Abstract

The exploration of space has been one of the major human achievements of the second half of the 20th century. This talk will show how human ingenuity has allowed us to discover entirely new worlds previously reachable only by imagination, to even leave our home solar system and create new services from space that not only have become indispensable for our daily lives but also brought us closer together. Based on research done at the Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency, this talk then argues that the biggest impact of space and space-based tools, services and technology is still to come - a future not limited to a few selected great powers but a future that is open, where space activities will be much more democratically spread across the globe and that offers opportunities for smart engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs from everywhere.

About the speaker

Dr Leopold Summerer possesses Master’s degrees in Theoretical Physics and in Space Sciences. He received his PhD in Nuclear Physics from the Vienna University of Technology. Since 2006, he is the Head of the Advanced Concepts Team, an internal research think-tank of the European Space Agency (ESA) mandated to perform and foster research on advanced space systems and technologies. He represents Austria and ESA in the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee working group on space nuclear power sources. He is also Chair of the IAF Space Power Committee.

Dr Summerer’s research fields and publications include nuclear physics, radiation-matter interaction, advanced solar and nuclear space power systems, computational management science, brain-computer interfaces, advanced space systems and planetary system sciences. He has authored over 70 scientific publications.

Free and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come first-served basis.

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