Robert Zubrin of Pioneer Astronautics

Things have changed. The world’s government-led space efforts, begun so proudly in the eras of Sputnik and the Apollo Moon launches, stalled during the following four decades.
But now the ice has broken. In the midst of this decay, new forces have risen that are radically changing everything. Uniting the entrepreneurial genius of Silicon Valley with the hard-won technological expertise of the old aerospace industry, a new generation of space companies has been born whose upstart members are revolutionizing our prospects.

In this talk astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin will examine the possibilities. Starting with a discussion of the present-day breakthroughs, we will take a deeper look at where it leads: to ultrafast global travel through suborbital space, to new industries on orbit, and to human settlement of the Moon, Mars, the asteroids, the outer solar system, and ultimately the stars. All these things are possible, and he will explain how to achieve them.
Then he will look at what such mastery implies: what we will gain by undertaking this grand adventure, and what we would lose by failing to do so.
  

Biography:

Robert Zubrin is President of Pioneer Astronautics, an aerospace R&D company located in Lakewood, Colorado. He is also the founder and President of the Mars Society. Formerly a Staff Engineer at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, he has a Master's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Washington. Dr. Zubrin holds 20 patents and is the author of over 200 published technical and non-technical papers in the field of space exploration and technology. In addition to his many technical publications, Dr. Zubrin is the author of nine books, including "The Case for Mars", the humorous “How to Live on Mars: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet”, “Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudoscientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism”, and most recently, “The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility.”

Email:

Address:Pioneer Astronautics, 11111 West 8th Avenue, Unit-A, Lakewood, CO 80215, Colorado, United States, 80215