First European Interstellar Symposium 2024

Aapo Puhakka has Master of Science degree in computer science and engineering from Helsinki University of Technology / Aalto University. He has participated in various rocketry and space activities of Finnish Astronautical Society. He works professionally as CEO of software company Vetokonsultit Oy in Finland.

Dr. Alesia Herasimenka's field of research is space mission design, which involves trajectory optimisation, control of spacecrafts, and aerospace engineering. Dr. Alesia Herasimenka is Research Associate in the SpaceSystems team at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxembourg. She received a PhD in Mathematics within McTAO, a common team between Laboratory J. A. Dieudonné at Université Côte d’Azur and Inria Sophia Antipolis. Her PhD thesis was about optimal control of solar sail and was co-funded by ESA.

Dr. Anders Sandberg is a researcher at the Mimir Centre for Long Term Futures at the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm. His research at the centers on management of low-probability high-impact risks, societal and ethical issues surrounding human enhancement, estimating the capabilities of future technologies, uncertainty, and very long-range futures. Topics of particular interest include global catastrophic risk, existential risk, cognitive enhancement, methods of forecasting, neuroethics, SETI, transhumanism, and future-oriented public policy.

He was senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford 2006-2024. He is research associate of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, and the Center for the Study of Bioethics (Belgrade). He is on the board of the non-profits ALLFED and AI Objectives Institute. He is on the advisory boards of a number of organizations and often debates science and ethics in international media.

Anders has a background in computer science, neuroscience and medical engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, Sweden, for work on neural network modelling of human memory.

Andreas Hein is an associate professor of space systems engineering at the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT). He works on space systems that are miniaturized and distributed, including ChipSats and CubeSats, operated in swarms and formations, in-space manufacturing, and in-situ resource utilization.

Andreas is also the Executive Director and Director Technical Programs of the UK-based not-for-profit Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is), where he is coordinating and contributing to research on diverse topics such as missions to interstellar objects, laser sail probes, self-replicating spacecraft, and world ships. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Technical University of Munich and conducted his PhD research on space systems engineering there and at MIT. He has published over 70 articles in peer-reviewed international journals and conferences.

Angelo Vermeulen is a space biologist, complex systems engineer, computational designer, and artist with a PhD in biology from KU Leuven. Currently a researcher at TU Delft, he develops bio-inspired and bioregenerative concepts for multigenerational interstellar exploration. He focuses on self-developing and self-reproducing architecture to create resilient starships capable of adapting to the inherent uncertainty of human interstellar exploration. Vermeulen is the CTO of SpaceBorn United, a startup developing technology for human reproduction in space. He also co-founded SEADS, a cross-cultural collective merging art, science, and technology. Currently, he is working as a game designer on Lunar Strike, a political science fiction computer game developed by Cognition, with studios in Los Angeles and Antwerp. In 2013, Vermeulen commanded the first NASA-funded HI-SEAS Mars simulation, and in 2022, he reached the final 6% in the ESA astronaut selection process. His work has earned him recognition, including being named Belgian Tech Pioneer and receiving fellowships from TED and Parsons School for Design. He has authored over 60 publications on his research in art and science.

Antoine is a designer, artist, futurist, and storyteller with a multidisciplinary approach that combines elements of architecture, astronomy, science, history, archaeology, ancient mythology, art, and linguistics. He has lectured, written, and published on these topics.
Faddoul is an advocate for revolutionizing space travel through integrated space architecture, an innovative space economy, and novel technologies. He has compiled one hundred design aspects necessary for human space travel, evaluating them from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to interstellar travel, while assessing both current and future technological developments. Faddoul holds a degree in architecture and a master’s degree in project management.

Brandon Q. Morris is a physicist and space specialist. He has long been concerned with space issues, both professionally and privately and while he wanted to become an astronaut, he had to stay on Earth for a variety of reasons. He is particularly fascinated by the “what if” and through his books he aims to share compelling hard science fiction stories that could actually happen, and someday may happen.

Claudio Maccone (born 6 February 1948, in Torino (Turin), Italy) is an Italian SETI astronomer, space scientist and mathematician.

Career

He obtained two degrees from the University of Turin: in physics in 1972 and in mathematics in 1974. He obtained his PhD at the Department of mathematics of King's College London, England, in September 1980.

In 1985 he briefly held a position as "Professore di ruolo" in Mathematics at "Liceo Scientifico Albert Einstein" in Turin.

