by Chase Kassel
Attendee: Chase Kassel, Portfolio Manager, ASU Interplanetary Initiative
What was this event for or about?
This was the annual National Space Society’s Space Settlement Summit designed as an interactive conference/workshop hybrid format with the goal to encourage the development of technologies and capabilities for the future of humanity living and working in space.
Why did you attend it, what were you hoping to achieve or gain from it?
This event was hosted by Zaheer Ali and Dr. Greg Autry with the Thunderbird School of Global Management. As an invite-only event, I was looking to hear from top tier industry and government speakers on their perspectives on the state of the space ecosystem and make connections that would positively impact II’s pilot portfolio.
What was a highlight of the event for you, or the most memorable experience of the event?
The most memorable experience of the event was the workshopping component. Many summits tend to be a one-way flow of information over many hours from speakers to the audience. In the case of this summit, the informational sessions were directly tied to the topics that the audience workshopped. This gave a unique opportunity for the audience to contribute to the advancement of thought leadership for the topics at hand.
What do events like the Space Settlement Summit contribute to the space industry? Why are they important to the future of space endeavors?
Events like the Space Settlement Summit act as convening opportunities for thought leaders in their respective fields to come together and advance the industry. With space being a multifaceted ecosystem with broad customers and service providers, it is important to have events like the Space Settlement Summit that are targeted to advancing specific sectors of this broad industry. Space is becoming deeply ingrained in our global economy and the future success of space endeavors is dependent on continuing the conversation across verticals, industries, and visions.
Was there a topic from the event that the Interplanetary Initiative could learn from or explore further?
Due to the Interplanetary Initiative’s leadership on advancing commercial LEO destinations post-retirement of the ISS, we could take note of the panelists involved in that discussion as well as the CLD plenary reports that came out of the workshopping discussion.
