"Taking Silicon Valley to the Moon!"
Thursday, Aug 15 2019
About the Topic
Since the end of the Apollo program, the justification for the human space program has proven elusive. I will borrow a page from the computer and new commercial space companies to argue for an inspirational approach to the next phase of exploration beyond Earth orbit. I will describe NASA’s Orion and Space Launch Systems along with new rockets and landers being developed by private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. I will argue that both the Moon and Mars can be explored through a combination of governmental programs, international partnerships, and public-private-academic partnerships. The tools for exploration include telerobotics where astronauts aboard NASA’s Lunar Gateway in orbit of the Moon will operate rovers and deploy telescopes on the lunar surface in a new synergy between robots and humans.
Bio
Jack Burns is a Professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder, and is Vice President Emeritus for Academic Affairs and Research for the CU System.
Dr. Burns received his B.S. degree, magna cum laude, in Astrophysics from the University of Massachusetts in 1974. He was awarded an M.S. degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1978 from Indiana University.
Dr. Burns is Director of the Network for Exploration and Space Science, a $3.5 million center of excellence funded by the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute. He has over 430 publications listed in NASA’s Astrophysics Data System. His research has been featured in articles and on the covers of Scientific American, Nature, and Science. His teaching and research focus on extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, space science and space exploration, and science policy. Burns is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received NASA’s Exceptional Public Service Medal in 2010 and NASA’s Group Achievement Award for Surface Telerobotics in 2014.