Special thanks to our Sponsors, Co-Sponsors, and Exhibitors.
Track: NASA Exploration
The NASA/Exploration track spans the 2014 ISDC conference from Thursday 14 May through Sunday morning 18 May. The track provides an exciting update across major elements of commercial and NASA exploration programs.Four exploration subtracks (Asteroid, Emerging Science & Technology, Lunar, and Space Exploration) comprise the 3 1/2 -day NASA/Exploration track. Each subtrack is described in more detail below. Invited experts in each field will speak on a variety of timely topics in each area.
Asteroid Subtrack
Somewhere, an asteroid has our planet in its sights. It could kill hundreds of millions and cause trillions of dollars in damages, or even destroy all life on Earth. What steps should we take to minimize that risk? At the same time, asteroids contain incredible amounts of resources, enough to build settlements for a million times the Earth's current population, and more than enough to raise the standard of living of everyone on Earth to above the levels we currently enjoy in the U.S.A. Some of those resources are easier to reach than our Moon. But how do we reach them, and what must we do to safely utilize asteroid resources? Come to the Asteroid Track for the answers to these vital questions.
Emerging Science & Technology Subtrack
It is time for a major expansion of the human race into space. The ways and means already exist in embryonic form and are being fed by the data being returned from space by both our robotic probes and human explorers. Our presenters describe innovative, even breakthrough developments in planetary science, propulsion science and navigation, the physics and chemistry of electromagnetic communications and electrified media (plasma), and human factors which promise to reduce the known barriers to that expansion. These developments may also lead to improvements for life on earth whether by design or a rising tide raising all boats. Presenters may rely on a new insight mined from a natural process in space or on an existing technology to create surprise. Speculation based on good science is welcome.
Lunar Subtrack
The challenges of Lunar Exploration push existing capabilities. These challenges also represent a community of interest involving a number of organizations that share research ambitions. After a "long pause" of approximately 50 years from the Apollo expeditions, a new range of initiatives is opening up opportunities for a sustainable human expansion into lunar space and the surface of the Moon. NASA aims to create an infrastructure for operations, including commercial ones, beyond low earth orbit (LEO). International Lunar initiatives include China, Europe, India, Japan and Russia.
The Lunar track will provide presentations about the risks associated with radiation exposure during long-term missions beyond the Van Allen radiation belts, on extended missions in an Earth-Moon Lagrange Station or on extended missions to Mars. A number of Google Lunar X-Prize teams will provide information about their future plans and the milestones they are meeting as the competition draws toward its conclusion in 2015, and the efforts they will make beyond the GLXP. We will explore how the GLXP competition can incubate a market driven cis-lunar economy.
Space Exploration Subtrack
As the International Space Station (ISS) reaches its 20th anniversary and new space transportation systems mature, the time has come to look at the next grand steps into the cosmos. Space Exploration focuses on the challenges and opportunities of robotic and human exploration of space, primarily beyond low earth orbit. The challenges are substantial and Space Exploration will address the following questions:
What are the current technology challenges for human exploration beyond low earth orbit?
What is the latest progress in meeting those technology needs?
How does robotic exploration complement human exploration? What science can be done better with human interaction?
How do new commercial space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Bigelow Aerospace support exploration beyond low earth orbit?
How are ISS and other existing space assets being leveraged for exploration? How should they be leveraged?
What is the future of international cooperation for missions to the moon, asteroids, or Mars?
How do we better engage the public, especially students?
| Track and Sub-track Chairs and Co-Chairs |
| Main Track Chair |
 Schueler Consulting |
| Asteroid Sub-track Chair |
 Orbital Sciences |
| Lunar Sub-track Chair |
 International Lunar Geophysical; NSS Int. Comm. Campaign Chair and Flexure Engineering |
| Emerging Science and Technology Sub-track Co-Chair |
 Founder/operator Analytech, a Division of Laboratory Consulting Sources, Inc |
| Emerging Science and Technology Sub-track Co-Chair |
 Title, Affiliation |
| Space Exploration Sub-track Chair |
 Title, Affiliation |
Preliminary* Agenda and Scheduled Speakers
*all information on this page is subject to change
| Thursday, May 15th: Asteroid Sub-Track |
| Seminar Room (2nd Floor) |
| 10:00 am |
| Track Introduction |
|
Schueler Consulting |
| 10:00 am - 10:25 am |
| Space Exploration at JPL and the Search for Signs of Life |
 Associate Director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory responsible for Project Formulation and Strategy |
| 10:25 am |
| Asteroid Track Chair Introduction |
|
Orbital Sciences |
| 10:25 am - 10:50 am |
| Arecibo and Goldstone Radar Imaging of Near-Earth Asteroids: Flyby Missions Every Month |
 Arecibo Observatory |
| 11:00 am - 11:25 am |
| The Dawn Mission: Electrifying Tales from the Asteroid Belt |
