UPCOMING BRIEFINGS

PLEASE NOTE: When attending a special event or meeting that is held in the new Capitol Visitors Center, you do not need to stand in the tourist lines.

Thursday, 30 September 2010: Robotics in Space Exploration

Location and Additional Details: TBD

SPEAKERS:

Terry Fong, Director, Intelligent Robotics Group, NASA, Ames, IA
Planetary Exploration Rebooted: New Ways of Exploring the Moon, Mars and Beyond
Dr. Fong is the Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research Center. From 2002 to 2004, he was the deputy leader of the Virtual Reality and Active Interfaces Group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). From 1997 to 2000, he was Vice President of
Development for Fourth Planet, a developer of real-time visualization software. Dr. Fong has published more than seventy papers in field robotics, human-robot interaction, and robot user interfaces. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.

David Gump, Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Gump is the co-founder and president of Astrobotic Technology Inc., a spin off from Carnegie Mellon University offering commercial lunar robotic services to space agencies, contractors, media and marketers. Astrobotic's first project - Tranquility Trek - aims to win up to $24 million in the Google Lunar X Prize.  Astrobotic has won three lunar research contracts from NASA and attracted sponsorships from Caterpillar Inc. and other firms. Prior to Astrobotic, Gump co-founded Transformational Space Corp.  t/Space captured one of the eight "Concept Exploration & Refinementz" (CE&R) assignments from NASA. After the initial $3 million study, only t/Space and one other entity won full $3 million extensions, which featured hardware demos in addition to analysis.

The t/Space CE&R recommendation that NASA fund a "nontraditional" lunar initiative evolved to become the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.  t/Space was selected as one of six COTS finalists.

As president of LunaCorp, Gump developed space exploration projects and created marketing opportunities that leveraged NASA programs through the addition of commercial funding and greater public interaction. Projects included the ceremonial First Pitch for the 2002 World Series, thrown on the Space Station in collaboration with Major League Baseball and FOX Television, as well as the first commercial shot on the Space Station, showing the crew receiving Father's Day gifts from RadioShack.

TBD, Kell Robotics, Marietta, GA

Last Updated: 08 September 2010