Commercial Space Opportunities Forum at NASA Ames

Well, while everyone else is out having fun at the X-Prize Cup, I’ll be attending a forum that’s being put on by the Alliance for Commercial Enterprises in Space. The forum will be held tomorrow through friday at NASA Ames, which is only a few miles down the road. What with the recent announcement with Google, and some other rumblings, it appears that at least some people at Ames are starting to “get it” with regards to commercial space.

According to the email I received, and the further info on their website, the forum is meant to:

[B]ring together experts to strengthen and connect the four pillars needed to support a wide range of profitable endeavors in space over the next decade. Discussions will benefit from (1) customers with a demand for space access and services; (2) commercial firms who can supply that need; (3) investors willing to provide the enabling capital to make commercial space ventures successful; and (4) experts in developing the public policies and fostering the public awareness necessary to accelerate commercial uses of space.

This could be potentially interesting. From other sources on their site, there appears to be a strong focus on the Biotech sector and potential microgravity research done in space for biotech companies. ACES also seems to be focused mainly on Low Earth Orbit commercialization, but I’m sure that there will probably be some interest in suborbital microgravity services and other similar ideas.

Looking at the list of speakers, it appears that I know at least some of the speakers: Dave Anderman of Constellation Services Inc, Joe Pistritto (an investor in XCOR and a Space Access regular), David Gump of t/Space, and I’ve at least heard of Randa Milliron and her company (Interorbital systems).

I’ll be there representing Masten Space Systems, and I intend on blogging my notes from the conference. If someone in the area wants to loan me a laptop and a digital camera, I could try live-blogging the thing, but I’ll probably just do a writeup on my notes like I did for RTTM VI. With the timing of the forum relative to the X-Prize Cup though, I wonder how the turnout is going to be. I guess we’ll see.

[Note: If any of you faithful readers are going to be there, please look me up. I should be the only one wearing a MSS shirt, but if you want to buy one of your own, you can get some here….]

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Jonathan Goff

President/CEO at Altius Space Machines

Jonathan Goff is a space technologist, inventor, and serial space entrepreneur who created the Selenian Boondocks blog. Jon was a co-founder of Masten Space Systems, and is the founder and CEO of Altius Space Machines, a space robotics startup in Broomfield, CO. His family includes his wife, Tiffany, and five boys: Jarom (deceased), Jonathan, James, Peter, and Andrew. Jon has a BS in Manufacturing Engineering (1999) and an MS in Mechanical Engineering (2007) from Brigham Young University, and served an LDS proselytizing mission in Olongapo, Philippines from 2000-2002.

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