Two high school interns funded by NASA’s Neurodiversity Network (N3) presented their work from Summer 2023 at the recent National Space Society (NSS) International Space Development Conference (ISDC-2024), held in Los Angeles, CA (May 23-26, 2024). Both interns were mentored by Dr. Pascal Lee, Planetary Scientist at the SETI Institute and Chair of the Mars Institute, who accompanied them to the conference.

Intern Finn Braun, who is now a high school junior, co-authored the paper “An ATV for the Moon” with Dr. Lee. He worked with a CAD program to develop the concept, which might be of interest to NASA’s Artemis Program in the future. Intern Krista Heinemann, who has now graduated high school, co-authored the paper “New location for the ‘Noctis Landing’ candidate human landing site on Mars” in which she used NASA data about the Noctis Landing site provided by Dr. Lee to refine a possible landing location for future human missions to the surface of Mars. In addition to the oral presentations they gave, Braun and Heinemann lead-authored technical publications reporting their research. Braun and Heinemann were part of the 2023 N3 intern cohort, which included 19 other high school students, each paired with a NASA Subject Matter Expert as a mentor. The N3 internship program is now beginning its fourth summer with a new cohort of 21 additional interns.

The National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference^® (ISDC^®) will be held in Los Angeles, California, next week from May 23-26. The ISDC is the annual keynote event of NSS, bringing together leading executives, managers, engineers, scientists, educators, students, and laypeople from a wide variety of backgrounds to join in working toward the common goal of developing a spacefaring civilization. The conference attracts over 1000 people from dozens of countries and features important thought leaders from NASA, commercial space, media, academia, and other space-related fields.

ISDC 2024 talks will cover the exploration, development, and settlement of the Moon, Mars, and cislunar space; deep space exploration; innovative spaceflight technology; the commercialization of space and space infrastructure; life support systems; collaboration in space; living in space; space solar power; space debris mediation solutions; planetary defense; space law; and both national and international space policy, among others.

Speakers appearing at ISDC 2024 include retired NASA astronauts Susan Kilrain and Jose Hernandez, the inspiration for the Amazon hit film “A Million Miles Away”; “Star Trek” stars William Shatner and Melissa Navia; planetary scientist and Principal Investigator of the New Horizons program Dr. Alan Stern; CEO of VAST Space Max Haot; Chief Engineer Emeritus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Rob Manning; CEO of Embedded Ventures Jordan Noone; conference chair and college provost Dr. Anthony Paustian; VP of Marketing for VAST Dennis Stone; noted YouTube creators Isaac Arthur and Brian McManus; planetary geologist Dr. Pascal Lee; NASA planetary defense professional Dr. Kelly Fast; and many others. For a full listing please see the ISDC website at isdc.nss.org.

“The ISDC is the only major space conference that is intended for everyone, from space professionals to students to the lay public. It is the largest and longest running space conference anywhere,” said Aggie Kobrin, NSS Event Manager. “We’re thrilled to be holding the conference in Los Angles this year. It’s wonderful and to have these amazing speakers appearing before an audience ranging from seasoned NASA professionals to hundreds of young people, all of whom are deeply interested in space.”

Image credit: Melissa Navia

On May 25, the National Space Society will give its prestigious Space Pioneer Award for Media to Rod Pyle, noted space book author and historian, writer of numerous NASA publications, space journalist and podcaster, and editor of the NSS “Ad Astra” magazine. The award will be presented at the society’s annual International Space Development Conference, being held this year in Los Angeles, California, from May 23-26.

“I could not be more pleased that Rod will be receiving this award,” said planetary scientist Dr. Pascal Lee, who will be presenting the award. “His books are all deeply researched, wonderfully insightful, and written with expert knowledge and passion. They are lasting treasures of space history and must-reads for modern space explorers.” Dr. Lee also received an NSS Space Pioneer Award for his work in planetary science and Mars exploration in 2023.

