Tag: Space Sustainability

AIAA Unveils ASCEND Diverse Dozen Op-Eds on Space Sustainability and Environmentalism

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 19, 2024 – Reston, Va. – AIAA published the 2024 ASCEND Diverse Dozen (D12) Op-Eds – a collection of unique perspectives on today’s most pressing space sustainability challenges. The 12 visionaries who comprise the D12 will present their ideas on the opening day of 2024 ASCEND, 30 July – 1 August, Las Vegas. Organized as rapid-fire lightning talks, the D12 will address burning topics from the challenges of balancing growth through responsible space sustainability to orbital debris risking human space exploration.

ASCEND is the world’s premier outcomes-focused, interdisciplinary space event designed to accelerate building our off-world future. In its fifth year, D12 is produced in partnership with astrodynamicist Moriba Jah, chief scientist and co-founder of Privateer. More than 50 people have participated in the D12 program since 2020. Read all their Op-Eds here.

This year, the D12 is supported by the Office of Space Commerce, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce helping amplify underrepresented voices as they promote messages on space sustainability.

The 2024 ASCEND D12 cohort includes startup founders, association leaders, aerospace and engineering scholars, and policy experts in the space industry. They hail from Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, the United States and its territory, Puerto Rico.

The 2024 ASCEND Diverse Dozen are:

  • Nifemi Awe, Management Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
  • Priyanka Dhopade, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, University of Auckland
  • Martina Dimoska, Founder and President, International Space Alliance
  • Jose Figueroa, Founder, Aqua/Sky Launch Innovations
  • Amir Gohardani, CEO, Springs of Dreams Corporation
  • Kim Macharia, Executive Director, Space Prize Foundation
  • Isabelle Mierau, Founder, Space Debris DAO
  • Sumbal Mushtaq, Founder, Astralbeam Organization
  • Alma Okpalefe, Executive Director, World Space Week Association
  • Carolyn Overmyer, Director, Orion Chief Engineer, Lockheed Martin Space
  • Olga Stelmakh-Drescher, Chief Policy, Legal & Government Relations Officer, Exolaunch
  • Salman Ali Thepdawala, Ph.D. Candidate and Munich Aerospace Scholar, University of Bundesweehr – Munich

Registration for 2024 ASCEND is open. Press passes are available.

Contact: Rebecca Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About AIAA
AIAA is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

AIAA Announces Global Speakers on Space Safety, Security, and Sustainability: The 2023 ASCEND Diverse Dozen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 4, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) today announced the 2023 ASCEND Diverse Dozen (D12) – 12 speakers from nine countries who will address the most important issues surrounding space safety, security, and sustainability at the upcoming ASCEND event, 23–25 October, Caesars Forum, Las Vegas. ASCEND is the world’s premier outcomes-focused, interdisciplinary space event designed to accelerate building our off-world future.

D12 is a partnership between ASCEND and astrodynamicist Moriba Jah, cofounder/chief scientist at Privateer, and associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at the University of Texas. As a space environmentalist who is advancing our ability to understand how human objects in space create both services and risks of collisions, Jah said, “D12 is centered on the belief that we’re more similar than we are different, and action is best when born from compassion.”

The 2023 ASCEND Diverse Dozen include:

  • Mustapha Agbadi, Partner, Policy and Legal Compliance, Bismerk Solicitors, United Kingdom
  • Sahil Bhatia, Student, University of Bremen, India
  • Pablo Carlos Budassi, Designer and CEO, Awe Infographics, Argentina
  • Allen Herbert, Space Agrifood Advocate, United Arab Emirates
  • Malkia Kelelue, Space Science and Astronomy Officer, Kenya Space Agency, Kenya
  • Michelle Lucas, Founder and CEO, Higher Orbits, United States
  • Yumna Majeed, Founder, Exploration—Cosmos to Classrooms, Pakistan
  • Claire Nelson, OASEAS, Space Futures Forum, United States
  • Chau Nguyen, Chief Technology Officer, NYSA LLC, United States
  • Grecia Olano O’Brien, Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec, Canada
  • Kristen Price, Chief Counsel/Senior Director—Legal and Compliance, Blue Origin, United States
  • Alejandro J. Roman Molinas, General Director of Aerospace Development, Paraguayan Space Agency, Paraguay

The group will deliver a thought leadership presentation of their visions for space during a dedicated 2023 ASCEND session on Tuesday, 24 October, 1130-1230 hrs PT. In addition, their Op-Eds will be published during 2023 ASCEND.

Influential thinkers and emerging leaders from around the globe have been featured in D12 during ASCEND since it launched three years ago. The D12 Op-Eds from the previous 35 participants are available online:

Registration for the 2023 ASCEND event is open now. Journalists from around the world are invited to cover 2023 ASCEND; press passes are available for credentialed media by request.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, [email protected], 804-397-5270 cell

About ASCEND
Powered by AIAA, ASCEND, which stands for Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery, is the world’s premier collaborative, outcomes-driven, interdisciplinary community designed to accelerate the building of our off-world future. For more information, visit ascend.events, or follow ASCEND on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit aiaa.org, or follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

 

Lockheed Martin’s Warren: Space Sustainability Requires International Cooperation

Space News reported that during an AIAA online event Tuesday, Jennifer Warren, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of civil and regulatory affairs, “said space sustainability is a common objective of many countries ‘but I really think achieving and maintaining it requires a level of international collaboration and cooperation that we’re still aspiring to.’” Warren said that in order to get to a safe operating environment for spacecraft, “I would suggest…not uniquely inter governmental or uniquely private sector discussions, but…a very robust multi-stakeholder approach.” Warren “said Lockheed Martin has advocated for satellite operators to adopt the World Economic Forum’s Space Sustainability Rating (SSR),” which is an in-development rating system that scores “manufacturers and operators based on factors such as plans to de-orbit systems upon completion of missions; choice of orbital altitude; ability of systems to be detected and identified from the ground; collision-avoidance measures; size and number of objects left in space from the launch vehicle; and sharing of data.”
Full Story (Space News)

Tech Briefs Reports on 7 Space Sustainability Startups

Tech Briefs reports, “Approximately 8,000 metric tons of space junk now in orbit includes nearly one million individual pieces of debris that are potentially lethal to satellites, space missions, commercial space services, and human lives. With companies like SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb launching mega constellations, this number will continue to increase over the coming years.”
Full Story (Tech Briefs)