Roscosmos and the Skolkovo Fund will work together on developing advanced space and telecommunications technologies as part of the space agency’s long-range development plan that extends out to 2030 and beyond, Russian media report.

Under the partnership, the two organizations will define priorities for the development of innovative space technologies. Skolkovo will also work to bring together Roscosmos with other organizations and companies on programs of mutual interest.

Skolkovo is an effort by Russia to develop its own version of Silicon Valley outside of Moscow. The plans include building a very large technology city where Russian government agencies, businesses and foreign partners will work togeth to innovate and develop advanced technologies. Skolkovo is being spearheaded by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was inspired after a visit to Silicon Valley in California.

Skolkovo has five clusters, including one that focuses on space and telecommunications technologies. Signing agreements with the new tech city is probably a requirement for Russia’s major space companies and organizations. Skolkovo already has agreements with Energia, Energomash and other companies.

A number of multi-national companies have signed up to cooperate with Skolkovo, including SAP, Cisco and IBM. The Virgin Group is to work with Skolkovo on commercial space activities.

The  president of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (SkTech) is Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Edward Crawley. The prominent Russian speaking space expert has been charged with turning SkTech into a Western-style university that will combine theoretical and applied research with a focus on commercialization.

MIT Professor and spacesuit designer Dava Newman shows off her design for a flexible spacesuit. This is a series of videos for the PBS science show Nova. Another video after the break.

The evening experience includes a direct conversation with Dr. Diamandis exploring how Arizona can participate and contribute on a global scale by advancing opportunity through science, education, technology and entrepreneurism. The presentation by Dr. Diamandis will highlight the X PRIZE Foundation, where money is rewarded to directly fund research in areas of exploration in space and underwater, life sciences, energy and environment, education and global development to benefit humanity. He will share how to get involved and even compete for the million dollar prizes like the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE awarded in 2004 to Mojave Aerospace Ventures for the world’s first private spaceflight on SpaceShipOne.

He will also incorporate highlights of his vision and role as the Vice Chancellor and Chairman of Singularity University, a revolutionary education program that focuses on inspiring leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity’s grand challenges. Registration is required.

“The exciting event is part of the continuing series presented by the MIT Club of Phoenix, now the newly formed MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix, with a mission of fostering entrepreneurship and exploring innovation with unique access to leaders and pioneers in areas of business, technology and science,” said Armando Viteri, chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum Phoenix. “We are privileged to have Dr. Peter Diamandis share his experiences and encourage us to use imagination and change the way we see ourselves on this planet.”

Seating is limited and registration is required. Attendees will have a chance to personally greet Dr. Diamandis in an open networking session beginning at 5:00 PM. Hors d’oeuvres will be served. The live presentation will start at 6:00 PM and opportunities for question and answer will be 7:30 to 8:00 PM.

To register for the event, visit http://tinyurl.com/c6vs7b or call 602-640-9005. Members of the MIT Enterprise Forum, MIT Club of Phoenix, Arizona Science Center and All-Ivy Council of Phoenix members pay $50 by pre-registering and all other pre-registrants pay $60 to attend. If seating is available, the cost on the day of the event is $75. MIT students and their parents attend for $40. Arizona Science Center is located at 600 East Washington Street Phoenix at Heritage and Science Park in Copper Square. Registration for the event is open through midnight June 2, 2009. Corporate sponsors include Osborn Maledon, Stearns Financial Services, Arizona Science Center and Advisory Board Architects.

MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix — The MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix is a chapter for the MIT Enterprise Forum, The Global Entrepreneurial Network. Formerly the MIT Club of Phoenix, a chapter of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Alumni Association, the new MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix is dedicated helping technology entrepreneurs with direct access to experienced and successful CEOs through a series of coaching panel events of local business experts. MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix brings together local, national and even global leaders and entrepreneurs from real companies discussing real issues, providing everyone a front row seat to behind-the-scenes success. The organization has the mission to enhance the value of the MIT degree, build community, and celebrate shared experiences.

