AIAA Los Angeles Section

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AIAA Los Angeles Section Town Hall Meeting 8/29 (Webinar)
An AIAA LA Section Women's Equality Day / Month Event
Saturday, August 29, 2026, 11 AM PDT (U.S. and Canada) (GMT -0700)

Aug 29
(August 29) New Horizons: NASA’s Mission to Pluto & the Kuiper Belt
Speaker:
Alice Bowman
Principal Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
Space Implementation Branch mission operations chief engineer
AIAA Distinguished Speaker
NASA New Horizons mission operations manager (MOM)
(The speaker will present remotely online.) (Webinar)
(This event is not sponsored by the Lawndale Library)
Lawndale Library (Meeting Room)
14615 Burin Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260
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Virtual location
You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.
Aug 29, 2026 11:00am PT - Aug 29, 2026 12:40pm PT
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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.
“New Horizons: NASA’s Mission to Pluto & the Kuiper Belt”

This presentation is an overview of NASA’s historic mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt – which culminated with the first flight past the distant dwarf planet on 14 July 2015 and the first encounter with a Kuiper Belt object on 1 January 2019. It includes looks at New Horizons’ continuing journey through the eyes of the APL mission operations team as well as the technical, scientific, and personal challenges of piloting a spacecraft across the solar system on its voyage to the farthest reaches of the planetary frontier.
Alice Bowman
Principal Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
Space Implementation Branch mission operations chief engineer
NASA New Horizons mission operations manager (MOM)
AIAA Distinguished Speaker
(The speaker will present remotely online.) (Webinar)
Alice Bowman is a member of the Principal Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. She is the Space Implementation Branch mission operations chief engineer and the NASA New Horizons mission operations manager (MOM). She supervises and advises staff members who operate deep space and Earth-orbiting spacecraft, including NASA’s TIMED, STEREO, New Horizons, Parker Solar Probe, DART, Europa Clipper, IMAP and Dragonfly. Ms. Bowman’s experience also includes national defense space operations, systems engineering, program management, space systems, and space instrument development.

Ms. Bowman has a degree in chemistry and physics from the University of Virginia and has more than 30 years of experience in space operations. Asteroid 146040 Alicebowman, discovered by Marc Buie in 2000, is named after her. In 2022, she was presented with the Society of Women Engineers prestigious Resnick Challenger Medal. She is an AIAA Associate Fellow, and has served on the International SpaceOps Committee since 2009.
[AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]

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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 Hawthorne Library.
A MOONBASE ALPHA PREQUEL
Detailed image/storyline preview of the a film/animation production and the conceptual design of a Lunar Base "Moon Base Alpha" based on the popular TV Sci-Fi TV Show "Space 1999" will be presented and discussed. Please join the AIAA Los Angeles Section for the exciting design from the experienced artist / designer, while Artemis and the human lunar exploration are gearing up

Mr. Alan Simmons
Freelance Designer
Animation and Game Design
Instructor on Background Design at the Animation Academy
(The speaker will present on-line.)

20 years experience in Animation and Game Design with a focus in Background Design and Prop Design, and Background color. Also proficient in photoshop retouching. I work as a freelance furniture designer for a specialty furniture store, I have four years experience teaching Background Design at the Animation Academy. I also write music for a hobby. Website is: http://amwsimmons.wix.com/myart My blog: www.almsimmons.blogspot.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1110877/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Specialties: Background/ Environment Design, Prop Design,Background color, quicksketch, Architectural Rendering, Cartooning,

[AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]

RSVP and Information: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/uccbw7f/lp/017f25eb-1a10-4cb3-af20-a6f5d17b2b15
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

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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]