Prof. Jeffrey Hoffman

As a NASA astronaut (1978-1997) Dr. Hoffman made five space flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1000 hours of flight time aboard the Space Shuttle. He is the deputy PI of the MARS2020 rover Moxie Project and a Professor at MIT's Aeronautics and Astronautics Dept.

Prof. James H. Newman

American Physicist and Astronaut former Director of NASA's Human Space Flight Program in Russia. Adjunct professor in Department of Space Physics and Astronomy at Rice University. He is also the Chair of Space Systems Academic Group at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Lynn Rothschild, PhD.

Dr. Lynn Rothschild is evolutionary biologist and astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center. She is also the Technology Lead for NASA Headquarters Space Technology Mission Directorate. She is pioneering the use of synthetic biology to enable space exploration. She was awarded the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow three times, most recently in 2018. PhD from Brown University.

Prof. Klaus Schilling

Dr. Schilling worked in space industry on design of interplanetary satellites including HUYGENS to the Saturnian Moons Titan and ROSETTA for cometary exploration. He is currently Professor and Chair for Robotics and Telematics at University Wuerzburg. he is president of the company “Zentrum für Telematik e.V.”. He was the editor-in-chief of the international journal "Space Technology".

Prabhat, MSc.

Prabhat leads the Data and Analytics Services team at NERSC in Berkeley.  His current research interests include scientific data management, high performance computing and scientific visualization. He is at the forefront of research that applies machine learning to aid in Space Sciences. He finished his Masters in Computer Science at Brown University and is pursuing his PhD. in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Dept. at Berkeley.

Prof. Michael Waltemathe

Michael Walthemathe is senior lecturer in the Department of Protestant Theology at Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. He has published several articles in the fields of Spaceflight and Religion, Media and Religion, and Religious Education. He has edited Touching the face of the Cosmos, On the Intersection of Spaceflight and Religion, Fordham University Press NY 2016​

Meneses Ulisses, MBA

Ulisses Meneses is one of the cofounders of The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business Aeronautics & Space Club, and founding organizer of MIT’s New Space Age Conference. Ulisses is currently the Director of International Outreach for Space for Humanity, a not-for-profit granting the gift of perspective by sending 10,000 diverse citizens to the edge of space and beyond. Ulisses has presented for Space for Humanity in several forums, including the Inter Ivy League Space Conference hosted by Yale University, the 34 Space Symposium of the Space Foundation and Universidad Anahuac, in Mexico.

Alan Steele, MA.

Allen Steele has authored nineteen science fiction novels and six collections of short fiction. His works have been translated worldwide and have received the Hugo, Locus, and Seiun awards, and have been nominated for the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Sidewise Awards. He is also a recipient of the the Robert A. Heinlein Award. His first published story, "Live from the Mars Hotel," was published in 1988, and his first novel, Orbital Decay, was published in 1989. His best-known work is the Coyote series -- Coyote, Coyote Rising, Coyote Frontier, Coyote Horizon, and Coyote Destiny -- and the associative novels set in the same universe: Spindrift, Galaxy Blues, and Hex.

Prof. Zachary Manchester

Zac Manchester is Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, a member of the Breakthrough Starshot advisory committee, and founder of the KickSat project. He holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and a B.S. in applied physics from Cornell University. Zac has previously worked at Harvard University, NASA Ames Research Center, and Analytical Graphics, Inc. His research interests include nonlinear dynamics, control, optimization, spacecraft, and robotics.