About
* This agenda is subject to change *
All events are free and open to the Brown community
and the general public, walk-ins are welcome!
and the general public, walk-ins are welcome!
Friday, May 10th
Keynote Seminar – Francesco Petracchini
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Francesco Petracchini
(Director of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution)
> Petracchini talks on reducing the environmental and carbon footprint of small island settlements – a model for a sustainable lunar base
> News from DEEPS + Lunascope
Reception
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Informal Dinner
> Fine Indian Cuisine
> Offers Vegetarian options
Saturday, May 11th
Arrival
8:00 am – 8:30 am
> Coffee and Pastries will be served
Opening – Rick Fleeter
8:30 am – 8:45 am
Welcome – Stephen Porder
8:45 am – 9:05 am
Scheduling – Michael Waltemathe
9:05 am – 9:20 am
Keynote Seminar – Ellen Gertsen
9:20 am – 10:00 am
Ellen Gertsen
(Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy)
> NASA’s Sustainability Strategy
Round Tables – Session 1
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Lead by:
Ellen Gertsen
(Deputy Associate Administrator, NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy)
Michael Waltemathe
(Senior Lecturer, University Ruhr)
> Gertsen – Perspectives on space and Earth sustainability: Thoughts on where we are and what we can do better
> Waltemathe – Ethics of human development of space
Round Tables – Session 2
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Lead by:
Lynn Rothschild
(Astrobiologist, NASA Ames)
Morgan Cable
(Researcher, Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
> Rothschild – Biological Factories
> Cable – A tale of two ecosystems: Redefining Habitability and Sustainability in light of possible water and hydrocarbon based life on Titan
Keynote Lunch – Pete Worden
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Pete Worden
(Executive Director, Breakthrough Initiatives)
(Former Director, NASA Ames)
(Former Director, NASA Ames)
> Revolutionizing Space: Life in the Universe of Mars
> Boxed Lunch
Round Tables – Session 3
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Lead by:
Pete Worden
(Executive Director, Breakthrough Starshot)
(Former Director, NASA Ames)
(Former Director, NASA Ames)
Eros Manzo
(Researcher, National Research Council of Italy)
Francesco Petracchini
(Director of Earth Environment, National Research Council of Italy)
> Worden – civilian and military plan for space
> Manzo + Petracchini – reducing the environmental and carbon footprint of small island settlement – a model for a lunar base?
Round Tables – Session 4
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Lead by:
Michelle Hanlon
(Executive Director, Center for Air and Space Law at the School of Law, University of Mississippi)
(Co-Founder and President, For All Moonkind)
(Co-Founder and President, For All Moonkind)
Phil Metzger
(University of Central Florida)
(Co-Founder, KSC Swamp Works – technologies for the lunar surface)
(Co-Founder, KSC Swamp Works – technologies for the lunar surface)
> Hanlon – Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? The Relationship Between Sustainability and Ownership
> Metzger – Lunar Resources: a Stepping Stone to the Solar System
Break – Catch Up
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm
> RISD Lunar Rover and Art Gallery
> Space Bill of Rights
> Space Bill of Rights
Round Tables – Session 5
3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Lead by:
Jim Head
(Professor Emeritus Geological Sciences, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University)
Alden Richards
(Founder, Space Machine Advisors)
(Lecturer, Yale University)
(Lecturer, Yale University)
> Head – Sustainability on the Moon and Mars: Personal Perspectives from the Scientific Exploration of the Antarctic, Arctic, Active Volcanoes, the Earth’s Seafloor, and Participation in Apollo Lunar Exploration Mission Operations and Artemis Exploration Site Research
> Richards – Exploring the promise, risks and financing of commercial activity on the Moon, on Mars and in orbital space
Wrap-Up
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm
> Opportunity to sign the Space Bill of Rights
All events are free and open to the Brown community and the general public, walk-ins are welcome!
Naturally, most conversations concerning sustainability and space development revolve around the destruction of our planet or the sustainment of life outside of our planet. In fact, Space Horizons has previously explored the methods of saving Earth by going to space and maintaining all facets of a large-scale human colony. We propose, however, that this year the discussion takes into account the protection of environments of planets other than our own.
