AIAA Los Angeles Section

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AIAA Los Angeles Section Town Hall Meeting 10/14
(A Hybrid Meeting with both In-person and online attendance)
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 (5:00 PM Check-in, Site Visit, Networking | 7 PM Presentation)
(In-person attendees will have the chance to enjoy a site visit as well at the Faraday Future Headquarters on AI/Robotics, and might also get better interactive and networking experiences in the event.)
(Online attendees will enjoy the presentation as a webinar online at 7pm (in-person attendees will enjoy on-site in-person presentation and networking / interactions). The site-visit/tour is in-person only.)

Oct 14
(Oct 14) Releasing insights from data: quarrying vs. sculpting (with Prof. Paul Ronney)
Speaker:
Prof. Paul D. Ronney
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Moderator:
Dr. Jeff Puschell
AIAA Region VI Deputy Director of Education,
AIAA Fellow, SPIE Fellow, National Academy of Engineering,
Northrop Grumman Corporation | Space Systems
Faraday Future Headquarters
1990 E Grand Ave, El Segundo, CA 90245

Virtual location
You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.
Oct 14
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
05:00pm - 09:00pm PT
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Tentative Agenda (All Times PDT (GMT -0700) (U.S. and Canada)):
5:00 PM: Check-in, Site Visit, Networking (Welcome to bring your own dinner.)
7:00 PM: Welcome and Introdcution
7:05 PM: Presentation and Q&A
8:35 PM: Networking | Adjourn
9:30 PM: Door closes
Disclaimer: The views of the speaker do not represent the views of AIAA or the AIAA Los Angeles Section.
Releasing insights from data: quarrying vs. sculpting
When Michelangelo surveyed a block of marble, he saw a figure trapped inside; his goal was to release the figure that in his mind was already there. Research involves not only “quarrying” (obtaining) blocks of experimental, computational, or theoretical data but more importantly releasing the insights trapped within. For example, every student of physics learns about the H atom spectrum and every student of combustion learns about the 3 explosion limits of the H2-O2 system - but why these blocks of data? Because, trapped within the spectrum and the wiggly curve are critical, unequivocal insights - that energy levels of matter are quantized and that H2-O2 combustion proceeds through two entirely different sets of intermediates depending on temperature and pressure.
In those two famous examples the insights and their significance are “obvious” given the benefit of years of hindsight - what important insights are trapped inside freshly quarried data? The focus of this interactive seminar is on examples of and methods for sculpting data into works of insight. Starting with the aforementioned case studies the audience’s sculpting skill will be challenged with case studies from both the presenter’s own work (some not yet published) and elsewhere within combustion research community, with an emphasis on examples where the insights were both difficult to sculpt and led to counterintuitive insights.
Prof. Paul D. Ronney
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineer
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Paul Ronney is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at USC. Prof. Ronney received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley, an MS in Aeronautics from Caltech, and a Sc.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. He held postdoctoral appointments at the NASA Lewis Research Center and the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory and a position as Assistant Professor at Princeton University before assuming his current position at USC. He was a Payload Specialist Astronaut (Alternate) for Space Shuttle Missions STS-83 and STS-94 in 1997. Professor Ronney's research areas include micro-scale combustion, turbulent combustion, internal combustion engines, microgravity combustion and fire spread. He has had experiments flown on three Space Shuttle missions. In recognition of his achievements, he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Combustion Institute, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Engineer’s Council Distinguished Engineering Educator Achievement Award, and the Combustion Institute Distinguished Paper Award.
(Moderator)
Dr. Jeff Puschell
AIAA Region VI Deputy Director of Education,
AIAA Fellow, SPIE Fellow, National Academy of Engineering,
Northrop Grumman Corporation | Space Systems
Dr. Jeff Puschell is Chief Engineer, EO/lR Payloads at Northrop Grumman Space Park in Redondo Beach, California. He is an internationally recognized expert in the system engineering of space-based imaging and remote sensing systems. He has >40 years of experience in developing advanced technology infrared and visible wavelength systems for a variety of operational and research applications. Dr. Puschell has authored or coauthored >160 papers on a variety of topics in astrophysics, imaging, remote sensing and optical communication. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024 for development of optical, multispectral, and hyperspectral space-based remote sensing systems for Earth observation. Dr. Puschell is an AIAA Fellow and a SPIE Fellow. He and his wife Dana live in Solvang and Hermosa Beach, California.
[AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]

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AIAA Los Angeles Section Town Hall Meeting 10/20
(In-person presentation with both in-person (encouraged) and online attendance (hybrid))
Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 5:30 PM PDT (U.S. and Canada) (GMT -0700)

Oct 20
(Oct 20) The Capitalist Revolution in Space Has Begun!
(In-person and Online for Hybrid Meeting)
Speaker:
Dr. Rainer Zitelmann
Doctorates in history and sociology.
Author and Editor thirty-two books (translated into thirty-five languages)
(The speaker will present in person.)
(This event is not sponsored by the Lawndale Library)
Lawndale Library (Meeting Room)
14615 Burin Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260