He then joined the Space Systems Group of Aeritalia (later called Alenia Spazio S.p.A. and now Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A.) in Turin on September 19,1985, and immediately got involved in the design of new space missions.

In 2002 he was awarded the "Giordano Bruno Award" by the SETI League, "for his efforts to establish a radio observatory on the far side of the Moon."

After his early retirement from Alenia Spazio S.p.A. on December 30, 2004, he taught at Politecnico di Torino for five years (2005-2009) at Post-Doctoral level. He was Advisor to Ph.D. candidates in the Aerospace and Electronics Departments of Politecnico di Torino.

Since 2010 he is the Director for Scientific Space Exploration of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA, based in Paris, France).

From 2012 to 2021 he served as Chair of the IAA SETI Committee.

He has published over 200 scientific and technical papers.

Books

His first technical book was Telecommunications, KLT and Relativity in 1994.

In 1998 his second book was The Sun as a Gravitational Lens: Proposed Space Missions (proposing FOCAL space telescope), IAA Book Award 1999. Both books were published by IPI Press, at Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

Maccone's third book Deep Space Flight and Communications – Exploiting the Sun as a Gravitational Lens was published by Praxis-Springer in 2009. This revolutionary book was translated into Chinese by 2014 and awarded the IAA Book Award in 2018.

In September 2012, his fourth book, Mathematical SETI - Statistics, Signal Processing, Space Missions was published, website.

Maccone's fifth highly mathematical book, Evo-SETI – Life Evolution Statistics on Earth and Exoplanets, was published in February 2021. This book deals with Mathematical Astrobiology. IAA Book Award 2022.

Maccone's sixth book is The Living Galaxy, co-authored with Eugenio Mieli and Andrea M. F. Valli. It is currently in print in both the English and Italian version, and should be published in January 2025.

Honours and awards

The central main-belt binary asteroid 11264 Claudiomaccone was named in Maccone's honor on 2 September 2001, NASA website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11264_Claudiomaccone

Maccone is a member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and an Associate of “Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)” in Italy.
Since December 2021 Maccone is serving as Chair of the IAA Moon Farside Protection Permanent Committee. His Co-chair is Prof. Jack O. Burns (University of Colorado at Boulder).
On February 8, 2024, Maccone gave his third speech at the United Nations COPUOS in Vienna about the Moon Farside Protection.
Finally, on March 21-22, 2024, Maccone and co-workers run the First IAA Symposium on Moon Farside Protection in Turin (Torino, Italy), described at this website https://www.moonfarsideprotection.org/

External links

The Sun's Gravity lens and its use for Interstellar Exploration NASA-JPL TALK, August 18th, 1999
Deep Space Flight and Communications Talk at the SETI Institute, 11/25/2009, Video on YouTube (Retrieved 09/30/2011)
Habitable Planet Statistics - Claudio Maccone (SETI Talks) on YouTube
Claudio Maccone: Breakthrough Discuss Workshop – FOCAL Missions to 550 AU Insuring Interstellar LINKS on YouTube (time 20:18 min.), Stanford University, April 2016
Claudio Maccone Talk at Milan (Italy) on YouTube, at the Big History Conference on July 15, 2019
First IAA symposium on Moon Farside protection Three talks by Claudio Maccone at the First IAA Symposium on Moon Farside Protection, Turin (Italy), April 21-22, 2024

Coryn Bailer-Jones is a staff scientist and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. He works on machine learning and statistical data analysis methods for inference in large astronomical data sets, and leads a group working on the development and application of these for the ESA Gaia mission. He also teaches physics, astronomy, and statistics at Heidelberg University. His interests include, among other things, exoplanets, nearby stars, the impact of astronomical phenomena on the Earth, and the physics of interstellar travel.

I am a Master's student in Aeronautics with Spacecraft Engineering at Imperial College London, UK. I also serve as the Lead Engineer at Project Svarog, a student-led initiative to send the first civilian interstellar object to space: a CubeSat powered by solar-sailing technology. My research interest spans the fields of spacecraft systems, astrodynamics and technology development.

Gerald Jackson received his doctorate from Cornell University in 1987 and worked until 2000 as an accelerator physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Before leaving he designed the antiproton Recycler ring and served as its construction manager, marking the last major particle physics accelerator built in the United States. In private industry he developed commercial markets for antimatter, holding the patent on antiproton-based cancer therapy and authoring dozens of papers on antimatter-based space propulsion systems. Since 2020 he has broadened his propulsion work to nuclear fusion systems suitable for unmanned interstellar missions.