Looking at what we have done to our own planet provides a vision of what could be the reality of other planets in the future. Historically, there has been a focus on completing space technological advancement at any cost. However, we are not as technologically limited as we once were.
Space in 2024 is no longer a wild, empty frontier where we can and should go as fast as risk will allow. LEO (low Earth orbit) is overcrowded and in danger of a debris disaster. GEO (geosynchronous orbit) as well. The moon has very little real estate of interest for human habitation, and possibly very limited resources, particularly water, to support human settlement. Having no weather or atmosphere, the impacts of what we do on the moon will last for hundreds, thousands, potentially millions of years.
A belief in human expansion beyond earth does not mean that we have to degrade our new homes as we have our first home – we now see first hand the issues associated with unplanned success – overcrowding, exhaustion and pollution of resources, environmental degradation, and conflict among competing interests that often play out in military confrontation. The pace at which we are developing space will only accelerate, currently this pace is unsustainable and unchecked.
As the last frontier, space has largely avoided human degradation, but how long till this changes? How can we alter our current trajectory of space exploration and development to prevent environmental disasters on worlds other than our own? Will there be a day in the future where places like the moon and mars need protections similar to that of our own National Parks? What can we do now to avoid this future?
Space has pioneered technologies which improve our lives on earth. By addressing its own sustainability – in settlement and in transportation, space might lead all of us to more sustainable ways of living. We have an enormous opportunity for global impact and at the same time a risk of becoming one of earth’s leading polluters, while simultaneously degrading the space and lunar environments.
On Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11, Space Horizons at Brown will host leading engineers, scientists, authors and policy makers for a day of interactive round table discussions. Discussion will focus on the sharing of ideas and creative solutions for preventing the environmental destruction of our neighbors. Using what we have learned from our own follies and victories on Earth we seek to avoid repeating our mistakes as we head into a new age of space exploration.
Join us at Space Horizons 2024 if you want to be part of that solution.
Looking at what we have done to our own planet provides a vision of what could be the reality of other planets in the future. Historically, there has been a focus on completing space technological advancement at any cost. However, we are not as technologically limited as we once were.
Space in 2024 is no longer a wild, empty frontier where we can and should go as fast as risk will allow. LEO (low Earth orbit) is overcrowded and in danger of a debris disaster. GEO (geosynchronous orbit) as well. The moon has very little real estate of interest for human habitation, and possibly very limited resources, particularly water, to support human settlement. Having no weather or atmosphere, the impacts of what we do on the moon will last for hundreds, thousands, potentially millions of years.
A belief in human expansion beyond earth does not mean that we have to degrade our new homes as we have our first home – we now see first hand the issues associated with unplanned success – overcrowding, exhaustion and pollution of resources, environmental degradation, and conflict among competing interests that often play out in military confrontation. The pace at which we are developing space will only accelerate, currently this pace is unsustainable and unchecked.
As the last frontier, space has largely avoided human degradation, but how long till this changes? How can we alter our current trajectory of space exploration and development to prevent environmental disasters on worlds other than our own? Will there be a day in the future where places like the moon and mars need protections similar to that of our own National Parks? What can we do now to avoid this future?
Space has pioneered technologies which improve our lives on earth. By addressing its own sustainability – in settlement and in transportation, space might lead all of us to more sustainable ways of living. We have an enormous opportunity for global impact and at the same time a risk of becoming one of earth’s leading polluters, while simultaneously degrading the space and lunar environments.
On Friday, May 10, and Saturday, May 11, Space Horizons at Brown will host leading engineers, scientists, authors and policy makers for a day of interactive round table discussions. Discussion will focus on the sharing of ideas and creative solutions for preventing the environmental destruction of our neighbors. Using what we have learned from our own follies and victories on Earth we seek to avoid repeating our mistakes as we head into a new age of space exploration.
Join us at Space Horizons 2024 if you want to be part of that solution.
