CURRENT ACTIVITIES

Space is big:  This shows the interstellar geography between our Sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri — 4.3 light-years distant (=250,000 AU = ~22 trillion miles).  NOTE that the scale is logarithmic — on a linear scale you would see space is mostly empty

Co-Leader: Keck Institute for Space Studies Workshop: Technology Requirements to Operate At and Utilize the Solar Gravity Lens  May 2018; in cooperation with The Aerospace Corp and Breakthrough Initiatives.

The solar gravity lens is nature’s telescope — the only one that may permit us to see life on another world.

See this White Paper presented to the National Academies of Science Space Science Board: White Paper for SSB (pdf)

Also described in an award winning article.Finding Earth 2.0 at the Solar Gravity Lens Focus

Consultant:  Jet Propulsion Laboratory and The  Aerospace Corporation on a study of a Solar Gravity Lens Focus Mission

Consultant:  Science fiction movie now in development

 Advisory Board – Breakthrough Initiatives announce “Starshot” – an interstellar flight objective.   A privately funded initiative to achieve real interstellar flight at 20% the speed of light with a high powered laser and a tiny spacecraft in this century

Laser Sailing Demonstration Technology Assessment Study,  Keck Institute for Space Studies, Caltech Final Report  [pdf] to demonstrate on The Planetary Society LightSail, in cooperation with NASA – Marshall Space Flight Center

  Exploring the Interstellar Medium, Co-Leader of Study, Keck Institute for Space Studies, Caltech
Final report 

Co-Inventor of the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment now being studied by NASA for flight on the Asteroid Retrieval Mission
  http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/life/