Pyle’s many book credits include “Space 2.0”, a look at the new space age, published by Ben Bella Books and NSS, with a foreword by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. In addition to being sold in the general marketplace, the book is used by multiple aerospace graduate schools as well as the U.S. Space Force and Air Force. He also authored “First on the Moon,” a 50th anniversary book about the Apollo program (also with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin), which became a national best seller. Other books include “Amazing Stories of the Space Age,” “Heroes of the Space Age,” “Missions to the Moon” (also a best seller), “Curiosity: The Inside Story of the Mars Rover,” and “Destination Mars.”

Pyle has written countless articles for Space.com, Popular Science, Wired, BBC’s Sky at Night, LiveScience.com, Caltech’s E&S Magazine, and other periodicals. He has also written and produced space documentaries for Discovery Communications and The History Channel, among others. Pyle is a frequent guest on The History Channel’s “The UnXplained: With William Shatner” and was recently featured in the U.K. show “Secrets of the Solar System.” He also co-hosts the popular “This Week in Space” podcast with Space.com Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik and is a frequent guest on radio stations worldwide.

Additional publications include “The Apollo Leadership Experience” for the NASA Johnson Space Center and The Conference Board, a C-suite education program; as well as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “Technology Highlights” annual report, which has won numerous awards for editorial content. Pyle is also the Editor-in-Chief of the National Space Society’s quarterly magazine “Ad Astra,” now sold in major bookstores across the U.S. and Canada. Pyle has a BA from the Art Center College of Design and a MA from Stanford University, and studied astronomy at UCLA.

Isaac Arthur and Brian McManus, the creators and hosts of the hugely popular “Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur” (SFIA) and “Real Engineering” YouTube channels, will appear at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference^® (ISDC^®), which will be presented at the LAX Sheraton Gateway Hotel from May 23-26 in Los Angeles, CA.

In addition to his role with his SFIA channel, Arthur is also the president of the National Space Society. He holds a BS in physics from Kent State University, where he also attended grad school before serving in the U.S. Army, and is a veteran of Iraq. He also serves under the Ohio Secretary of State as an Election Board Member and on the Ohio Association of Election Officials’ Legislative Committee. Arthur is a 2020 recipient of the NSS’s Space Pioneer Award for his well-regarded work in science education.

McManus is the longtime host and creator of the most popular engineering show on YouTube, “Real Engineering,” and often covers the extreme engineering needed for space launches, exploration, and settlement. It is a product of his company, Junto Media. McManus holds a BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Galway and an MS in aeronautical engineering from the University of Limerick. A native of Ireland, McManus now resides in Texas, and is in the process of becoming an American citizen.

In addition to their education-focused content, McManus and Arthur co-founded Nebula, the largest creator-owned streaming service in history, which hosts hundreds of other knowledge-focused channels.

Both creators will be featured in multiple presentations at the ISDC, which include talks on space exploration and development, cislunar infrastructure, the influence of science fiction, biosciences, space policy, space settlement, space technology, space law, in situ resource utilization, space-related economics, space agriculture and food production, life support, space solar power, health and diet, newspace and commercialization, international collaboration, planetary defense, planetary protection, and more. Please see the ISDC 2024 website for more details at isdc.nss.org.

Dr. Lee’s principal talk will focus on the recent discovery of a huge Martian volcano, the first new geological find of this magnitude since the other major volcanoes on Mars were discovered in the early 1970s. Lee and his research associate, Sourabh Shubham, who is a graduate student at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geology, spotted the volcano, provisionally called Noctis Mons, while researching what appears to be an ancient glacier near the Martian equator. “We were examining the geology of an area where we had found the remains of a glacier last year when we realized we were inside a huge and deeply eroded volcano,” Lee said.

Lee is also chairing the Mars session at ISDC on Saturday, May 25. A variety of prominent Mars scientists, engineers, NASA program leaders, and other Mars professionals will be speaking. The day begins with an overview of Mars exploration, then moves on to individual presentations, open forums, and a panel discussion.

“Each year, I live in anticipation of the next NSS ISDC meeting. It’s such a forward looking and fun conference, combining science, exploration, and boundless visions of our human future in space,” Lee said.

