Building a Sustainable Cislunar Economy and the Road to Mars
Olivier de Weck
Associate Department Head
Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems
Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moderator
Olivier de Weck is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is the Associate Department Head of Aero Astro. His research is in Systems Engineering with a focus on how complex technological systems are designed and how they evolve over time. He is a Fellow of INCOSE and AIAA and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. His textbook “Technology Roadmapping and Development” received a most promising textbook of 2024 award.
Blair DeWitt
CEO and Founder
Lunar Station Corp
Blair is an entrepreneurial technologist with a passion for solving complex problems using cutting-edge technologies. With a career spanning over three decades, Blair has worked with various organizations and technologies, including hardware, software, networking, and infrastructure solutions. His journey began with mainframe operations at IBM, followed by roles as a software engineer at NASA and various positions in enterprise-level high-performance infrastructures. Blair is the CEO and Founder of Lunar Station Corp, a key player in the Lunar economy. The company specializes in providing advanced geospatial analytics, sensor data infrastructure, and radiation exposure analyses. He is also an Angel Investor at Open Energy Market and a Board of Directors Member at Crescent Innovations Inc., a Massachusetts Bio-Tech company. Blair has held leadership roles in multiple organizations, including MiDrive Solutions, Message Systems, EMC, StrongView, and TIBCO Software, Inc. Blair holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in MIS from St. Thomas Aquinas College. Throughout his career, Blair has been committed to helping others and leading teams with integrity and tenacity.
Connie Soper
Vice President of Manufacturing Operations, Lunar Permanence
Blue Origin
Connie joined Blue Origin in May 2024 as the Vice President of Manufacturing Operations for the New Glenn Program then transitioning to Lead the Lunar Permanence Manufacturing Operations team in December. Connie joined Blue after holding various leadership roles at Virgin Galactic including Vice President of the Rocket Motors and Propulsion Systems Business Unit. While at Virgin Galactic, Connie established high performing program management teams responsible and accountable for the Spaceship and the Mothership programs in the Space Flight Systems Business Unit. Prior to that, Connie lead the development and deployment of the Program Management office for the Commercial Aviation Unit at L3Harris and held ever expanding roles at Honeywell Aerospace. A graduate of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (BS in Aerospace Engineering (1998), and a Master of Business Administration in Aviation (2015)). Connie Brings a wealth of operational experience and technical preparation to Blue Origin as the company targets landing on the moon with in 2025 and bringing humans back to the surface to the moon shortly thereafter with its MK1 and MK2 Lunar Landers respectively.
Grant Anderson
President and CEO, Co-Founder
Paragon Space Development Corporation
Mr. Anderson co-founded Paragon in 1993. Now President/CEO, he has held diverse positions at Paragon including Chief Engineer, VP of Engineering, Treasurer/Secretary, CFO, Sr. VP of Operations, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Manufacturing. He has led the systems and conceptual design of multiple human spacecraft and the design of the International Space Station Solar Arrays. He has been on multiple non-profit boards including schools, charity organizations and the Tucson Metro Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Anderson holds a Bachelor and Master of Science from Stanford University and is a registered Professional Engineer. He is married with 3 children.
Tim Mounsey
Director of Business Development
Lunar Outpost
Tim Mounsey is the Director of Business Development at Lunar Outpost, the industry leader in space robotics and lunar surface mobility. Tim oversees Go-to-Market strategies for Lunar Outpost’s commercial payload offerings. Collaborating across engineering and strategy teams, his department establishes mobility-as-a-service relationships with commercial space and technology companies that have a desire to deploy their offerings on the lunar surface. Before joining Lunar Outpost, Tim spent almost a decade in Private Equity where he was responsible for developing investment theses, sourcing investment opportunities, and executing portfolio M&A strategies.
