Space Access ‘07 - Thursday evening

Ken Davidian shared NASA’s Exploration System goal to encourage commercial space development. Ken made the point that different organizations in NASA have different goals. Ken asking for ideas on how to help support commercial space development, or ideas on how to remove barriers. You can send him email at: scideas@nasa.gov

Ken wants NASA employees to do research this might lead to new technology. The intellectual knowledge would then be licensed and people get permits. Ken had a complex chart on venture capitalist feeding the start up, with more customers buying the product. Ken said that at some point the entrepreneur would sell the company.

The old model was for NASA to go with corporations. Now NASA is trying to work with entrepreneurs. NASA is trying to reduce the roadblocks to getting the technology into use.

Ken opened up the session to Q&A. He took some heat from the audience for all the politics involved with NASA.


Lee Valentine had a short report on Space Studies Institute (SSI). Lee talked about the history of SSI and the goals of SSI. SSI is looking for a 500 head diary herd in North East United States. SSI is always looking for new members.


Doug Griffith then talked on Space Law. The topic was space flight legal liability and insurance. Doug said the biggest risk will be if people die. If there is a problem the liability will be defined by one of the states. He said that you could build a rocket ship in Oklahoma, fly it from Oklahoma, and land it in Oklahoma, but still end up being subject to the laws of New York.

Doug had a framework for managing risk. He said important to do serious accident prevention, and then gave some suggestions for lawsuit prevention if an accident happens. If you can’t prevent a lawsuit, then you need to show you were responsible in protecting your customers. He suggested setting up the company to protect the owners of the company, for example set up corporation or an LLC. He said it was worth getting insurance.


Kelly Alton had a very brief overview on Spaceflight Insurance. This was really an introduction to his presentation tomorrow.


Bob Steinke, CEO of SpeedUp, talked about his HoverBike™. The bike looks really cool. The first ones will only go for about five minutes. They have enough funding to enter the Lunar Landing Challenge. If they are successful they’ll be looking for more funding.


The final speaker, starting at 10:08 PM, was Rick Wills who talked about the University of Dayton Advanced Rock Team. Rick got started with the Great Lakes Rocket Society. They are near the Wright Air Force Base, the world’s largest Air Force base.

First: Introduction
Overview: the agenda
Previous: NASA Ares and X-Prize Rules
Next: Early Friday morning - Rocketplane Kistler, Andrews Space, Space Portal


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