Lee has been researching geological features on Mars for decades, and as a part of his interest in human exploration of the planet, designed and built a Mars analog base in association with NASA which has been in operation since the late 1990s. Called the Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) Base, it is situated on Devon Island in the high Arctic. Experiments conducted there include Mars/Moon rover operations and exploration strategies; the testing of Mars/Moon EVA spacesuits, geological sampling tools and survey techniques; and interactions between human explorers and robotic systems.

“Pascal is a unique kind of explorer,” said Rod Pyle, the Editor-in-Chief of the NSS quarterly magazine, Ad Astra. “He spent a year in Antarctica in the late 1980s, which gave him a deep understanding of the challenges humans will face on a place like Mars. He applied much of this knowledge to the design and operation of the HMP Arctic base, the largest privately operated polar research station on Earth, sited on the world’s largest, otherwise uninhabited island. His work at HMP has generated reams of important peer reviewed research, and the geological knowledge gained from the exploration of such regions has helped him identify new features on Mars. I’m excited to be joining his programming at ISDC.”

Lee holds a BS in physics from the University of Paris and an ME in geology and geophysics from the University of Paris’s Institute of Science and Technology (IST). His PhD is from Cornell University, where he was Carl Sagan’s last teaching assistant. He has participated in a number of NASA Mars mission designs and is the co-founder and president of the Mars Institute, an NGO with the goal of advancing Mars science and exploration. Lee was awarded the NSS Space Pioneer Award in recognition of his “significant contributions in different fields of endeavor to develop a spacefaring civilization that will establish communities beyond the Earth.” Lee is also a gifted space artist and will be signing books and illustrations at the conference.

Jordan Noone, General Partner of Embedded Ventures and founding CTO of rocket company Relativity Space, will join the roster of preeminent speakers at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®), which will be presented at the LAX Sheraton Gateway Hotel from May 23-26 in Los Angeles, CA.

Noone is the Co-Founder and a General Partner at Embedded Ventures, a next generation venture capital firm investing in early-stage deep tech startups. The firm invests in pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds for startups focused on space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. In addition to his role at Embedded, Jordan is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of portfolio company Zoo, the first such company to develop advanced tools for hardware design. Noone previously co-founded Relativity Space, which was most recently valued at $4.2 billion. As Relativity’s CTO for five years, he focused on technical direction and engineering design for the advanced 3D-printed rocket company. As a leader of the University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Lab, where he worked with NSS VP of Space Development Dr. Greg Autry, Noone became the first student and youngest individual to receive Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket into space.

“We’re proud to have Jordan speaking at the ISDC,” said Dale Skran, COO of NSS. “The development of space will not go forward without entrepreneurial companies like Relativity Space and finance partners like Embedded Ventures paving the way ahead.”

Former NASA astronaut and STEM advocate Jose Hernandez will give a keynote speech at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference^® (ISDC^®), as well as addressing youth attending the conference’s STEM sessions.

Hernandez followed a unique path into his career as an astronaut. Growing up as the son of migrant farmworkers in Central California, his hopes of going into space seemed an impossible reach, but his father encouraged him to work toward his dreams. Despite moving from town to town and not learning English until he was 12, Hernandez excelled in school, going on to earn a BS in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific and an MS in computer and electrical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He worked at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory from 1990 until 2001, developing the first full-field digital mammography system.

During this time, he applied several times to be an astronaut. On his 12th attempt, he was finally accepted and began training in 2004, and upon completion was assigned to space shuttle launch and landing operations at the Kennedy Space Center. He began training for shuttle flight STS-128 in 2008 and flew in 2009 as a mission specialist.

“Mr. Hernandez is emblematic of the best America has to offer,” said Dale Skran, NSS COO. “Despite facing innumerable challenges as a young man, he persevered and ultimately achieved his goal of flying in space. His wonderful example of tenacity shows us all what is possible, and he has been an incredible role model for countless STEM students nationwide.”

Hernandez has received multiple awards in his career, including two NASA Service Awards, an Outstanding Engineer Award from Lawrence Livermore, UC Santa Barbara’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award, and was a Graduate Engineering Minority Fellow, among many other accomplishments and recognitions.

