Deep Space Industries (TechTalk: 3/25)

AIAA SF/SVSC Small Payloads TechTalks
Monday, March 25, 2013; 6:30pm-8:00pm
Hacker Dojo, Mountain View, 
In mid-February, the Dojo moved to a new location at 599 Fairchild Dr., near Specialty's Cafe, Peet's Coffee, and the south gate of NASA Ames. 

 

Deep Space Industries 

James Luebke and Dr. Chris Cassell

Summary

There's been quite a lot of asteroid traffic near Earth lately, with one meteorite striking Russia on the day of another asteroid's close shave of our planet. Aside from detection and perhaps one day deflection, are there other opportunities for our space-faring species to interact with these celestial neighbors?

Deep Space Industries, announced merely two months ago, has already staked its claim as one of the most ambitious new space ventures. Founded by such leading minds as Rick Tumlinson, commercial space godfather, David Gump, formerly of Astrobotic, and John Lewis, scientist and author of the revolutionary Mining the Sky, Deep Space Industries envisions a business in which robotic scouts prospect for valuable asteroids, intermediate spacecraft return samples to Earth for analysis, and finally mining vehicles fly to the chosen asteroid to excavate and utilize the material on site. That final detail is perhaps the most significant aspect of their vision: by using a heretofore unrealized 3D printer, DSI will transform the mined elements into the components of space-native industry, allowing unique structures that would have been impossible to bring up from Earth in pieces. Join AIAA - SF on March 25 for a Tech Talk with founder and missions integration expert James Luebke. 

About the Speakers
James Luebke is a Founder and Vice President of Technical Marketing at Deep Space Industries. He brings his expertise as an aerospace engineer to DSI, contributing practical skills in mission planning and integration. Jim will be instrumental in overseeing the fundamentals of the operation, both in the hardware and software engineering side as well as in relations with the government. When Deep Space Industries dispatches its first Firefly scout to an asteroid, Jim will be one to thank for actualizing the concept. He is an alumni of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine.

Co-Founder Dr. Chris Cassell, expert on orbital mechanics and fellow missions planner, will join Jim after the presentation for Q&A.