 Dawn Chief Engineer/Mission Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| 11:25 am - 11:50 pm |
| Asteroid Capture Technology for NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission |
 Manager of Space Robotics Technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| 12:00 noon - 1:50 pm |
| Lunch |
| 2:00 pm - 2:25 pm |
| Asteroid Redirect Mission |
 Senior Technical Advisor to the Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters |
| 2:25 pm - 2:50 pm |
| Finding and Characterizing Targets for NASA's Proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission |
 Senior Scientist, NASA NEO Program Office, JPL/Caltech |
| 3:00 pm - 3:25 pm |
| Where’s the Stuff? An Overview of Solar System Properties and Resources |
 Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis |
| 3:25 pm - 3:50 pm |
| Preparing for Surprises: What the NEA community can learn from how other professions prepare for and respond to unexpected events |
 RAND |
| 4:00pm - 4:10 pm |
| Helios - NASA/NSS Student Space Settlement Contest Presentation |
 |
| 4:10 pm - 4:50 pm |
| Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission: Robotic Boulder Capture Option and Implications for Planetary Defense and Resource Utilization |
 Senior Space Systems Engineer, NASA Langley Research Centern |
| 5:00 pm - 5:25 pm |
| The Various Challenges of Asteroid Resource Extraction |
 Deep Space Industries |
| 5:25 pm - 5:50 pm |
| Methods and Apparatus for Mitigating Space Debris |
 University of Malaysia, Terengganu, Senior Research Fellow Institute of Marine Biotechnology; Chairman, CEO, RMANNCO, Inc. of Nevada |
| Friday, May 16th: Lunar Sub-Track |
| Seminar Room (2nd Floor) |
| 10:00 am - 10:25 am |
| Modeling Space Radiation and Stanford Linear Accelerator: the GEANT Software Tool |
 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory |
| 10:25 am - 10:50 am |
| Solutions for the Problem of Space Radiation |
 Founder, Cis-lunar One |
| 11:00 am - 11:40 am |
| Exploring the Planet Mercury with the MESSENGER Spacecraft |
 MESSENGER Principal Investigator (Bio) Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Universit |
 MESSENGER Deputy Principal Investigator Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science (Bio) |
 MESSENGER Project Scientist, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Bio) |
| 11:40 am - 11:50 am |
| AAKASHA - NASA/NSS Student Space Settlement Contest Presentation |
|
|
| 12:00 noon - 1:50 pm |
| Lunch |
| 2:00 pm - 2:25 pm |
| The GLXP Milestone Awards and GLXP Chief Update Technical Officer |
 Director of Technical Operations, Google Lunar XPRIZE |
| 2:25 pm - 2:50 pm |
| The Penn State Luna Lions Initiative |
 Penn State Lunar Lion XPRIZE Team |
| 3:00 pm - 3:25 pm |
| Plans Beyond GLXP |
 Co-Founder and CEO, Moon Express, Inc. (Bio) |
| 3:25 pm - 3:50 pm |
| Low Energy Trajectories in Cislunar Space and Supply Chains for Exploration and Development |
 NSS Tucson Chapter |
| 4:00 pm - 4:25 pm |
| Robotic Rover Development |
 Team Leader, GLXP Team Synergy Moon; Executive Director, Buzz Aldrin Innovation Institute |
| 4:25 pm - 4:50 pm |
| Lowering the Cost of Transportation Beyond LEO with a Scorpius Depot Architecture |
 Scorpius Space Launch Company |
| 5:00 pm - 5:25 pm |
| Modeling the Economic Development of Cislunar Space |
 General Partner, NewSpace Analytics LLC |
| 5:25 pm - 5:50 pm |
| International Lunar Geophysical Year Campaign |
|
International Lunar Geophysical; NSS Int. Comm. Campaign Chair and Flexure Engineering |
| Saturday, May 17th: Emerging Science and Technologies Sub-Track |
| Seminar Room (2nd Floor) |
| 10:00 am - 10:25 am |
| Biological Construction Materials for Space Exploration |
 PhD candidate, Stanford University/NASA Ames |
| 10:25 am - 10:50 am |
| Cloud Nines - Manufacturing Our Future in Space |
 Engineer, Life Support Systems, Author of "Crossing the Threshold: Advancing Into Space to Benefit Earth." |
| 11:00 am - 11:50 pm |
| Technological Requirements for Colonizing Mars |
 Founder/President, Mars Society; President of Pioneer Astronautics (Bio) |
| 12:00 noon - 1:50 pm |
| Lunch |
| 2:00 pm - 2:25 pm |
| The Juno mission to Jupiter: Earth flyby and recent significant events |
 JUNO |
| 2:25 pm - 2:50 pm |
| Space Travel without a Rocket or a Ride? Periodic Meteor Formation as a Natural Process of Ion Neutralization/Recombination in the Upper Atmosphere |
|
Laboratory Consulting Sources, Inc. |
| 3:00 pm - 3:10 pm |
| The God’s Kite - NASA/NSS Student Space Settlement Contest Presentation |
|
|
| 3:10 pm - 3:20 pm |
| Dune - NASA/NSS Student Space Settlement Contest Presentation |
|
|
| 3:25 pm - 3:50 pm |
| Can the Casimir effect enable a future practical propulsion system? |
 DeBiase Enterprises |
| 4:00 pm - 4:25 pm |
| Space Manufacturing Technologies (Patent Holder) |
 President, Humphries & Associates |
| 4:25 pm - 4:50 pm |
| Summary of NASA's Evidence Reports on Human Health Risks: 2013 Letter Report |
 President, Space Medicine Associates |
| 5:00 pm - 5:25 pm |
| Scorpius All-Composite Launch Vehicle Technology |
 Vice President, Business Development, Scorpius Space Launch Company, Director of Chapter Development and Board of Directors/Executive Committee, Space Tourism Society (Bio) |
| Sunday, May 18th: Space Exploration Sub-Track |
| Seminar Room (2nd Floor) |
| 10:00 am - 10:50 am |
| Mars Science Laboratory: The Road to a Successful Landing on Mars |
 Trajectory Analyst and Mission Design Engineer for the Mars Exploration Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| 11:00 am - 11:25 am |
| NASA Exploration Commercial Partnerships |
 Manager of Program Integration in NASA’s Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office (C3PO), Johnson Space Center |
