Posts Tagged ‘International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight’
ISPCS Public Forum – October 19, 2010
Space Week in New Mexico
Release courtesy of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium
New Mexico Space Grant Consortium will host the fifth annual FREE ISPCS Public Forum (previously named the Leonard R. Sugerman Public Forum) on Tuesday, October 19th, 1:30-3:00 at the Pan American Center on the campus of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Discover how the future of commercial spaceflight will impact our community. The mayor of Titusville Florida will present on what happened when NASA came to town. Local mayors will discuss what preparations they are making as Spaceport America becomes operational. Speakers include:
- John Hummer, moderator, CCIM, Owner/Broker, Steinborn TCN Commercial Real Estate
- Mayor Tulley from Titusville Florida
- Las Cruces Mayor Miyagishima
- Truth or Consequences Mayor Montgomery
- Hatch Mayor Nordyke
You are welcome to also attend the public forum 12:00 – 1:15 focused for university students and faculty. Speakers include:
- Pat Hynes, New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Director
- Clay Anderson, NASA Astronaut, STS-117, STS-131, ISS
- George Whitesides, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Galactic
- Aaron Prescott, Commercial Division Director, Spaceport America
- Mark Severance, International Space Station Laboratory, Education Projects Manager
- Doug Weathers, NMSU student, Student Launch Program
- Ivan Ferrell, NMSU student, Microgravity Program
- Selene Virk, NMSU student, Transcriptomic Profile of the Inner Ear Vestibular Organs
Come join us as we discuss preparing for this exciting industry in southern New Mexico!
On Wednesday and Thursday, October 20-21 the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight will be held at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. For more information or to register for the symposium go to http://www.ispcs.com
International Space Symposium Brings Commercial Space to Las Cruces
Release courtesy of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium
LAS CRUCES, NM – The International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) is a ‘go’ at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum from October 20 through 21 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The symposium will feature industry experts and renowned speakers discussing the current state and future developments in the growing commercial space industry.
New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) Director Dr. Pat Hynes said, “We are excited about this year’s symposium since we are at a critical time in the growth of the commercial space industry. The purpose of ISPCS is to bring key industry stakeholders together in New Mexico. Throughout the world, New Mexico is becoming a well-respected leader for this growing industry.”
The ISPCS event is not only important for the commercial space industry, but also for the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Along with establishing the city as a hub for commercial space activity, the event will have tremendous economic impact and bring a greater level of international awareness to the community.
ISPCS has an extensive list of speakers scheduled for this year:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20
8:45 a.m. Keynote Address – Neil Sheehan, Pulitzer Prize winner and Author of A Fiery
Peace in a Cold War
10:00 a.m. Past is Prologue: The Future of the Space Industry From the Perspective of
Those Who Helped Get It Started
Jeff Greason, Guruswami Ravichandran, Neil Sheehan, Bill Campbell, Rick Sturdevant, Fredrick Bachtel
11:00 a.m. Closing the Credibility Gap: The Role of Suborbital Testing as a Pathfinder to
Orbital Markets or as an End Market in Itself
Debra Facktor Lepore, Jeff Greason, Julia Tizard, Neil Milburn
1:30 p.m. Establishing the Commercial Space Market: Matching Business Strategy
with Funding Sources
Lee Rand, Grant Anderson, Mark Sirangelo, Tim Pickens, Robert Bigelow
2:30 p.m. FAA Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation
Ken Davidian, Samuel Durrance, Farrukh Alvi , Pat Hynes, Van Romero, Jim Vanderploeg
3:30 p.m. The Practical Impact of ITAR Reform on Commercial Space
Bob Dickman, Craig Weston, Sven Grahn, Franceska Schroeder
4:30 p.m. The Path Forward from DC-X/XA
Bill Gaubatz, Jess Sponable, Tom Ingersoll, David Masten, Yoshifumi Inatani, Neil Milburn, James Ball, Fredrick Bachtel
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21
8:30 a.m. Keynote Address – Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator, NASA
10:00 a.m. The Microgravity Market
Dennis Stone, Cheryl Nickerson, Andrew Nelson
11:00 a.m. Crew Transportation Systems: The Game Changer in Human Spaceflight
Brett Alexander, Keith Reiley, Kenneth Reightler, Robert Bigelow, Mark Sirangelo, Ken Bowersox
1:30 p.m. Space Policy Evolution: Changes Portend Larger Commercial Markets to
Service Government Needs and Greater International Cooperation
Clay Mowry, Brendan Curry, Valerie Skarupa, Philip McAlister
2:30 p.m. Creating the Demand: Free and Low Cost Flight Opportunities for Education
and Research in Space
David Masten, Doug Comstock, Susan Newsam, Brienna Henwood, Mark Severance, Jerry Larson, Charles Chafer
4:00 p.m. Spaceports
Karin Nilsdotter, Rick Homans, Stu Witt
This year’s conference is expected to attract over 400 company executives, government officials and industry and university researchers. The event is scheduled to coincide with Space Week in New Mexico. Attendees can register online at www.ispcs.com for the two-day conference.
For additional information on ISPCS, please visit www.ispcs.com or contact Joylynn Watkins at jwatkins@nmsu.edu or 575-646-6414.
Space Week in New Mexico – October 19-22, 2010
Space Week in New Mexico
The International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight 2010 (ISPCS 2010) will be held October 20-21, 2010 at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum during Space Week in New Mexico.
ISPCS 2010 will again feature the superior speakers and high-quality sessions that attendees have come to expect. New tours have been added this year, and multiple meetings will be held before and after the main sessions on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, the closing event of Space Week in New Mexico, attendees can join in the Spaceport America Runway Dedication and witness the long-distance capture-carry of Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Plan to be there for this historic event, when these state-of-the art vehicles pass over their eventual home base and operations center at Spaceport America.
The early-bird registration fee for ISPCS is $425. After Saturday, October 2nd the cost will then go to $475 for those registering by October 16th. Those registering after October 16th on line and on site will pay $525.
ISPCS is organized by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, a member of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, administered by NASA.
Register today at www.ispcs.com
Space Symposium Draws Pioneers
Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin
By Todd G. Dickson
A flyover by Virgin Galactic’s spaceliner and the presence of aerospace’s more ambitious space entrepreneurs are just a couple of the highlights of this year’s International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight next month.
Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic
More than 400 aerospace leaders – company executives, government officials and researchers – are expected to attend this year’s conference to be held Wednesday, Oct. 20, and Thursday, Oct. 21, at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road.
Flanking the conference will be the free public forum from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19, at the Pan American Center on the New Mexico State University campus, and, after the conference, Virgin Galactic’s “mothership” Eve carrying the six-passenger rocket ship Enterprise is scheduled to fly over Spaceport America’s recently completed two-mile-long runway in the desert between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences.
British billionaire Richard Branson, who is developing Virgin Galactic’s fleet to fly out of the New Mexico spaceport, described the flight as historic because it will be the first long-distance “capture-carry” flight of the spaceliner, making Oct. 22 a “momentous” day for commercial space.
“The new runway at Spaceport America will be finished, and the exterior fabric of our own facility at the spaceport will largely be complete,” Branson said. “It will be an honor to be present on that day, and I can safely say it will be one of the most exciting days in the history of Virgin.”
Based on the X PRIZE-winning system created by aviation genius Burt Rutan, Virgin’s double-hulled, jet-powered “mothership” will carry the Enterprise into the sky for a high-elevation, mid-air launch that will take its passengers to suborbital space.
Many of Virgin Galactic’s top executives will be at the conference, and Branson will deliver a taped message to school children at the public forum – but he isn’t the only one investing big money into privately funded commercial space development.
As in past years, the roster of panelists and speakers include many of the top players in the new industry of commercial space. The latest to agree to participate is Robert Bigelow, who has spent the last 10 years conducting research and development into a new generation of expandable space habitats. A Las Vegas, Nev., native, he made his fortune in real estate, banking and finance and is now gambling it on Bigelow Aerospace to create these expandable space habitats that can survive safely in orbit.
In 2006 and 2007, Bigelow launched its orbiting prototypes Genesis I and Genesis II with the goal to provide more room than the International Space Station at a fraction of the cost.
Other symposium participants include: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Neil Sheehan, whose latest book “A Fiery Peace in a Cold War” tells the story of the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile program; Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR Aerospace; Debra Fracktor Lepore, president of DFL Space; Lee Rand, Sun Mountain Capital partner; George Nield, commercial space transportation associate administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration; Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator; and Clay Mowry, Arianespace president. Many others in organizations supporting commercial space development will participate in the two days of the conference.
