ESRIC NEWS I February edition

Less than one month to go until the sixth edition of Space Resources Week. We hope you are as excited as we are! This edition of the ESRIC newsletter is dedicated exclusively to the conference.

🗓️ Before you start scrolling down, save the event in your agenda and register.

🚀 The deadline for in-person registrations is 18 March 12:00 CET.

DAY 1 - 25 MARCH

On the first day of the conference, Lisa Burke will once again open Space Resources Week. Lisa will call on stage a series of high-level speakers from key international organisations, tasked to paint a programmatic picture of the latest developments in the field of space resources.

Amongst them, the Luxembourg Minister of the Economy, Lex Delles , Josef Aschbacher - Director General of ESA, Kathryn Hadler - Director of ESRIC, Daniel Neuenschwander - Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA, Aarti Holla-Maini - Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) , Hiroshi Yamakawa - President of JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Matthias Maurer - ESA Astronaut and Materials Scientist will give insights into the various institutional perspectives for space resources.

Following the prestigious opening session, the first panel discussion of the conference is looking at the topic of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) for the benefit of sustainable exploration. The panel is composed of internationally acclaimed actors from both private and public organisations. The exchange is expected to look at the increased efforts by space agencies worldwide to return humans to the Moon, commercial players sweeping across the landscape and financial actors eager to be part of the story of the emerging lunar economy.

Following this engaging discussion, you can expect a series of sessions focused on building a sustained international future for space resources, identify key use cases and opportunities for technology transfer, as well as investigate the topic of data used to support space resource activities and space exploration.

The first day will conclude with a networking opportunity, a chance to exchange with researchers showcasing their work through posters. We have put in place a voting system enabling the public to showcase their appreciation for their work.

DAY 2 - 26 MARCH

On the second day of the conference, we are thrilled to welcome Catherine Koerner , Associate Administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration . Catherine is responsible for the development of NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture, defining and managing the systems development for Artemis missions, and planning the integrated deep space exploration approach. 

Catherine's talk will be followed by an exciting session dedicated to past and future missions, with case studies from NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration , ispace, inc. , European Space Agency - ESA , The Exploration Company and the Australian Space Agency followed by a dedicated discussion on the Mars-forward vision.

This second day of the conference, is expected to have a dense programme, immersing the audience in some key aspects of space resource utilization: from ISRU Operations, to a Multidisciplinary perspective of a future using space resources, and culminating with sustainability considerations.

Networking cocktail and space concert

The evening agenda is equally exciting, bringing together Valery Vermeulen and Jaromir Mulders , the authors of a truly cosmic audiovisual experience. This space concert resides within Mikromedas, a data-driven musical project in which compositions are elaborated using data stemming from space, deep space and astrophysical simulation models. The performance is entirely created using data streams coming from simulation models of astrophysical black holes and regions with extreme gravitational fields.

DAY 3 - 27 MARCH

After an intense couple of days, we are still looking at a full third day of Space Resources Week. The final day of the event is split into two separate tracks: the day starts with a set of keynotes focused on commercial initiatives and dual-market case studies, followed by a panel discussion on the topic of leveraging lunar resources to foster international collaboration, delivered by the members of EURO2MOON . After a well-deserved coffee break, the audience will be split into two separate tracks. The introduction of parallel sessions this year aims to focus the presentations and exchanges to dedicated spaces, and then bring the audience back together for the final two sessions of the event.

One parallel session will be focused on Oxygen extraction from regolith, as well as infrastructure and supporting technologies, while the second will be dedicated to case studies and stories of success from business visionaries and entrepreneurs, pitching their solutions in front of the audience, as well as a select jury, composed of expert investors and representatives from European institutions.

The two final sessions are composed of a series of talks dedicated to regulatory considerations, followed by an investor's round-table, looking at the future in-space economy.

We will conclude the sixth edition of Space Resources Week with awarding three poster presenters, as well as celebrate the most impressive start-ups.

Hope to see you there! Until then, have a look at the provisional programme.

Space Resources Week is organised by: European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) , together with Luxembourg Space Agency , European Space Agency - ESA , Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) .

Event partners: