Speaker: Dr. Detlef Koschny

Dr. Detlef Koschny is acting head of the Planetary Defense Office of the European Space Agency.

Dr. Koschny has been involved in building up ESA's activities in this area since 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in planetary science from the Technical University of Munich. His main expertise are space-based camera systems and small bodies in the Solar System. He has worked as Science Ground Segment manager for a number of ESA's planetary missions.

Besides managing ESA's Planetary Defense activities, he is also involved in the ExoMars mission, which will launch to planet Mars in 2022.

Speaker: Dr. Makoto Yoshikawa

Dr. Makoto Yoshikawa is the Mission Manager for Hayabusa2 at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS).

Mr. Yoshikawa specializes in celestial mechanics, particularly in the orbital analysis of small Solar System bodies such as asteroids and comets. He is the leader of Deep Space Tracking Technology Group of ISAS/JAXA and is involved in missions such as GEOTAIL, HALCA, NOZOMI, HAYABUSA, AKATSUKI, IKAROS and Hayabusa2. Apart from the space missions, he is working on planetary defense (spaceguard) issues, the collision of small bodies to the earth. He attends the NEO (Near-Earth Object) working group of UN COPUOS, SMPAG (Space Missions Planning Advisory Group), and IWAN(International Asteroid Warning Network). He was also one of the founders of the Japan Spaceguard Association. He received his BS and Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo and was part of Nature’s 10 People who mattered in 2018.

Speaker: Ms. Nancy C. Wolfson

Ms. Wolfson is a Washington, D.C. based scholar, Vice-Chair of the IAF Technical Committee on Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and President of Disrupting Space, a company dedicated to analog research based in the U.S.

Wolfson's work is primarily focused on space habitats research and planetary defense-near-Earth Objects education and communication. Wolfson is a published author, lecturer, and the Chair of the Taksha Center for Planetary Defense (TCPD), whose primary objective is to contribute to the development of global cooperation. Ms. Wolfson is a contributor to the International Asteroid Warning Network (IWAN) and the United Nations Asteroid Day Awareness Program. Ms. Wolfson serves as a project lead and expert for various programs such as The International Astronomical Search Campaign (IASC-SGAC)," Find an Asteroid-Lead of the U.S Team." Ms. Wolfson serves as an Expert for the Unistellar-SETI "Nickname and Asteroid," where she provides formal recommendations to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) regarding newly discovered asteroids such as NEA 1999 AP10. Prior to her Planetary Defense work, Wolfson acted as Project Manager for The High Altitude Balloon Program "Spaceblimp-SB7" in collaboration with DMV local organizations and the University of Maryland 2017. She was a Fullbright Specialist Program (FSP) Expert and Program Manager for the Guadalajara University Faculty Training "Space Engagement and Higher Education." She led the international research program "Space Belong to All" in collaboration with India-Wilson College 2016. Ms. Wolfson was an invited expert by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) "Nation of Makers Meeting" to discussed aspects of space policy with government representatives in 2015. Ms. Wolfson focuses on Human and Social Sciences aiming for diverse and healthy human colonies in Outer Space. Ms. Wolfson's objective is to democratize access to higher learning, making space concepts accessible to all academia, corporations, and the broad general public.

Speaker: Mr. Daniel D. Mazanek

Dan Mazanek is a Senior Space Systems Engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center (LaRC).

Mr. Mazanek has over 30 years of experience in space mission and architecture formulation and conceptual design and sizing of human and robotic spacecraft. Mr. Mazanek is a technical expert and a leader in the field of human and robotic missions to small planetary bodies. He graduated with a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1989. He served as the Mission Investigator for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) and was leading the agency’s efforts to develop the first-ever robotic mission to visit a large near-Earth asteroid, collect a multi-ton boulder from its surface, and redirect it into a stable orbit around the Moon. As part of ARM, he originated the concept of an innovative planetary defense technique known as the Enhanced Gravity Tractor, which uses asteroidal material collected in-situ to augment the mass of the spacecraft, thereby greatly increasing the gravitational force between the objects. Mr. Mazanek has led multiple study efforts to investigate sending humans beyond low-Earth orbit, including the development of a crewed asteroid mission concept in 2005. He was also the Comet/Asteroid Protection System Study lead under NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts program in 2001-2002. He has received a patent for the invention of the Hybrid Propellant Module, developed as part of a future modular, reusable in-space transportation infrastructure and has led cross-agency teams to develop human mission architectures and destination operations for near-Earth asteroids and the Martian moons by serving as the near-Earth asteroid Destination Lead for NASA’s Human Spaceflight Architecture Team. Mr. Mazanek is currently helping lead NASA’s efforts to return humans to the Moon, as well as future destinations in the Solar System. For his development of asteroid mission concepts, Mr. Mazanek was given the honor of having asteroid 11033 Mazanek (1988 SH₃) named after him.

Speaker: Mr. Alejandro Roman

He currently works as General Director of Execution and Aerospace Development of the Paraguayan Space Agency, and as an Undergraduate and Graduate Professor at the University of the Integration of the Americas - UNIDA.

Computer Programmer and Bachelor of Systems Analysis by the Polytechnic Faculty of the National University of Asunción with specializations and courses in prestigious Universities like Oxford, MIT, Harvard, and others in technology, education, aviation systems, and Space. He Studied Civil Aviation Administration at the Singapore Civil Aviation Academy, Master in Business Administration (MBA), is a Specialist in Higher Education, is also a Specialist in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing. With more than 25 years of professional experience in the public and private sector, mainly in Technology, Innovation, Education, Civil Aviation, and Space, He served as IT Manager of the Civil Aviation Authority in Paraguay for more than ten years. Prof. Román was Academic Coordinator of the three careers of Computer and Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of the Integration of the Americas (UNIDA) for five years, Coordinator of the ICT Observatory of the Ministry of Technology of Paraguay. Member of the Spanish Network of Planetology and Astrobiology (REDESPA). Also Elected as Academician Full-Member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Southern Space Studies series published by Springer, Is also Member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) were actively participates in the Committees of Education and Outreach, Near-Earth Objects (NEO) and Developing and Emerging Countries. He is the Alternate Director for Paraguay and a Member of the Board of the Latin American and Caribbean Space Network (ReLaCa). Member of the Planetary Society, He has given conferences and talks at the national and international levels at several prestigious universities such as MIT, Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan), and in Taiwan, France, Austria, England, Peru, Argentina, and others, with works presented at various international Congresses and Symposia. He has received several recognitions and awards, such as the Extraordinary Merit Award from the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training (ICLPST) in Taiwan and the Partnership Award from the Pacific Disaster Center in Hawaii.