Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium

2023 LSIC Fall Meeting

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 -Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Venue: Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA & Hybrid

Featured Speakers

Prasun Desai

NASA Acting STMD Associate Administrator

A.C. Charania

NASA Chief Technologist

Niki Werkheiser

Director of Technology Maturation, NASA STMD

Phil Root

Strategic Technology Office, DARPA

Walt Engelund

Dep. Assoc. Admin. for Programs, NASA STMD

Event Recordings (Partial):

Day 1 (Oct. 10th, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm): https://youtube.com/live/6MCpsR0G5mk?feature=share

Day 2 (Oct. 11th, 9:30 am - 12:05 pm): https://youtube.com/live/vITTeicrl-w?feature=share

Meeting Forum (In-Person):

Community College of Allegheny County

Foerster Student Service Center

808 Ridge Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15212

Meeting Overview:

The LSIC 2023 Fall Meeting will be held October 10^th -11^th at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), just down the road from Astrobotic (https://www.astrobotic.com/) and the Moonshot Museum (https://moonshotmuseum.org/). The focus will be on the United States, NASA, and Space Tech's vision for enabling the development of resilient lunar infrastructure at the South Pole of the Moon during Artemis.

Day 1 Keynote Speaker:

Prasun Desai, Acting Associate Administrator in the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate

Day 1 Announcement Shared by:

Walter Engelund, Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs in the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate
Niki Werkheiser, Director of Technology Maturation, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate

Day 2 Keynote Speaker:

A.C. Charania, NASA Chief Technologist

Day 2 Announcement Shared by:

Phil Root, Director Strategic Technology Office, DARPA

Panels, discussions, and working sessions will include topics such as minimum viable infrastructure, tele-robotics, autonomous robotics and activities, repurposing/re-using initial materials for evolving lunar infrastructure, and/or keeping tabs on technical systems health.

LSIC's meetings focus on understanding NASA's plans and technology investments relevant to building a sustained presence on the lunar surface. This year's Fall Meeting will include invited speakers, panels, posters, and breakout sessions. We invite abstracts from the community describing technical capabilities within the LSIC focus areas and working groups, as well as those that identify lunar surface technology needs and assess the readiness of relative systems and components. Other topics of interest include testing maintenance routines at lunar proving grounds, gradually increasing robotic autonomy while interacting with humans, defining the parameters and constraints of the architecture required to support a sustained presence on the lunar surface, as well as economic and policy considerations.

Abstracts submission is now closed.

Peripheral Activities

There will be a Networking Reception during the evening (6:30 pm) of Day 1 (Oct. 10th) hosted by the Moonshot Museum, Astrobotic, and the Keystone Space Collaborative. Tours will also be available of the Moonshot Museum and at some of Carnegie Mellon University’s labs yielding lunar surface technologies (e.g., the Iris and MoonRanger rovers, their development high bay and Moon Yard, as well as their Mission Control and clean room). Times are identified during Registration.

Also, plan to join us for a 3^rd day for the Transition to Commercial Lunar Operations Workshop (October 12^th) also at CCAC. You can find further details at: https://lsic.jhuapl.edu/Events/Agenda/index.php?id=478. Both meeting webpages will lead to the same registration interface (once open), where you may register for the LSIC Fall Meeting, the Transition to Commercial Lunar Operations Workshop, or BOTH!

Additional Information

Please see the Logistical Resources document on the right sidebar of this page. It provides details on the Meeting site, Parking, Hotels, maps, transit distances, etc.

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2023 - Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Location: Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA & Hybrid

In-Person Registration is now CLOSED, Virtual Registration is now CLOSED

Agenda

Day	Session	Time	Title	Presenter			Details

Chief Exploration Scientist of Advanced Exploration Systems

Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

Dr. Bleacher is a planetary geologist who is currently the Chief Exploration Scientist in NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) at NASA headquarters. In this role he is the science advocate for NASA technology and architecture development that is intended to enable human exploration of the Moon, deep space and beyond. He also serves as a primary contact with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and the science community external to NASA. Dr. Bleacher earned a BS in Geosciences from Franklin and Marshall College and Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the Arizona State University. During his Ph.D. research he worked on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Mission by conducting geologic mapping of the initial images acquired of the large Tharsis province volcanoes by the Mission’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). Dr. Bleacher joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) as a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow after which he was hired by NASA as a research scientist. Dr. Bleacher’s research focuses on understanding the volcanic history the Earth, Moon and Mars by remote sensing mapping and field work. Upon joining the NASA workforce he began supporting the Constellation Program Office to conduct studies examining potential landing sites and developing science traverse plans to help define requirements for hardware on the lunar surface. Dr. Bleacher served as a science team member and test subject as a crew member for NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS), which focused on field tests of operations associated with prototype human rovers for the Moon. He has served as the lead for the Goddard Instrument Field team, in which he organized GSFC’s planetary science field research deployments as well as GSFC’s Lead Exploration Scientist, for which he worked to create cross-Center awareness of ongoing human exploration projects. Dr. Bleacher is a co-author on a number of peer reviewed science publications including a cover article for the journal Nature focused on explosive volcanism on Mars as well as the chapter on Mars Volcanism in the Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, 2nd edition. He has served on a series of Special Action Teams (SATs) for the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) and Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) including the Lunar Sample Acquisition and Curation Review, Candidate Scientific Objectives for the Human Exploration of Mars, and Geological Astronaut Training and has served on NASA’s In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Systems Capability Leadership Team. He applies a strong interest in both scientific research and human exploration to his current role at NASA headquarters.

