Why Are We Here?
The inaugural Responsive Space conference was sponsored by the AIAA LA Section and Space Systems Technical Committee. It took place at Redondo Beach, California between April 1–3, 2003. It was founded and organised by Professor Jim Wertz of Microcosm.
Responsiveness has become critical to many modern systems
- War in Iraq
- Shorter time frame for most information-based technologies
- “Instant answers” to many issues available on the Internet or web
- Space assets are a major contributor in many areas
- Military, commercial, science, engineering, education, exploration
- But, however important space assets may be in today’s world, they aren’t responsive
- Apollo went from a dream to landing people on the Moon (including developing the largest rocket ever built) in 8 years
- Today, major unmanned programs take well more than a decade, and even small satellite missions can take 5 to 7 years
- Many would regard Iridium as a technical success, but a business failure
- Why? — Largely because it took too long to build and deploy and was made irrelevant by the rapid growth of ground-based systems
- The lack of multiple LEO communications constellations is, in part, a direct result of the lack of responsiveness in our industry
The fundamental questions for this conference are:
How do we make space responsive?
If we’re successful, how do we take advantage of this new capability?
General Chair
Dr. James R. Wertz, Microcosm Incoming Chair, LA Section
Technical Chairs
Dr. Yolanda Jones King, AFRL Chair, Space Systems Technical Committee
Gwynne Gurevich, SpaceX Vice Chair, Space Systems Technical Committee
Administrative Chair
Charles Kilmer, Boeing Past Chair, LA Section
Sponsorship PoC
Dr. Robert Conger, Microcosm
Administration
Regina Jenkins, Microcosm
Organizing Committee
Allen Chen, JPL
Dr. Richard Van Allen, Microcosm
Julie Wertz, JPL
AIAA LA Section
Dr. Keith Comeaux, Boeing Chair, LA Section