Keynote Speakers
All keynote speakers will also be leading a round-table discussion
Ellen Gertsen
Deputy Associate Administrator for NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS)
Former Chief, Administration Branch, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
Former Executive Officer for SMD
Former Chief, Administration Branch, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD)
Former Executive Officer for SMD
Ellen Gertsen is the deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). She provides leadership related to the management and operations of OTPS. Gertsen also supports the Associate Administrator in providing data- and evidence-driven technology, policy, and strategy advice to NASA leadership and engaging with the technology and space policy communities. She joined NASA in 2003 as a Presidential Management Fellow and has extensive experience leading policy development, performance management, strategic planning, and organizational change initiatives.
Francesco Petracchini, PhD
Environmental Scientist
Director of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution
Francesco Petracchini earned his degree in Environmental Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome in 2002 and completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences at Ca’ Foscari University in 2013. His doctoral thesis focused on air quality pollution in China. With extensive experience in environmental research, he has been leading the Planning Department at CNR-IIA since 2009. Between 2015 and 2019, he also headed the bioenergy and circular economy initiatives. Currently, he serves as the Director of Research at CNR-IIA.
Pete Worden
Author and Astrophysicist
Executive Director, Breakthrough Initiatives
Former Director of NASA Ames Research Center
Former Director of NASA Ames Research Center
Dr. S. “Pete” Worden, (Brig Gen, USAF, Ret, PhD) is Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Executive Director of the foundation’s ‘Breakthrough Initiatives’. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona. After several US Air Force positions and a research professorship in astronomy at the University of Arizona, Dr. Worden was Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center until retiring on March 31, 2015. From 2017 to the present, Brigadier General Worden is an Advisor to the Luxembourg Space Agency and was appointed as a Knight-Commander of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 2018 for his space services.
Discussion Leaders
Morgan Cable
Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Science Lead for the EELS concept
Co-Deputy PI for the PIXL Instrument on the Mars 2020 Rover
Europa Clipper Mission Collaborator
Science Lead for the EELS concept
Co-Deputy PI for the PIXL Instrument on the Mars 2020 Rover
Europa Clipper Mission Collaborator
Expert in the detection of organic and biomarker substances using in situ and remote sensing methods. Her innovative work extends to designing biomarker sensors and exploring extreme environments on Earth to better understand extraterrestrial conditions. Dr. Cable has also pioneered studies in the liquid hydrocarbon lakes of Titan, introducing a new field of research termed ‘Titan petrology,’ which investigates organic formations that could potentially support life.
Philip Metzger
Planetary Scientist
Director of the Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education
Research Professor at the University of Central Florida
Research Professor at the University of Central Florida
Expertise in developing technologies that interact with the surfaces of planetary bodies, including the physics of rocket exhaust blowing soil, planetary construction, mining, and resource processing.
Lynn J. Rothschild
Evolutionary Biologist and Astrobiologist
Astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center
Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University
Adjunct Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University
Expertise in Astrobiology, Microbiology, Evolution and Synthetic Biology
Jim Head
Planetary Geologist
Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University
After 4 years with Bellcomm, Inc. in Washington, DC in the NASA Systems Analysis Branch, Head’s research focus shifted to planetary geology studies relating to the Apollo Lunar Exploration Program including training of Apollo astronauts. In 1995, Professor Head was named to the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Professorship in Geological Sciences.
Michael Waltemathe, PhD
Visiting Professor, Theology Department, University of Bielefeld
Senior Lecturer in Religious Education, Department of Protestant Theology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Senior Lecturer in Religious Education, Department of Protestant Theology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Dr. Michael Waltemathe is currently Visiting Professor, Theology Department, University of Bielefeld. He is on leave from Ruhr University Bochum where he is a senior lecturer in Theology. Michael’s research focuses on the intersection of science, ethics and religion. He has worked and published on the ethics, philosophical and theological aspects of space exploration, planetary protection and the search for extraterrestrial life. He is currently serving on the Institute for space law and ethics of the ´For all Moonkind`´Foundation and he is a PI of the Einstein Circle ‘Exploring Otherness on Earth and beyond: Integrating Perspectives from Natural Sciences and Humanities ´.
