Space Manufacturing 14 Session Chair Bios

September 26, 2010

GCHSession 1: Space Transportation
Gary C Hudson, Chair

Gary C Hudson is co-founder of the Transformational Space Corporation, AirLaunch LLC and HMX Inc. He has worked in the field of commercial space for 40 years with an emphasis on development of innovative low-cost systems. In 1996, he co-founded Rotary Rocket, dedicated to the development of a single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle that used a rocket-tipped rotor propulsion system. Rotary Rocket conducted three low-altitude flight tests of a full-scale vehicle. He is also the designer of the Phoenix family of launch vehicles which led directly to the DC-X.
He was awarded an Aviation Week and Space Technology “Laurel” in 1994 for the DC-X program. He has been a Board Member of the Space Transportation Association, and currently serves as a Senior Adviser of Space Studies Institute and as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Space Frontier Foundation. He has presented testimony before the U.S. Congress on many occasions. In addition, he has taught at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences of Tokyo University, and Stanford University.
MA Session 2: Extraterrestrial Prospecting
Prof. Michael A’Hearn, Chair

Michael F. A’Hearn is an astronomer and professor at the University of Maryland who was the principal investigator for the NASA Deep Impact mission. He received his bachelors in science at Boston College and his Ph. D in Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has aided in the development of systems for surveying abundances in comets as well as techniques for determining the sizes of cometary nuclei which uses optical and infrared measurements.
His studies focus on comets as well as asteroids and he also supervises numerous graduate students. In 1986 for contributions to cometary science and is an elected fellow of the AAAS. He has authored over 100 papers published in journals and is also an avid sailor who has a commercial coast guard license.  Asteroid 3192 A’Hearn was named after him.
TM Session 3: Closed Environment Life Support Systems
Taber MacCallum, Chair

Taber MacCallum is one of the original crew members of Biosphere 2. As one of the eight participants of the first two-year mission inside the 3-acre materially closed ecological system, which supported the life of the eight human inhabitants. It was designed for research applicable to environmental management on Earth and the development of human life support for space.  MacCallum served as the team’s analytical chemist.
In 1993, MacCallum co-founded Paragon Space Development Corporation and is currently CEO and Chairman of the Board for Paragon. Using Paragon’s Autonomous Biological Systems, he was the Principal Investigator on four microgravity experiments on the Space Shuttle, Mir Space Station and International Space Station.
MacCallum is involved in the design of life support and thermal control systems for commercial manned suborbital spacecraft, as well as hazardous environment life support technology development for the US Navy divers. Taber MacCallum has also functioned at every level of command on a research vessel, sailing to over 40 ports and more than 30,000 miles (48,000 km) around the world. He is a certified Dive Controller and Advanced Open Water Diving Instructor.
RW Session 4: Robotics and Space Manufacturing
Prof. William “Red” Whittaker, Chair

Dr. William L. “Red” Whittaker is the Fredkin Professor of Robotics, Director of the Field Robotics Center, and founder of the National Robotics Engineering Consortium, all at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also the Chief Scientist of RedZone Robotics.
He has an extensive record of successful developments of robots for craft, labor and hazardous duty. Examples include robots in field environments such as mines, work sites and natural terrain. Dr. Whittaker’s portfolio includes the development of computer architectures for controlling mobile robots; modeling and planning for non-repetitive tasks; complex problems of objective sensing in random and dynamic environments; and integration of complete field robot systems.
Prof. Whittaker has advised twenty-six Ph.D. students, has sixteen patents, and has authored or co-authored over 200 publications.
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Session 5: Engineering Materials from Non-Terrestrial Resources
Dr. Peter J. Schubert, Chair

Peter Schubert, Ph.D., P.E., is a registered Professional Engineer (Electrical and Computer Engineering) with over 25 years experience ranging from microelectronics, digital signal processing, systems engineering, alternative energy research, space-based manufacturing, and industrial consulting.
Peter worked 8 years on the factory floor, designing and introducing $2,400,000 in custom process equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. He has a strong background in statistical process control, quality engineering, electrical test, yield improvement and scrap reduction ($4M reduction in 1 year!), including a Green Belt in the Six-Sigma methodology. As a Systems Engineer and Technical Fellow at Delphi Electronics & Safety, Peter developed and validated computer algorithms for crash sensing and occupant detection. His algorithms are currently used in vehicles on three continents.
Dr. Schubert has over 30 US Patents granted (8 in Europe), and more than 60 technical publications. He is an instructor with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), teaching courses in algorithms and model based electronics design. He has taught various aspects of electrical, computer, and systems engineering to over 1000 people world-wide.
Dr. Schubert is the Principal Investigator on a Phase II NASA program for the extraction of silicon and oxygen from lunar soil, processes based on 3 of his granted US Patents. He is the PI for $1,240,000 in state and federal grants on a program to convert organic biomass into power, heat, and fertilizer. He is a technical leader in additional research projects for the DOE, the Marine Corps, and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. Peter’s invention of the “hydrogen sponge” is the subject of a User Grant at Argonne National Lab, and is part of a $1,500,000 Congressional Appropriation on a means by which municipalities can convert their collected landscape trimmings into fuels for city fleet vehicles. Dr. Schubert joined Packer Engineering in 2006 as a member of the R&D Team.
PKC Session 6: Space Solar Power and Space Energy Systems
Philip K. Chapman, Sc.D., Chair

Phil Chapman is a geophysicist and astronautical engineer, born in Melbourne, Australia. He learned to fly during National Service with the RAAF, while he was an undergraduate in physics at Sydney University. After graduating, he spent 15 months studying the aurora in Antarctica, including wintering at a remote two-man camp.
After earning MS and Sc.D. degrees at MIT, he was selected by NASA as one of the second intake of scientist astronauts during Apollo (and the first foreign-born astronaut). He completed jet pilot training with the USAF and dive training with the USN, and then served as Mission Scientist for Apollo 14. He left the program when Skylab II was canceled, because he thought the decision to build the shuttle was a major mistake.
Since then, his research interests have included energy and environmental policy, space-based solar power and economical launch vehicles. In particular, he worked for Dr Peter Glaser, inventor of the Solar Power Satellite, during the original NASA/DoE study in the late 1970s. In 1989, he led a private expedition by sea from Cape Town to Enderby Land, Antarctica, investigating mineral resources before the moratorium on prospecting took effect.
Phil now lives in Sunnyvale, CA, with his wife Maria, and is working on several books. See his blog at www.pkchapman.com for more information.
BB Session 7: International, Legal and Economic Considerations
Brad Blair, Chair

Brad Blair is a geologist, mining engineer and mineral economist consulting from Idaho Springs, Colorado on advanced mining technology and space economics.  He began researching lunar in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) in 1989 under NASA Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) funding as a grad student at the Colorado School of Mines. Since that time he has authored or co-authored over 40 papers on lunar, mars and asteroid ISRU, including economic feasibility and market analysis for ISRU products.  During the summer of 1999, Brad was a visiting professional at the NASA/JSC Exploration Office, where he learned and practiced the art of cost estimation in support of a design reference mission for human Mars exploration. From 2001-2005, he and a small team at Colorado School of Mines lead by Mike Duke conducted research for NASA on topics related to ISRU.  Studies included: Parametric engineering model development for mining propellants on the Moon, Phobos, and Mars; Planetary excavator design and prototype development; NASA technology roadmapping; And, ISRU system design, costing and economic feasibility modeling.  Since that time Brad has consulted for US and Canadian government, aerospace and mining industry clients on ISRU design and economic analysis as well as advanced technologies.  He participated in two NASA centennial challenges and is advising NewSpace startups on opportunity management.