nd April 2013 – Mars One is happy to announce the launch of its astronaut selection program today. The search has begun for the first humans to set foot on Mars and make it their home.

Mars One invites would-be Mars settlers from anywhere in the world to submit an online application via apply.mars-one.com.

This online application will be the first of the four rounds that together make the Mars One selection procedure. Round One will run for over five months and end on 31st August 2013. Applicants selected at the end of this round will include the first crew that will land on Mars in 2023. Mars One selection committees will hone the search for the first crew in three subsequent rounds and further training.

“We are very excited about launching the selection program. Round One is where we open the doors to Mars for everyone on Earth. This is an international mission and it is very important for the project that anyone anywhere can ask themselves: Do I want this? Am I ready for this? If the answer is yes then we want to hear from you,” said Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One.

In the last year Mars One received 10,000 messages from prospective applicants from over 100 countries. Mars One expects an unprecedented number of applications and even more internet users visiting the application website to support their favorite candidates.

Applicants are given the choice of publicly sharing and promoting their application page. While Mars One experts will choose which candidates progress to Round 2, everyone will have the opportunity to know the aspiring settlers and give them their vote of confidence.

Applicants will pay a small administration fee that varies across nations according to their per capita GDP. The variable fee makes the program equally accessible for applicants from all nations and also reduces the number of insincere entries.

“For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges.”

“Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria,” said Norbert Kraft, Mars One’s Chief Medical Director and former NASA senior researcher.

“For this mission of permanent settlement we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges.”

Throughout the astronaut selection program, Mars One will select applicants who have good physical and mental health and show five key character traits: Resilience, Adaptability, Curiosity, Ability to trust others, and Creativity/Resourcefulness.

In the last stage when 24-40 candidates have been fully trained and qualified, the final decision of choosing the first settlers will be decided by an audience vote.

“In a 1000 years, everyone on Earth will still remember who the first humans on Mars were, just like Neil Armstrong has etched in our memories forever. This makes the selection of the first crew to a different planet a very important election; in my opinion more important than most elections. We hope the whole world will join Mars One in our democratic search of the envoys of mankind to Mars, ” Lansdorp said.

About Mars One
The Mars One Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that will send humans to Mars in 2023 to establish the first permanent settlement outside Earth. Before the first settlers land on Mars a self-sustaining habitat will be set up with help of rovers and more settlers will follow every two years. A realistic mission plan has been designed using only existing technology available through the private space industry. The first footprint on Mars will fascinate and inspire generations; it is this public interest that will help finance this human mission to Mars.

Activism, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week

The list of programs on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, April 22, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST): No show today as I am teaching my UND Space Studies class.

2. Tuesday, April 23 2013 2013, 7-8:30 PM PST (10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST): No program as I am still in Los Angeles. The Open Line show planned for tonight will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

3. Friday, April 26, 2013, 9:30-11 AM PST (11:30- 1 PM CST, 12:30PM-2:00 PM EST): We welcome CHUCK KILLIAN to discuss the The Mars Society‘s MDRS [Mars Desert Research Station] Mission Support & Planning project.

4. Sunday, April 27, 2013, 12-1:30 PM PST (3-4:30 PM EST, 2-3:30 PM CST). We welcome MARC FUSCO to discuss his graduate space thesis regarding the JFK – Nixon space policies, commercial space and more.

See also:
/– The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
/– The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
/– The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.