Pat Hynes, executive director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium at the NMSU campus, which organizes the symposium, said the start of the symposium will begin with reviewing the origins of space exploration, but then quickly go into in-depth discussions about issues and obstacles facing the new industry, such as skepticism about the ability of the private sector to reach orbital space and the difficulty in finding investors. The symposium will also explore opportunities the new commercial space vehicles have in microgravity manufacturing, research and education.
The symposium brings the leaders of the industry here at a time when many in the local business community are trying to find a way to have the activities at the spaceport translate into more jobs and opportunities, Hynes said. The symposium provides an opportunity for networking that can lead to local ventures, such as the Hatch solar plant.
The free public forum on Tuesday, Oct. 19, will be divided into three segments. The morning session will be primarily educational, but will give people an opportunity to hear from a real astronaut, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, and one of Virgin Galactic’s customers. The lunch hour forum will include Whitesides, Hynes, another astronaut and students. The afternoon segment will include the mayors of Las Cruces, Hatch and T or C, as well as the mayor of Titusville, Fla., which grew with the NASA program.
Hatch Poised for Solar Plant
Article courtesy of the Las Cruces Bulletin
By Todd G. Dickson
Efforts are progressing to build a solar power plant in Hatch, which could be ready to begin generating 5 megawatts by summer 2011.
So far, NextEra Energy Resources has negotiated a power purchase agreement with El Paso Electric Co. and secured a 35-acre site in the village’s industrial park. The agreement with El Paso Electric is part of the utility’s rate request for 2011 that still needs to be signed off by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
Should all the regulatory requirements be cleared over the next several months as expected, construction on the plant could start in December or January 2011 and be operational by June 2011.
The proposal may be a small plant by the company’s standards – NextEra Energy Resources is the largest U.S. company in the renewable energy market with a total generating capacity of more than 18,000 megawatts in its operations in 28 states and Canada – but the Hatch plant will be using new technology that gets its energy from the sun in a more concentrated fashion.
This would make the Hatch plant the largest plant in North America using concentrated solar photovoltaics, said Cory Ramsel, NextEra Energy Resources project manager.
“It’s a little project, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Ramsel said.
The plant would have 90 stations 55 feet tall with solar panels 40 feet wide that will automatically follow the sun’s path. The panels have specialized optics that greatly concentrate the sunlight onto silicon cells to generate electricity. It’s a method that was first developed by Sandia National Laboratories.
There are still issues such as the regulatory steps and getting the transmission system in place, but Ramsel is cautiously optimistic that the proposal will come to fruition, noting the cooperation he’s received from Hatch officials.
“We have a good partnership with the village,” he said.
Jim Hayhoe, a consultant to the Village of Hatch, began working on the project almost two years ago. Hayhoe, who is interested in helping Spaceport America bring economic development to the local communities, said the effort began with conversations with the spaceport’s former executive director Steve Landeene.
Landeene told Hayhoe he was interested in getting some kind of solar generation project going for the spaceport, which is located in the desert between Hatch and Truth or Consequences. At the 2008 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight, Hayhoe met Paul Turner of Renergix Solar. By early 2009, Renergix formed a partnership with NextEra to get the project going.
The project work has intensified greatly the last few months, Hayhoe said.
While the mostly automated facility will only need two full-time employees, the construction could require as many 30 workers, Hayhoe said. Also, the plant will become the flagship for the industrial park to attract other green industries, he said, and the village is moving to set aside adjacent land to allow for future expansion of the plant.
NextEra Energy Resources, which has a wind plant in eastern New Mexico, sees the state as having promising renewable energy resources, Ramsel said.
NextEra Energy Resources is the largest U.S. producer of renewable energy from the wind and the sun. According to its website, the company is the No. 1 solar power generator in the United States and the No. 1 wind energy producer in North America.
The company co-owns and operates seven solar plants in California’s Mojave Desert, the world’s largest solar site. In all, NextEra Energy Resources operates 310 megawatts of solar power, which is capable of meeting the energy needs of about 230,000 homes.
In 2009, NextEra Energy Resources corporate parent, NextEra Energy Inc., reported revenues of more than $15 billion and employed more than 15,000 employees. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy’s principal subsidiaries are NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the largest generator in North America of renewable energy from the wind and the sun, and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), which serves approximately 4.5 million accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the country. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy collectively operates the third largest U.S. nuclear power generation fleet, according to its website.