Chief Technologist

NASA

As agency chief technologist, A.C. Charania serves as principal advisor to NASA’s administrator on technology policy and programs. He leads technology innovation at the agency and aligns NASA’s agencywide technology investments with mission needs across its six mission directorates. Charania also oversees technology collaboration with other federal agencies and the private sector while coordinating with external stakeholders. Charania works within NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS). He succeeds OTPS Associate Administrator Bhavya Lal, who had been serving as acting agency chief technologist. Charania is an experienced leader in entrepreneurial space and aviation ventures. His private sector work includes projects under contract for NASA, the Air Force, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). His experience spans multiple areas including launch vehicles, hypersonics, human/robotic exploration, lunar landers, planetary defense, small satellites, and aviation autonomy. Before joining NASA, he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics, a firm working to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviation. Charania led overall corporate strategy for the company, including working to mature product fit, leading/conducting market and competitive assessments, and engaging with global customers and partners. He also led program management for their Department of Defense autonomy projects. Prior to Reliable Robotics, Charania worked on advanced development programs at Blue Origin. He helped define their lunar permanence strategy, created and advanced the Blue Moon lunar lander strategy, and engaged with customers and technical partners. He also moved multiple technology projects forward, including many with NASA. Charania previously worked as a strategy and business development leader for the Virgin Galactic (now Virgin Orbit) LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle program. While there, he advocated for using a 747-400 aircraft to air-launch a rocket carrying payloads to space and then captured a contract for several dozen launches.

LSII Chief Scientist

View External Profile

Dr. Dana Hurley is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Presently, she is Chief Scientist of APL’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative task in support of NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate. Her research interests center on understanding the evolution of water and other volatile compounds in planetary environments. Her Ph.D. research at Rice University analyzed Mars Global Surveyor magnetometer and electron reflectometer data to examine the martian space environment and the role that the solar wind interaction has in atmospheric escape at Mars. Next, she began modeling the lunar exosphere and the delivery and retention of water ice in lunar polar regions. As a co-investigator on the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), she examined far ultraviolet spectra to characterize the physical parameters of the lunar exosphere. She built numerical models that reproduced the observed evolution of vapor from impacts on the Moon including the LCROSS and GRAIL spacecraft impacts and impacts from meteoroids. She adapted her exosphere model for application at Mercury and the plumes of Enceladus. Her data analysis experience spanning spectroscopic remote sensing, in situ ion and neutral particle measurements, and magnetic fields allows her to investigate sparse atmospheres and how they interact with planetary surfaces and space plasma environments. In 2016, NASA SSERVI recognized her with the Michael J. Wargo Award for significant contributions through the integration of exploration and planetary science. In addition to research, Dr. Hurley’s management roles at APL include the Assistant Supervisor of the Science and Space Instrumentation Branch and the Strategic Integration Lead for Planetary Sciences. As an active planetary science community leader, Dr. Hurley presently sits on the NASA Planetary Science Advisory Committee and the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Sciences Committee. She was founder and, for its first 6 years, leader of the “Friends of Lunar/NEO Volatiles” Focus Group, which furthers collaboration among the science and engineering professionals interested in lunar volatiles. She is also active in promoting a culture of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility within APL. More about Dr. Hurley can be found at: https://civspace.jhuapl.edu/people/dana-hurley

Senior Policy Analyst

NASA

Zachary Pirtle, Ph.D., is a researcher, engineer, and policy entrepreneur, who co-chaired the 2018 meeting of the Forum on Philosophy, Engineering and Technology (fPET). He has been engaged with the fPET community since its inception at the 2007 Workshop on Philosophy of Engineering at TU-Delft. With Guru Madhavan and David Tomblin, he co-edited the book Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Social Progress, published in 2021 by Springer Press. His research contributions have ranged from developing a framework for assessing independence among multiple models to help mitigate uncertainty (Pirtle et al, 2018, Pirtle et al 2010), exploring the difference between scientific and engineering models (Pirtle 2010) as well as studying the relationship between law- and non-law-based epistemologies and perceived views on engineering and innovation policy (Pirtle 2013). Separately, he has also researched what role of democratically determined values should have in engineering, including efforts to use public input in engineering decisions (Pirtle and Szajnfarber 2017, Pirtle and Tomblin 2017, Bertrand et al 2017). Separate from his academic research, Pirtle is an engineer and program executive at NASA Headquarters in the Science Mission Directorate. He leads non-traditional commercial approaches to get science and technology payloads to the Moon. He previously served as a program integration engineer at NASA headquarters, which he joined in 2010 as a civil servant. His work there supported integration for the Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and associated ground systems. He also served NASA’s Strategic Investments Division, providing technical, strategic and policy guidance for NASA’s exploration programs, and performed major programmatic assessments of the James Webb Space Telescope and Space Launch System. He was a 2020 winner of the NASA Agency Early Career Achievement Medal. Since 2022, he’s also served as a senior policy analyst for the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.