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A program fine-tuned to accelerate your work

The ASCEND program is built to leave you inspired and equipped with new tools, techniques, and ideas you can apply right away. You’ll experience a daily schedule that addresses big questions and challenges facing the entire space community:

How will we build a sustainable space economy?

How will we establish a permanent off-world civilization?

How will we ensure the peaceful use of space for all?

Following these overarching keynotes, the program will help you advance your expertise through technical sessions, applied discussions, and hands-on problem-solving.
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Call for Content - contribute to the program

The ASCEND Call for Content will open on November 18th 2019 and will solicit technical papers, tutorials, case studies, and other content in the following areas:

  • Defining the Space Economy
  • Education, Outreach, and Workforce Development
  • Information Systems and Software
  • National Science Priorities
  • National Security Space
  • Propulsion and Power
  • Space Exploration Architectures and Enabling Infrastructures
  • Space Life Sciences and Systems
  • Space Policy and Law
  • Space Resource Utilization
  • Space Traffic Management and Integration
  • Transformative Research and Technologies
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ASCEND'S Guiding Coalition members share their vision during ASCEND Launch Tour

Op-ed | The space industry: A closer look at the new ecosystem

By Dr. Sandra Magnus, ASCEND Guiding Coalition Member. Originally reported in SpaceNews.com.

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“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  Those immortal words belong to history.  But in the long story of human evolution, fifty years is only the blink of an eye, hardly of import when measured against the rhythm of civilizations.  Fifty years is significant when measured in a human life span, affecting our ability to appreciate events; immersed in the day to day struggle of “doing” we easily can lose sight of the path we travel.  Since Sputnik first launched and man set foot on the Moon, the changes, evolution and expansion of human activities in space has been rapid and momentous. It is important to understand the trajectory we are on as we tackle the challenges in front of us and create our future.

The dynamic setting our course is the fundamental expansion of human experience, both in terms of actual “humans” and surrogate devices, our amazing exploration machines, off of the planet and out into our solar system and the greater universe around us.  Those who speak of space as the “new frontier” are touching upon the correct paradigm.  Initially, the sole provenance of governments, the only entities that could afford to invest in complex, risky endeavors that had no basis in profit generation, space was unchartered territory.

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