Harry Atwater is the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology. Atwater’s scientific effort focuses on nanophotonic light-matter interactions. His work spans fundamental nanophotonic phenomena and applications, including active wavefront shaping of light using metasurfaces, optical propulsion of lightsails, quantum and 2D nanophotonics as well as solar energy conversion, on earth and in space.

Atwater was an early pioneer in nanophotonics and plasmonics and gave a name to the field of plasmonics in 2001. Currently Atwater directs the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), a Department of Energy Hub program for solar fuels, and is a PI of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project. He was also the founding Editor in Chief of the journal ACS Photonics. Atwater is a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of APS, MRS, SPIE and Optica, a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher from 2014-2024, and is recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 von Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society.

With almost 2 million books sold, Joshua T. Calvert is at the forefront of current international science fiction. His German novel "Singularity", published by Fischer-Tor, won the prestigious "Seraph" fantasy literature prize for best novel in 2022. The English translation of his Kindle hit "The Fossil" won second place in the 2021 American "Reader's Favorite Awards" for best novel. His books are available in English, Spanish and German. As a hybrid author, his novels are indie-published and published by well-known publishers. He lives with his wife and son between Portugal and Greece.

Julius Karlapp studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Dresden University of Technology (TUD) in Germany, graduating in 2023. As research associate, he currently pursues his doctoral degree at the chair of space systems at TUD. His research focuses on solar sail propulsion.

Les Johnson is a physicist, award-winning science and science fiction author, and Chief Technologist at the NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center. His science fiction books include Crisis at Proxima (Baen 2024), The Ross 248 Project (Baen 2023), Saving Proxima (Baen 2021), Pluto: The Dark World (coming from Tor 2025), and more. Les’s popular science books include A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars (Princeton Press 2022) – now translated into 7 languages, Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World (2018), Solar Sails: A Novel Approach to Interplanetary Travel, and others.

In his day job at NASA, Les served as the Principal Investigator for flight demonstrations of advanced space propulsion technologies including solar sails and electrodynamic tethers, and supported the development of nuclear thermal propulsion, electric propulsion systems, and more. Les is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the British Interplanetary Society, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and MENSA – and is the Program Chair of the Interstellar Research Group.

Les was a technical consultant for the movies Europa Report, Lost in Space, and Solis. NPR, CNN, Fox News, The Science Channel and The Discovery Channel have all interviewed Les about space and space exploration. He was the featured Interstellar Explorer in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine and appeared there again in March 2019.

Aerospace engineer from the Politecnico di Torino with a Master’s degree from Stanford University.
Since 2009, he has been the CEO of the engineering company iMEX.A, which operates in the aerospace sector, and since 2023, he has been the CTO of Skyproxima, a company providing advanced air mobility services with drones. He teaches in a second-level Master’s program at the University of Turin on space mission and system design and conducts research on advanced space propulsion, relativistic interstellar missions, and interstellar communications.
Additionally, he has been active in space science outreach for twenty years.

Marshall Eubanks is CEO and a co-founder of Space Initiatives Inc, where he has led efforts to develop very small picospacecraft for use on the Moon and in deep space. Previously, while working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Naval Observatory he helped to create measurement systems essential for the navigation of spacecraft and the operation of the Global Positioning System. Asteroid (6696) Eubanks is named in his honor, and in 2024 he became a NIAC Fellow with a proposal to send swarms of picospacecraft to explore nearby star systems.

Prof. Dr. Martin Tajmar studied physics, space studies as well as electrical engineering and graduated with a PhD in 1999 from the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. After research stays at NASA JPL and ESA-ESTEC, he joined the Austrian Institute of Technology from 2000-2010 where he was head of the business unit space propulsion & advanced concepts. After being appointed as associate professor at KAIST, he moved to TU Dresden in Germany as full professor and head of the chair of space systems in 2012, where he was later appointed as the director of the institute of aerospace engineering. Besides the developments of his group, which includes small satellites and activities on liquid-fueled rocket engines using aerospike nozzles, his main research focus is on the development of novel electric propulsion systems and really advanced concepts for future space flight.

I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. My research focus is on the dynamics of small satellites in low Earth orbit, applied to mission design for easier access to space via solar sails and drag sails. I am also actively involved in research on space capacity building and the history of space development.

