Next Generation Exploration Conference-2

February 12 - 15, 2008 | Moffett Field, CA

Next Generation Exploration Conference-2 was an invitation-only conference held at NASA Ames Research Center from 12-15 February 2008, seeking input from emerging leaders into the future of their space program. Over 25 SGAC members were invited, making up one quarter of the delegates. A number of non-US participants received full funding from NASA to attend.

NGEC-2 gathered emerging global space leaders to give direct input at NASA's highest levels. The conference focused the energies and innovations of the participants on "Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Lunar Development," and produced output documents for the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Commercial Development Policy group and Innovative Partnerships Program Office.

Participation

The conference was organised in an innovative way, with the conference program being a mixture of lectures, working groups, and open-mic speaking opportunities. The latter were organised through a voting system, with interested presenters suggesting topics and the ones with the most interest expressed being presented improvisationally by participants.

Another exciting aspect of the conference was the virtual participation of delegates in the online virtual world Second Life. The conference presentations were streamed on the web and broadcast live in Second Life, with questions taken from the virtual world and answered in real time by the speakers. Also, some working groups were assisted by research teams and remote participants in Second Life.

Chris Boshuizen was appointed as the moderator trainer, and ran a training workshop prior to NGEC-2 to brief the workshop moderators on the desired outcomes of the conference, the expectations of NASA Headquarters as the sponsoring body, and on methods for running the working group. Chris also assisted the NASA team to get some of the innovative NASA CoLab conference tools ready for active use and provided backup technical support throughout the conference.

During the conference SGAC was able to run a number of side meetings, including:

• A financial strategy meeting with Treasurer Michael Brett and SGAC-USA President Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesides.
• Two Space Generation members, Sanjoy Som and Melissa Battler, along with NASA scientist John Karcz, co-led the focus group on Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Lunar Environment Utilization. This group of 15 young space professionals and students collaborated with Second Life attendees present at the NASA CoLab SL center. After 2 successful days of brainstorming, their findings spanned commercial usage of lunar material prior to human landing to oxygen extraction from the lunar regolith, and will be published in the upcoming proceedings.
• SGC 2008 Manager Kevin Stube and Assistant Manager Sanjoy Som took time off from NGEC to meet with NASA Astrobiology Institute director Carl Pilcher, deputy director Ed Goolish, and Research Scientist Melissa Kirven-Brooks. NAI was a strong supporter of SGC 2007. Sanjoy and Kevin updated NAI on Space Generation's work since the IAC last september. Meetings with representatives of potential partners such as Lockheed Martin and Masten Aerospace.

Space Generation Attendees

There were 100 people at NGEC-2 and the following 25 attendees are either active SGAC members or have attended the Space Generation Congress in the past:
1. Jen Bailey
2. Tim Bailey
3. Melissa Battler
4. Marshal Blessing
5. Chris Boshuizen
6. Michael Brett
7. Frank Centinello
8. A.C. Charania
9. Kimberley Clayfield
10. Jessy Cowan-Sharp
11. Jessica Culler
12. Daphne Dador
13. Andrew Hoppin
14. Zahra Khan
15. Trond Krovel
16. Karen Lau
17. Will Marshall
18. Greg Mindorff
19. Joseph Palaia
20. Rocky Persaud
21. Robbie Schingler
22. Florian Selch
23. Sanjoy Som
24. Kevin Stube
25. Loretta Whitesides