Virtual location
You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
05:30pm - 07:30pm PT

Register
Tentative Agenda (All Times Pacific Time (PDT) (U.S. and Canada) (GMT -0700))
04:30 pm: Check-in / Mingle / Networking
05:30 pm: Welcome; Introductions
05:35 am: Presentation and QnA
07:05 pm: Networking
07:30 pm: Adjourn
07:45 pm: Meeting Room closes
Disclaimer: The views of the speakers do not represent the views of AIAA or the AIAA Los Angeles Section.
(This event is not sponsored by the Lawndale Library.)
The Capitalist Space Revolution Has Begun!
Elon Musk’s SpaceX now accounts for 165 of 324 global rocket launches in a single year. If SpaceX were a country, it would be the world’s number one spacefaring nation ahead of China, ahead of Russia, ahead of NASA. This is what SpaceX free market capitalism history looks like in practice: a private company rewriting the rules of exploration faster than any government ever could.
In this landmark work of private space exploration economics, world-renowned historian and economist Rainer Zitelmann delivers the first book to place the full arc of public and private spaceflight side by side in a single authoritative volume. His argument is as bold as it is rigorous: while the technical prerequisites for conquering Mars and mining asteroids already exist, the true breakthrough in the history of private spaceflight will only come once humanity establishes a legal framework for buying and selling land on celestial bodies. Property rights not rocket engines are the final frontier.
SpaceX is laying the groundwork for the largest initial public offering in history. The era of NewSpace industry capitalism innovation is no longer a prediction, it is a market event already underway. Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Rocket Lab, and dozens of startups are competing in what Zitelmann identifies as the most consequential economic frontier since the industrial revolution.

Dr. Rainer Zitelmann
Doctorates in history and sociology
Author and Editor thirty-two books (translated into thirty-five languages)
Rainer Zitelmann has doctorates in history and sociology. He has authored and edited thirty-two books that have been translated into thirty-five languages. His books include In Defense of Capitalism, The Power of Capitalism, and How Nations Escape Poverty. In recent years, he has written articles and been the subject of interviews in media such as Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Newsweek, Forbes, Washington Examiner, National Interest, Financial Times, City AM, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Le Monde, Corriere della Sera, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and numerous media outlets in Latin America and Asia. He regularly contributes specialist articles to Economic Affairs.
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510788213/new-space-capitalism/
“. . . this is a well-timed and fascinating read. The author argues that commercial expansion into space, from asteroid mining to colonising Mars, is important for ongoing human progress and economic growth, back on Earth. But, he contends, to do this well governments ought to step back and allow private companies and competition to unlock innovation. He says this can only occur when it is possible to own, buy, and sell land on other celestial bodies. . . . Zitelmann strikingly compares and contrasts the history of space exploration through public missions and private enterprise. His book is an insightful must-read for those intrigued by mankind’s next giant leap.”
―Financial Times
“Market forces are revolutionizing space and the space economy, and Rainer Zitelmann’s sweeping new book stands out from the crowd in unapologetically making the case for keeping capitalism at the core of our spacefaring future. A must-read for anyone interested in the economics of space and humanity’s exploration of it.”
―Matthew Weinzierl, professor of business administration and space expert at Harvard Business School
“Countering the pessimism that afflicts many analysts today, Dr. Rainer Zitelmann shines a bold and optimistic light on an emerging industry that promises to transform the future of mankind. His New Space Capitalism explores how private entrepreneurial activity is emerging as the force that will take humanity back to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond. He shows how private property rights give the incentive for space exploration, tourism, and industrial development and space settlement. This is a thrilling and very timely look at how capitalism can take humanity into its next great leap.”
―Madsen Pirie, president of the Adam Smith Institute, London
“Rainer Zitelmann’s book New Space Capitalism is one of the most recent, compelling, and best illustrations of how the limitless expansion in the future of humankind depends on the final triumph of the anarcho-capitalist system, based on entrepreneurial creativity unblocked by bureaucratic apparatuses and the ideology of statism. In Zitelmann’s book, full of analytical insights from the Austrian School of Economics, you will find why space is not only ‘the last frontier’ of humanity, but also of human liberty.”
―Jesús Huerta de Soto, professor of political economy, King Juan Carlos University, Madrid
“A fantastic book! It tells us compellingly that space exploration is an entrepreneurial activity and thus can be done best by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, instead of government agencies. Space capitalism is more cost-effective and innovative than space statism. It is the only way humanity will ever be able to colonize Mars or mine asteroids. What the space sector needs most is full-scale decisive deregulation and not more regulations.”
“The challenge of opening the space frontier can only be met by the full power of human creativity. Freedom will give us space. Space will give us freedom. Zitelmann is showing us the way.”
―Dr. Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society
“Property rights underpin capitalism here on Earth, and they will have to underpin it in space as well. Zitelmann’s book concludes with an outline of what such a system could look like, analogous to the ‘homesteading’ laws that were used for the settlement of the American West from the 1860s onwards. Science fiction? No―just good economics.”
―Kristian Niemietz, editorial director at the Institute of Economic Affairs
[AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]