continued…
Robbie @Planet: Space Industry Talk
Purpose Driven Organizations. Why?
last year 3B in aerospace sector investment (via Seraphim). showed the familiar chart NASA budget as% of Fed budget, doesn’t tell whole picture. doesn’t account for competition in private sector. Started Planet to access space, and build spacecraft differently. wanted to strap Moore’s Law to space. in 7 yrs, in space 23 times successfully, 2 unsuccessfully. redesign satellites ev 4 months (stochastic tinkering). Planet has more software engineers than aerospace engineers.
Nice nod to my friend Andrew:
Frontiers for Space Exploration panel:
Erika: Space doesn’t grow if we don’t open up & expand. follows open/democratizing space theme. follows open/democratizing space theme. International cooperation absolutely required. Space races of today not single country races. Dr. Alkalai: Missions conducted on behalf of the world.
Mandy Vaughn, Vox: First & foremost, the @Virgin_Orbit White Knight ships are gorgeous!
focus of Mandy’s discussion was the first that really went a little deeper into the nuts & bolts re: opening up access to space. I really like the mobile launch concept
Life in Space panel
obs: Diversity in disciplines in Astrobiology’s strength. +finally, some debate amongst panelists today re: likelihood of life. Q: new tools for life detection? Julie @WHOI : bring lab to the seafloor. -> more in situ observations on Earth to develop better exo theories (I worked on the life in extreme environments/biocomplexity initiatives in grad school)