“The ISDC is the only major space conference that is intended for everyone, from space professionals to students to the lay public. It is the largest and longest running space conference anywhere,” said Aggie Kobrin, the NSS Event Manager. “We’re thrilled to have inspirational figures like Mr. Hernandez inspiring not just our young attendees, but all of us—his message resonates with everyone.”

Though best known for her work on “Star Trek,” early in her career, Navia started in feature films starting in 2011. By 2013 she had won the Best Actress Award at the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival for her role in “The Paragon Cortex.” Her work in television includes a recurring role in “Common Charges,” and Navia portrayed an astronaut in Showtime’s “Billions.” In 2018 she moved on to appear in AMC’s “Dietland.”

“We’re thrilled to have the gifted Melissa Navia hosting our conference this year,” said the ISDC 2024 conference chair Dr. Anthony Paustian. “She is a gifted performer, and her work in the seminal space show ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ has endeared her to legions of space-savvy people.”

NSS Events Manager Aggie Kobrin commented, “NSS is pleased to have Ms. Navia hosting our annual conference. Her portrayal of the strong-willed Lieutenant Ortegas has been inspirational to women everywhere.”

Navia is known for her engagement in STEM outreach and space advocacy, using the power of storytelling and interdisciplinary collaborations to engage and inspire. She also performs a one-person comedy entitled “The Girl with Short Hair.” She also practices martial arts.

A full list of featured speakers can be found on the ISDC website.

Thursday, April 11, 2024, 9:00 pm to 10:15 pm EST

A Preview of the 2024 NSS
International Space Development Conference (ISDC):
No Limits  

Register for this Town Hall

With

Embark on humanity’s greatest adventure at the 42nd annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Los Angeles, taking place at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel from May 23 to 26. Join us for an exclusive NSS Town Hall to preview the 2024 ISDC, featuring a stellar lineup of speakers including space shuttle astronauts, NASA engineers and scientists, leading space technologists, researchers, space entrepreneurs, educators, and space advocates.

Themed “No Limits,” this four-day conference will delve into various aspects of space exploration, development, and settlement. Explore topics such as Moon and Mars exploration and settlement, deep space exploration, innovative technology, the impact of science fiction on space technology and commercialization, planetary defense, living in space, space solar power, space debris, space law and policy, and more. The focus will be on the business and technology necessary to drive further advancements in space exploration. Confirmed ISDC speakers include:

Join Aggie, Rod, and Tony as they provide a sneak peek into the ISDC’s sessions, presenters, and the behind-the-scenes organization of this thrilling event! To learn more about ISDC 2024 use this link.

Register today to reserve your seat and ask your questions. Use the link below.

Register for this Town Hall

Register no later than April 11 at 8 pm EST

Past NSS Space Forums and Town Halls may be viewed here.

Susan Kilrain, an aerospace engineer and former NASA astronaut, will join the roster of preeminent speakers at the National Space Society’s 2024 International Space Development Conference® (ISDC®).

Kilrain flew on the space shuttle twice and was the second woman to pilot the vehicle. Her first flight was on STS-83 in 1997, followed by STS-94 later that same year. Prior to her career with NASA, she was a U.S. Navy aviator, logging over 3000 flight hours in 30 different aircraft. Of her time in the Navy, Kilrain reflects: “I realized that I was a woman in a man’s world, so I was going to be an outsider. My whole philosophy was not to make waves. My goal was to be an astronaut. I wanted to fit in without accepting unacceptable behavior.” She is a frequent motivational speaker and an advocate for women in STEM. After her shuttle flights she served as a legislative specialist for the space shuttle for the Office of Legislative Affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C.

NSS CEO Anita Gale, also an advocate for women in STEM careers, said, “We’re proud to have Susan join us for the ISDC. Having worked as an aerospace engineer in what was then considered a man’s world, I have a keen appreciation of her accomplishments as an engineer and astronaut. Women like her have a strong message for kindred spirits everywhere, and the ISDC is a prime venue for her to spread the messages of diversity and inclusion to young people.”