Alden Richards
Lecturer at Yale University
Founder of Space Machine Advisors
Founder of Space Machine Advisors
Alden M. Richards is a lecturer in the history of the space age and commercial space at Yale and is the former CEO/Founder of Space Machine Advisors-once a leading advisor on strategic planning and risk management for the satellite industry. He has advised branches of the US Government and many overseas space initiatives on the potential risks/rewards of space resource exploitation. Mr. Richards continues to advise organizations such as the Rand Corporation on the juncture of private/public and military space objectives.
Michelle L.D. Hanlon
Executive Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law & Journal of Drone Law and Policy
Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law & Journal of Drone Law and Policy
Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc
Michelle L.D. Hanlon’s work emphasizes the concept of “due regard” in space law, advocating for responsible and sustainable space exploration. She has extensively researched and addressed issues such as orbital debris, space solar power, and the protection of space heritage.
Michelle is the Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit advocating for the legal protection of human heritage in outer space. Under her leadership, the organization has achieved Permanent Observer status at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, contributing to international space law discourse. She played a key role in the enactment of the One Small Step Act, the first U.S. law recognizing space heritage. Michelle continues to advocate for heritage protection zones on the Moon to regulate space resource utilization.
Michelle is the Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit advocating for the legal protection of human heritage in outer space. Under her leadership, the organization has achieved Permanent Observer status at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, contributing to international space law discourse. She played a key role in the enactment of the One Small Step Act, the first U.S. law recognizing space heritage. Michelle continues to advocate for heritage protection zones on the Moon to regulate space resource utilization.
Eros Manzo, Ph.D
Environmental Engineer
Researcher/Technologist at CNR Institute of Atmospheric Pollution
Since 2021, Manzo has served as a Senior Researcher/Technologist in Air Quality and Energy Transition at the National Research Council (Italy), focusing on pollution control and environmental impact assessments, particularly on Small Islands. He bring extensive experience as a senior consultant and project manager for EU projects in the Mediterranean, adept in all phases of project cycle management. Dr. Manzo also teaches Agribusiness Masters courses related to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. He also manages ESA sponsored large scale development programs in Turkey and Egypt.
Stephen Porder
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University
Fellow in the Institute at Brown For Environment and Society
Associate Provost For Sustainability
Fellow in the Institute at Brown For Environment and Society
Associate Provost For Sustainability
Dr. Porder conducts basic research on nutrient and carbon cycling in tropical rainforests, the effects of industrial agriculture in the tropics, and large-scale tropical forest restoration. He also focuses on integrating science with institutional solutions to climate change. Porder is the founder and science lead of the radio show and podcast “Possibly,” which discusses sustainability issues, and the author of “Elemental: Five Elements That Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future.”
Check back as we continue to update our speaker list!
Brown University
Space Horizons 2024 will be held at Brown University!
Lincoln Field Building – Room 120
Friday, May 10th
Hazeltine Commons in the Engineering Research Center
Saturday, May 11th
A special thank you to Jim Head and the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences for sponsoring Friday evening’s events!
Leads
Rick Fleeter
Adjunct Associate Professor of Engineering at Brown University
Michael Waltemathe
Visiting Professor, Theology Department at the University of Bielefeld
Erin Acuff
Engineering Event Coordinator
Students
Jessica Jacyno, ScB 2024, Sc.M. 2025
Brown Student Lead
Alex Liu, BFA ID 2025
RISD Student Lead, Artist, Graphics Designer, RISD Rover Program
Zach Stellato, ScB CS 2026
Website Designer, Space Nerd
Cameron Goodreau, ScB Chem, Engn AB 2024
Guest Point of Contact
Chris Pellinger, ScB CS 2024
Outreach
Amy Vu
Chicha Nimitpornsuko
Alexander Thaep
Stephanie Long
Autumn Wong
Chris Garrity
Chicha Nimitpornsuko
Alexander Thaep
Stephanie Long
Autumn Wong
Chris Garrity
Space Bill of Rights Team