With the primary objective of providing a substantial platform to the entrepreneurs, space engineering specialists, space agencies and industries to present their ideas and vision about Mars exploration, ACS college of Engineering had organized a three day international conference/workshop at its campus in Bangalore from February 21, 2017 to February 23, 2017. It was apparently an awareness initiative by them on the latest products, services and technological advancements pertinent to space exploration.
The Mars Summit was attended by guests speakers, participants and delegates from across the borders, thus providing immense networking opportunities for space industries and space engineering specialists. Besides, a summit/ conference/ workshop that had renowned international delegates in attendance, definitely made way for technology transfer, joint ventures and marketing opportunities in space exploration.
The Mars Summit boasted of big names from the space exploration arena who attended as guest speakers. Here’s a run down their names, involvements and achievements in the subject –
Dr Sergei Avdeyev – An award winning engineer and retired cosmonaut from Russia, Dr Sergei Avdeyev has the distinction of being one of the four civilian consultant pilots of the Apollo moon Program. He has successfully spent over 747 days in the earths orbit. Dr Avdeyev has also had the achievement of orbiting the earth for over 11968 times. He has been awarded with numerous recognitions in Russia like ‘Order of merit for the fatherland’, ‘Medal for merit in space exploration’, ‘Chevalier of the legion of honour’, ‘Hero of Russian federation’, but to name a few.
Dr R Ken Johnston, Sr – A retired USAF, Lt Colonel and ex-Us Marine Corps., he is an intrepid space explorer having manned a lunar module ‘s cockpit for almost 3000 hours. He has been an astronaut trainer at the Johnson space center and has successfully trained umpteen Astronauts of Apollo Moon Program. He also holds the position of a Director at the department of Lunar Data and photo control.
Mr Shaun Moss – A passionate writer and computer scientist, Mr Shaun Moss has been in the field of space exploration for over 18 years. Besides being founder of The International Mars Research Station and Mars Settlement Research Organization (IMRS), using the latest space technology he has also developed a humans to Mars mission architecture that is economical and sound. What’s more he already has a book ‘The International Mars Research Station’ published under his name. He has also been involved in researches on Martian timekeeping systems, terraforming and organizations like Mars Drive, National Space Society of Australia, but to name a few.
Mr Karthik Kumar – Presently working at the AustrianSpace Forum as an Analog astronaut, Mr Karthik is also the co-founder and CEO of a space startup called ‘Satsearch’. Besides, he is also pursuing his PHD in Aerospace engineering from ‘The Delft University of Technology’ in Netherlands. His work around space exploration involves systems and interfaces to support future human missions to Mars, terrestrial analog mission campaigns and more.
The critical topics that were highlighted and discussed during this three day summit included topics namely stem education and Mars, satellite technologies, updates and opportunities relevant to Mars, settlement and terraforming on mars, science and technical sessions, policy opportunities at Mars in the early 2030’s, but to name a few.
Even with a participation fee for national and international delegates, the Mars Summit saw an enthusiastic inflow of registrations. The organizers provided full support to the participants taking care of accommodation of the participating students and delegates as well, on request basis.
In a nutshell, the Mars Summit 2017 turned out to be by far one of the most engaging and worthy conferences/ workshops of the year, attended by experts like faculties, research scholars, academicians, specialists from R & D sector as well. The high participation levels and successful commencement of the same is undoubtedly a stepping stone and a source of motivation for ACS College of Engineering, to further invest in many more such initiatives in the years to come.