On April 8 this year, the US will experience a rare and impressive total solar eclipse. The path of total darkness will cut across the heart of the nation from Texas through Maine and afford millions a rare glimpse of the fiery atmosphere of the Sun. We’ll have to wait another 21 years for a comparable eclipse to cover such a large swath of our country. This talk will discuss some of the phenomena to look for during the eclipse and will investigate the various cycles of solar and lunar eclipses that tie us inexorably to both our distant past and our far future.

Event Date: 1 / 25 / 2024

The new space economy is much like the old gold rush days where miners ventured out west to prospect their fortunes. To get there, you had to have the railroad. Once you were there, you needed picks and shovels and other tools to mine the gold. And eventually, frontier towns sprung up to support the industry with infrastructure, people, and other resources. For the space race, SpaceX has provided the train out west, but there’s very little in terms of tools to build in space, or large infrastructure to support activities. That’s where ThinkOrbital comes in providing the basic toolkit for autonomous welding, debris free cutting, multi-phenomenology inspection and additive manufacture. That toolkit will be used to build enormous infrastructure in space for manufacturing, military mission, habitation and a whole host of other applications. On a single launch we can build four times the volume of the International Space Station! In this presentation, you’ll learn how!

Event Date: 11 / 30 / 2023

A brief overview will be given on the current renaissance period of Houston’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem. This includes discussing exciting developments such as the creation of the Texas Space Commission, which will provide a common vision for the space community and out of cycle funding authority in Texas. Companies and ventures within Houston’s emerging commercial aerospace ecosystem will be characterized using a framework to help understand and contextualize potentials needs and contributions at each tier. The Jacobs Commercial Partnerships, Technology and Innovation Office (CPTIO) will also be introduced. Jacobs provides engineering and science services and solutions for NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) on the JSC Engineering, Technology & Science (JETS) II contract. Jacobs is taking giant steps to support NASA Johnson Space Center’s mission to lead human space exploration through its support on major programs such as the Artemis Moon missions, the International Space Station, the Orion Crew Module, astromaterials and deep space research, along with project collaboration with numerous NASA centers and commercial aerospace companies. As part of the JETS II contract, the CPTIO is JSC’s external conduit of connection to the rapidly emerging commercial aerospace industry around JSC. The CPTIO helps JSC stimulate a thriving, inclusive community that facilitates collaborative innovation, advances translational research, creates new ventures, drives industry growth, and enables widespread space commercialization that ultimately advances mankind.

Event Date: 11 / 9 / 2023