SpaceCom: Space Commerce Launching Business Innovation and Opportunities

Space Commerce Conference and Exposition (SpaceCom) will welcome commercial space and technology representatives at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston TX on November 17-19. Space commerce, dubbed as “The New Space Race”, is expected to support profits in manufacturing, energy, communications, medical and transportation markets. According to The Space Foundation 2014 Space Report, 76% of global space activity is commercially-funded space products and services, and investment in private ventures from 2010 to the end of 2015 is on track to reach $10 billion (NewSpace Global). International efforts are building toward reducing launch and payload costs, developing advanced spaceports and improving space policies. Keynotes will be given by (pictured clockwise) Charles Bolden (NASA), George Whitesides (Virgin Galactic), Stuart Martin (Satellite Applications Catapult), Yuri Sebregts, (Royal Dutch Shell), and Chris Impey (University of Arizona). There will be over 75 speakers and 70 exhibitors, Core Concept Working Groups, Industry Roundtables, Innovation Theater Presentations, Industry Center VIP Meet & Greets, a display of the JSC Modular Robotic Vehicle & Destination Station, book signings, student art and a tour of NASA JSC. (Image Credit: SpaceCom, NASA, VG, Catapult, Shell, UA, Orbital, CASIS, et al)

MONDAY

Nov 16 — ISS, LEO: Expedition 45 six-member crew conducting in-flight interviews with MSNBC, reviewing procedures for Dec Cygnus launch / arrival, working with fine motor skills experiment & cardiac bioelectric activity study, researching on remotely controlling a rover on Earth from the station, recording electromagnetic, radiation and air quality environment of ISS; station reboost from Progress M-29M planned for Nov 25.

 Nov 16 — Juno, Jupiter Trajectory: Now less than 1 AU and 231 days from Jupiter, relaying data of spacecraft health and trajectory back to Earth; science team fine-tuning mission flight plan, concentrating on unexplored region above Jupiter poles.

 Nov 16 — New Horizons, KBO 2014 MU69 Trajectory: Heading toward selected Kuiper Belt Object ~1.6B km away; mission proposal including fuel margins, budgetary needs & target date of Jan 1, 2019 – to be submitted to NASA in 2016 for agency to conduct assessment before officially approving mission extension.

Nov 16 — Planetary Resources, Redmond WA: NewSpace company praising U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Acts H.R. 2262 & S.1297 “as a major step toward humanity becoming a multi-planetary species”; Deep Space Industries, Moon Express, Astrobotic, ILOA, others encouraged by support of commercial space, see need to address Moon / other celestial body property rights.

Nov 16 — Garvey Spacecraft Corp., Long Beach CA & Kodiak Island AK: Testing P-19 first stage vehicle at Pacific Spaceport Complex, reconfiguring P-20 for demonstrations flight tests, developing systems for Nanosat Launch Vehicle, offering secondary payload opportunities on flight test projects.

Nov 16 — Ellington Airport / Spaceport, Houston TX: 10th commercial spaceport in USA working on support operations for horizontally launched Reusable Launch Vehicles through agreement with NASA JSC in areas including risk & engineering analysis, training, spacecraft systems testing, mission operations & execution.

Nov 16-18 — Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD: Workshop: Enabling Transiting Exoplanet Science with JWST.

Canadian Space Summit 2015 Highlights Latest Space Technology, Science and Policy

The Canadian Space Society annual Canadian Space Summit 2015 with the theme Innovation: Bringing Space Down to Earth is set for Nov 19-20 at Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. Two days of technical presentations, networking events and exhibitions will focus on Canada space research and technological advancements, space companies, space policy, cooperation and public awareness. Over 150 attendees are expected. Speakers include (L-R) Canadian Space Agency President Sylvain Laporte, UrtheCast CEO Scott Larson, Dr. Howard Trottier of Simon Fraser University, Dr. Cassandra Steer of McGill University and Dr. Glynis Perret of Cornell University. A public event will be held on Nov 18 at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre featuring CSS Space Art and History Exhibit, the Vancouver Chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Dr. Jaymie Matthews speaking about The BRITE Constellation Mission. Companies advancing Canada space industry include Magellan Aerospace, MDA, Neptec Design Group, Canadensys and Com Dev International (recently given purchase offer by Honeywell of USA). Canada Space Agency contributes to ISS technology and science, trains Astronauts, maintains a fleet of rovers, and develops satellites and other instruments for national / international missions. (Image Credit: CSS, CSA, NASA, UrtheCast, SFU, McGill University, Cornell)

Nov 16-18 — French Astrobiology Society, Paris, France: French Astrobiology Society Young Researchers Congress.

Nov 16-19 — Indian Committee for National Radio Science Union (INC-URSI), Indian National Science Academy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India: 2nd URSI Regional Conference on Radio Science.

Nov 16-19 — Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan: Particle Cosmology and Beyond 2015.

Nov 16-19 — Association for Computing Machinery, IEEE Computer Society, Austin TX: Supercomputing Conference 2015; with NASA@SC15 booth.

Nov 16 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 VD105: Near-Earth flyby (0.019 AU).

Nov 16 — Aten Asteroid 2000 WP19: Near-Earth flyby (0.059 AU).

Continued from…

Nov 2-27 — International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland: World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15).

Nov 7-21 — British Interplanetary Society, Somerset, United Kingdom: Exhibition: Visions of Space; at Wells and Mendip Museum.

Aug 28 – Aug 28, 2016 — NASA, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa, Mauna Loa HI: Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission 4; at 2,440-meter altitude.

Sep 14 – Dec 7 — SSERVI, NASA, Online: SSERVI teams at University of Central FL (CLASS) and Brown University/MIT (SEEED) give 13 lectures on Planetary Evolution: Phobos and Deimos, every Monday; live coverage available.

Sep 28 – Nov 27 — Charles Miller, SpaceNews, Online / Alexandria VA: Commercial Space Executive Training course.

TUESDAY

Nov 17 — SETI Institute, Mountain View CA: Lecture: Connected Exploration; presented by Eric Stackpole.