Riding the Rocket Revolution

Presented by
Dr. Tom Spilker,
Co-Founded,
Orbital Assembly Corporation

We are in the midst of a revolution in launch costs one that some claim will decrease the cost of launching mass to space by more than two orders of magnitude and lead to a future where mass is no longer King of the Issues. Dr. Tom Spilker will discuss how his company is planning for this bold new future with infrastructure such as space stations that can host a huge variety of activities, propellant depots, and cislunar communications hubs. He will also share a cross section of ideas other companies are exploring such asteroid mining, freefall materials refinement and manufacturing, and solar-system-wide transportation.

After four years of exploring the architectural implications of greatly reduced launch costs for in-space artificial gravity facilities, Dr. Spilker Co-Founded Orbital Assembly Corporation. Before that he spent 22 years at JPL both a scientist and engineer. Over his JPL career he participated in NASA's Voyager Cassini and Genesis missions and was a science Co-Investigator on JPL's MIRO instrument on the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission.

This event is free. All members of the Caltech campus and JPL communities and retirees are welcome. For more event information, contact Randii Wessen at 818.354.7580 or [email protected].

Membership in CMA helps bring great speakers and events to Caltech campus and JPL and is open to all active and retired employees of Caltech, and to contract employees as affiliate members. See https://cma.caltech.edu​ for more information about the organization.