Reinventing Space: Reducing Space Mission Cost and Schedule While Maintaining Utility

Dr. James R. Wertz, President and CEO, Microcosm  Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Under the direction of Dr. James Wertz, Microcosm is in the process of Reinventing Space, based on over 20 years of experience in both studying and implementing practical methods for dramatically reducing mission cost.

Dr. Wertz will discuss the need for dramatic cost reduction and how to go about it.  This discussion is not intended as theoretical, but as a practical and pragmatic approach to building a program aimed at creating high utility, much lower cost, more rapid and robust near-term space missions.  He will also summarize the Reinventing Space Project, a joint program between Microcosm and USC to disseminate information and quantify the cost reduction potential by adding mission utility factors to the normal, weight-based cost models.

Dr. James R. Wertz is the President of Microcosm, a space technology company specializing for more than 20 years in reducing space mission cost.  He is the editor and a principal author of a number of the most widely used books in astronautics, including Space Mission Analysis and Design, Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD, Reducing Space Mission Cost, and Reinventing Space (in preparation) and the author of many professional papers and seminars on mission and orbit design and mission cost reduction. 

He is an adjunct professor of Astronautics at USC where he is currently teaching a 1-semester graduate course in "The Design of Low-Cost Space Missions," a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a Fellow of both the AIAA and the British Interplanetary Society.  He is also the founder and general chairman of the Reinventing Space Conference, held annually in Los Angeles.  The American Institute of Aeronautic and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world's largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. The AIAA Orange County Section's mission is to address the professional needs and interests of the past, current, and future aerospace workforce and to advance the state of aerospace science, engineering, technology, operations, and policy to benefit our global society.

Where:  Boeing Bldg. 17, the tall building near Bolsa and Bolsa Chica, Huntington Beach, CA

Schedule:  Pizza and drinks served at 6:00 pm
Presentation at 6:30 pm
Q and A at 7:30-8:00 pm

Registration: Only US persons over 18 can be admitted to the facility. Free for AIAA members pre-registered, $5 for others (registration info will be sent to those who RSVP yes through this invitation--you must answer ALL the questions asked by this website when you are going through the registration process -- for security. Thank you.). Registration deadline is Friday, 5:00 pm, November 8, 2013.