MIT Enterprise Forum of New York
Investing in Aerospace Entrepreneurship

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
5:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Eisner LLP
750 Third Avenue, Floor 16
(between 46th and 47th streets)
New York, NY 10017
212.949.8700

In the current economic climate, investors are evaluating all investment opportunities with a critical eye, looking for enhanced returns and reduced risk. While aerospace and defense technologies represent a fertile area for investment, many investors are hesitant as they do not fully understand the landscape.

Our panel will feature individuals with a successful track record in aerospace investment who are actively engaged with investment and acquisition opportunities in this area. Both potential investors and entrepreneurs seeking growth capital will benefit from the discussion on the rewards (and the challenges) of investment in this industry. This panel will discuss:

1. What is the growth outlook for the aerospace sector?
2. Who are the active investors in earlier stage aerospace and defense companies? What are their criteria?
3. What are the areas with the highest potential for growth and what key technologies are larger companies seeking to acquire?
4. What does a promising early stage aerospace venture look like?

Sample areas of emerging technology include:

• Next-generation air traffic management
• On-board connectivity
• Satellite technology
• Unmanned aerial systems
• Commercial space transportation

Moderator:

Laurence Vigeant-Langlois, Ph.D.
Vice President, CIT Aerospace
Board Member, MIT Enterprise Forum of New York City

Panelists:

Jill J. Wittels, Ph.D.
Corporate Vice President,
Business and Technology Strategy
L-3 Communications

Michael J. Dyment
CEO and Managing Director
NEXA Capital Partners

Joe C. Parrish
Vice President Research and Development
Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation

Hoyt Davidson
CEO and Partner
Near Earth LLC

For more information, visit the forum’s website.

The Space Review has a couple of interesting articles this week that might be of some interest to you all:

COTS: The Next Generation
Taylor Dinerman examines the possibilities and the obstacles involved in NASA’s next step beyond its COTS program.

The Problems with “The Future of Human Spaceflight”
James Oberg points out some flaws he finds in an MIT report with recommendations for NASA about the future of human spaceflight.

By David Chandler
MIT News Office

MIT faculty and students have joined the race to send the first privately funded spacecraft to the moon.

At a press conference on Dec. 17 at NASA’s Ames Research Center, organizers of the Google Lunar X-Prize competition revealed the members of a “mystery team” that is one of a dozen contestants for the $30 million prize and that, it turns out, includes significant MIT participation.

The competition, announced in the fall of 2007, set several ambitious goals: To win, a privately funded team must send a spacecraft to the moon, land safely, and then move at least 500 meters across the surface; while there, it must send high-resolution images and video back to Earth. Fourteen teams have registered for the competition, including the mystery team whose participants remained a closely held secret until the Wednesday announcement. Two teams have already dropped out of the contest.

The mystery team, which has been assembled over the last year, is now revealed as “Next Giant Leap,” which includes members from MIT, aerospace companies, and small businesses. Besides MIT, the team includes MicroSat Systems, a satellite manufacturing company that will be the lead integrator of the craft; MIT-spinoff Draper Laboratory, which will handle the challenges of guidance and navigation, as it did for the Apollo program; Aurora Flight Sciences, a Cambridge company that designs small unpiloted vehicles; and Busek, a company that specializes in propulsion systems.

MIT will be represented on the team by Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor of the Practice of Aerospace Engineering and a former astronaut who flew five missions of the space shuttle, and David Miller, head of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory and developer of the SPHERES micro-satellite research project that has flown multiple test missions on the International Space Station. Students will also be included as part of the MIT involvement in the project.

“When approached to join the Next Giant Leap team, we thought it was an outstanding opportunity for our students to be exposed to several agile, cutting-edge companies in the space business while working on a very challenging project,” says Hoffman. “We feel that this team has the right stuff to have a shot at capturing this very challenging prize.”

