On Thursday 8 October 2015, The Atlantic magazine hosted another in their Bold Bets series downtown at the Biltmore Imperial Ballroom. The topic was Commercializing the Cosmos, which is possibly the perfect topic for the city with the busiest airport and a university that has contributed significantly to NASA. (For more about Georgia Tech alumni and NASA, follow this link to an article from their alumni magazine. AIAA executive director Dr. Sandra H. Magnus is a Georgia Tech alumna.)

Speakers included CEO Tory Bruno of United Launch Alliance, President of Georgia Tech Dr. Bud Peterson, NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Ellen Stofan, and others. For a complete list of speakers, or to watch the video of the session, follow this link on The Atlantic magazine’s website here . If you’ve been attending local AIAA meetings, you may be able to spot some of our local members in the audience, as well as our own Steve Justice in the first group of speakers.

Siemens Corporation sponsored this event. They kindly brought a model (½ scale?) of the Mars Curiosity rover.

Curiosity rover model side
Curiosity rover model front