Key leaders from the Houston and French space industries will discuss the future of spaceflight at a conference at the Rice Global Paris Center Dec. 4-6.
The event will include representatives from Rice University, NASA, the Houston space industry, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, the Université Paris Sciences et Lettres and the French commercial space industry together with representatives from the French-U.S. energy industry. Presentations will focus on the technical, policy and regulatory challenges of developing international private-public collaborations in space exploration with a specific goal of developing and contributing ideas on how to achieve a sustainable presence in space, on the moon and beyond.
Featured speakers from Houston will include John Scott, principal technologist - power and energy storage at NASA; Christian Maender, executive vice president of in-space solutions for Axiom Space; Trent Martin, vice president for lunar access at Intuitive Machines; former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz , CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company; and others.
"We are excited by our collaboration with the French space agency (CNES) and this workshop will focus on important topics in our continuing drive to explore space," said David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute and a professor of physics and astronomy. "Policy and regulatory issues are on par with the technical challenges when it comes to international partnerships in space exploration. We hope this workshop will be a first step in bringing our communities together to tackle these challenges."
Rice has played an instrumental role in space exploration and research, from hosting President John F. Kennedy's historic 1962 speech where he stated, "We choose to go to the moon," to being the first academic institution to lay the foundation for a dedicated space science department to the current work of the Rice Space Institute. With close ties to NASA since its inception, Rice continues to be at the forefront of space science and innovation.
The Rice Global Paris Center, opened in 2023 and located in Le Marais, is Rice University's first international campus. A hub for high priority international research, the Center facilitates exchange and collaboration with Rice's international partners and provides a unique space for undergraduate and graduate immersions in France and beyond.
The conference