The X-Prize Foundation, creator of the award, was the brainchild of Peter Diamandis ’83, SM ’88, HST ’89, who says of the new team “we feel they are a very strong team, with experienced participants, a strong academic partner, and several cutting-edge small space companies.”

Details on the Google Lunar X-Prize and all the competing teams can be found at www.googlelunarxprize.org.

MIT PRESS RELEASE

A team led by MIT researchers releases today the most comprehensive independent review of the future of the nation’s human spaceflight program undertaken in many years. The report recommends setting loftier goals for humans in space, focusing research more clearly toward those goals, and increasing cooperation with other nations and private industry.

After conducting preliminary briefings with various stakeholders in Washington, team members say it has been enthusiastically received by political leaders, a National Research Council panel, and the Obama transition team, among others.

“We need to rethink the rationales for human spaceflight,” says the report’s lead author David Mindell, professor of engineering systems and director of the program in Science, Technology and Society at MIT. He says that after the Washington briefings, “we sensed a great deal of uncertainty in DC about how to proceed with the Bush vision and human spaceflight in general. Our paper speaks to those problems in a clear way and offers some new ideas.”

Key recommendations from the MIT report include:

1. Congress and the White House should reduce the “too much with too little” pressure on NASA by ensuring that resources match expectations. They should begin a public conver­sation on the ethics and acceptable risk of human spaceflight at current levels of support and ambition.
2. NASA should continue to support commercial and European development of crew and cargo alternatives, particularly for cargo return.
3. The United States should develop a broad, funded plan to utilize the ISS through 2020 for research, including development of technologies to support exploration for both moon missions and long duration Mars flights.
4. A new human spaceflight policy should clarify the balance between the moon, Mars, and other destinations. It should be more, not less ambitious. A new policy should also review the Constellation (shuttle replacement) architecture to ensure compatibility with long-range exploration missions.
5. NASA should re-establish a fundamental research program focused on science and technology for human spaceflight and exploration.
6. The United States should begin engagement with China on human spaceflight in a series of small steps, gradually building up trust and cooperation, until a solid foundation for a comprehen­sive agreement could be built.

The report offers “primary objectives” for sending human beings into space as those that can only be accomplished through the physical presence of human beings and are worthy of significant risk to human life. Says Mindell, “we argue for including notions of risk, human experience, and remote presence into the fundamental rationales for sending people into space. The results show that the United States might want a rather different human spaceflight program from the one now planned.”

And it is essential that whatever goals are set for human spaceflight, the funding should be adequate to meet those goals. “Trying to do too much with too little is exactly what caused the last two shuttle accidents,” he says.

Among the report’s major conclusions are that the United States should be cooperating more on human spaceflight, both with other nations — including China and India — and with commercial ventures such as private rocket companies. The nation should also set ambitious goals for long-term exploration, and make sure that near-term work is geared toward those ends. In addition, a comprehensive strategy of basic research is needed to lay the groundwork for these longer-range goals.

The report, called “The Future of Human Spaceflight,” was prepared by the Space, Policy and Society Research Group at MIT, which Mindell directs.

The group includes

• MIT aeronautics and astronautics professor and former space shuttle astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman;
• Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics Laurence Young;
• Aeronautics and Astronautics Professor Dava Newman;
• Jerome C. Hunsacker;
• Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems, Annalisa Weigel;
• Lecturer in science, technology and society Slava Gerovitch;
• Postdoctoral associate Scott Uebelhart;
• Graduate students Eph Langford, Teasel Muir-Harmony, Sherrica Newsome, Zakiya Tomlinson and Rebecca Perry;
• Lawrence McGlynn, president of Insurance Services of New England;
• Asif Saddiqi, assistant professor of history at Fordham University;
• John Tylko, vice president at Aurora Flight Sciences; and,
• John Logsdon of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.