My transcript and slides for the Mars Sample Return panel discussion at Mars Society Conference 2024 in Seattle. Tony Muscatello (NASA, Ret., Mars Society Board) assisted with this. (Video will be uploaded when available)

After three years, the long range digitial communications and tracking system I designed for MDRS will be live this coming field season.  THis surveys progress this year and plans going forward.  We also started Archipelago Space Research for this project and others. (Video pending). 

What impact will the current revolution in Artificial Intelligence have on plans for Mars Settlement?  What impact will it have on our daily lives and thinking process?   This examines principles, neurology, and how technology revolutions can complement and compete with one another. 
NOTE - this is the live feed fast-forwarded to my talk. Video will be uploaded when available)

This is a proposal for both Mars Analogs like MDRS and the forthcoming Mars Technology Institute to use best practices like Agile and Modularity to dramatically improve, accelerate, and replicate success in creating Mars Age technology and businesses.   NOTE - this is the live feed fast-forwarded to my talk. Video will be uploaded when available)

How do we build a minimum viable independent planet from first priniciples, and measure the results with a new form of business canvas? 
 - Mars Society Conference 2022 in Arizona. 
UPDATE - Video linked. 

Update to a survey of methods used by Elon Musk at Telsa and SpaceX. 
- Mars Society Conference 2022 in Arizona.
UPDATE- I was asked to give the same talk, but longer to the AIAA Houston Chapter, so that video is linked here since it is more detailed. 

Explaining the nature of SECADS as a methodology for understanding and engineering technology revolutions, with an advanced solar sail concept as a case study.  SECADS stands for Science, Engineering, Convergence, Affordability, Democratization, and Scale.  

This concept bridges the gap between Lunar Starship (and eventually the Mars version) and large scale construction outposts.  It can be scaled from 30 to 1000 people and offers many of the same benefits as the Eureka design below.  It also shares modular construction components with the Starship logistics ports described below. 
NOTE: The slides below are for the Mars Society Conference version of the speech (top right), and has more details on the ring centrifuge.  The earlier Moon Society talk is shown to the bottom right and has more about the economic and crew structures. 

Terraforming a whole planet and transferring an ecosystem is a very high technical and scientific wall. This is a practical intermediate approach that allows ecosystems to be selected, managed and refined in a canyon the size of Lake Erie on the Mars equator. This talk is roughly equal parts biology and architecture.

Using Starship components and simple frameworks, it is a fairly simple, scalable, modular path to build "self-feeding" deep space settlements from LEO to the asteroid belt using common components. These can be scaled from ten to 10,000 people.

My entry for the Mars Settlement Competition 2019, where entries were expected to solve the problems with building a 1000 person settlement on Mars. This was my entry.  The Kindle and Print versions of the top 21 entries were published on Amazon in a book called Mars Colonies: Plans for Settling the Red Planet. On February 7, Robert Zubrin presented a copy personally to Elon Musk at Bocca Chica. I'm delighted at the prospect that he may make it to chapter six and see my work.

This picks up on a thought Elon Musk put out on Twitter that we should send clouds of small space probes all over the solar system, particularly past asteroids, using a disposable version of Starship to launch them. This goes through all the low-cost technologies currently being used in low Earth orbit, and what a Starlink world and solar system would look like.

Now that heavy, affordable launch is becoming a reality, the next major objection to Mars settlement will be planetary protection (preventing Mars germs from getting to Earth, or Earth microbes from getting to Mars and interfering with the hunt for life there). This presentation looks at the situation objectively to find a path for Mars surface settlement with the least risk of either situation. Fortunately, this is also one of the easiest ways to set up early settlements.

While the early stages of the NewSpace revolution are in place, what projects could be done to expand human activity into deep space as soon as possible, with minimal cost and risk? This talk examines a few options that could be launched in the next few years.

This presentation examines the nature of technology revolutions, and the nature of the next revolution in space technology. It goes on to predict the nature of our expansion into the solar system, using principles from past technology revolutions.

What happens when you combine blockchain cryptocurrency, phased intellectual property cycles, distributism, and space settlement? This methodology can up space economies in a way that avoids past failures, while creating an engine for innovation and growth for rapid independence from Earth.

This is a concept for a highly modular space factory in high lunar orbit for use in rapidly advancing prototype technologies for asteroid mining, lunar settlement, Martian settlement, and deep space settlement. Equipment can be repurposed and prototyped rapidly and efficiently in near-proximity to Earth, while the base itself slowly grows and splits into the first independent asteroid mining craft, cyclers, and logistics depots for the solar system. 

This is the breakdown of the challenges of space settlement, and a path of least resistance to achieving it. This talk is the forerunner of the two talks, above.

This talk gets into the economic and communication issues of space settlement and how they change the game. Just as standard rules of gravity and resource availability are disrupted when one leaves Earth, other rules of globalism, technology, and communication are set back up to 300 years or are entirely new. I originally gave this talk at the second 100 Year Starship Symposium in Houston, which explains the emphasis on starships at a Mars Society Conference. Pardon the background noise. 

Why do we explore, and who are we? This talk roots through the historic western cosmologies over the past 2500 years and how they still influence us today. This was originally presented at the first 100 Year Starship symposium and was published as a paper in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.

Low Earth Orbit is a shooting range of space junk. This concept stores reinforced ice rather than liquid hydrogen and oxygen on orbit to protect against hazards, and also protect a crew from cosmic rays.

Building on the microcolony concept, above, what if these systems were modular, scalable, and portable? This concept started when Ayako Ono and I were approached by some college students from Peru who wanted to make a version of Mars Desert Research Station for the Atacama Desert. I've revised this concept to be easier to meet building codes. 

One issue, with both real and simulated spacesuits on the surface of the Moon or Mars, is where you carry your stuff. This study was based on Kent’s work as commander of Crew 124.

This discusses a minimal, cosmic ray protected shelter that could keep two people alive on Mars indefinitely. The shelters would be a bit like farmhouses, clustered into rows that would serve as a decentralized settlement. Permaculture and aquaponics would create a small river/grove the size of a barn with a novel solar collection system. Having a bit of nature close to the settlers would also diminish homesickness and contribute to psychological health.