Mona Nasser DDS, MSc(DPH), MSc(Astro), PhD, FHEA, is the Director of the Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR) and a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Oral Health Research at the University of Plymouth. She is a methodologist, health services researcher, and interdisciplinary scientist. She has received recognition for her work on building new frameworks to inform research prioritization processes. She has been working with members of the Space Medicine Team at the European Astronaut Centre on the Systematic Threat Analysis of Radiation from Space (STARS) project. She leads a research group on the Impact of Space Environment on Craniofacial and Dental Structure (ISECS) at the university, which involves both systematic reviews of space medicine and primary studies. She is also an artist leading an art-science project called MetaFuturism Lab, running speculative futuristic immersive workshops to engage individuals from different disciplines and cultural contexts to reimagine scientific and social concepts in the future.

Nadim Maraqten is an aerospace engineering masters student at the University of Stuttgart and TU Delft, focusing on electric propulsion systems and machine learning.

Since 2022 he is part of the initiative for interstellar studies and conducts studies on advanced electric propulsion concepts.

Moreover, he is part of the team behind the MVSE Venus exploration mission proposal, as well as the LUMO space station concept for in-space manufacturing of solar panels from lunar regolith.

Nembo Buldrini studied Aerospace Engineering at the University of Bologna, Italy, where he obtained his MSc in 1998. In 2001 he moved to Austria. He worked at the AIT as research scientist in the propulsion department until 2010, when the propulsion group was transferred to the company FOTEC GmbH, where he is presently employed. His main activity consists in designing, assembling and testing electric propulsion systems, while keeping an eye on advanced propulsion concepts. He is authour of several articles and patents in the field of space propulsion. Further interests include scientific illustration and graphic arts in general.

Physicist from the Università di Torino in Italy with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino.
He is project manager in Bitia, an IT company, and serves as a data manger.
He taught Electromagnetism at the Politecnico di Torino.
Since 2019 he is an associate of the National Institute of Astrophysics, in Italy, where he conducts research on radio astronomy, SETI, interstellar communications and quantum computing.

Paolo Villoresi is a Full Professor of Physics and Director of the Padua Quantum Technologies Research Center, both at the University of Padova. He studied Physics and Applied Mathematics at University of Padova, where he is permanent faculty since 1994.

He proposed in 2002 and then realized the first single photon exchange with a satellite using the ASI-MLRO telescope in Matera.

He founded a research group on Quantum Communication (QC) and Quantum Optics, that demonstrated the first QC in Space using orbiting retroreflectors, adopting polarization and temporal modes.

His group also have shown the first use of OAM modes in QC, the study and mitigation of turbulence in free-space QC in the 143km link at the Canary Islands, as well the implementation of novel QKD protocols and of fundamental tests of Quantum Mechanics both in Space and in the Lab. The daylight free-space quantum QKD using integrated photonics circuits as well as QKD inter-modal networking are among QuantumFuture recent results.

Another research line is in the generation of random numbers using discrete and continuous quantum variables, introducing new protocols and realizing them in quantum processes reaching generation rate of tens of Gbps.

His past research topics include the Atomic Physics in the attosecond domain, the generation of high-order harmonics, the multiphoton ionization, the ultrafast optics in extreme ultraviolet and X-rays domains, often exploiting adaptive optics.

He has deposited 14 industrial patents and patent applications.

Since 2021 he is the President of the Strategic Technical Committee of Veneto Sviluppo, nominated by the Veneto Regional Council.

He is also founder and President of ThinkQuantum, a spinoff of University of Padova introducing advanced QKD technologies for Space and ground networks.

Simon Peter “Pete” Worden, (Brig Gen, USAF, Ret, PhD) is the Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Executive Director of the foundation’s ‘Breakthrough Initiatives’. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona. Prior to joining the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Dr. Worden was Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center until retiring on March 31, 2015. He held several positions in the United States Air Force and was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. Dr. Worden has authored or co-authored over 150 scientific papers. On July 20, 2015 at the Royal Society in London, UK, Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking launched the Breakthrough Initiatives. At the press conference, Dr. Worden was introduced as the Chairman for the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In this capacity he also leads the Breakthrough Initiatives as its Executive Director. From 2017 to the present, Brigadier General Worden has been an Advisor to the Luxembourg Space Agency and was appointed as a Knight-Commander of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in 2018 for his space services.

Richard Alexander Norte is a faculty member at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. His research group develops cutting-edge nanotechnologies for quantum hardware, focusing on optical metasurfaces and nanomechanics. Richard holds dual BSc degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Physics from Caltech.

Since joining TU Delft, his work has been featured in Nature, Nature Photonics, Science, Physical Review Letters, and on the cover of Scientific American. He was recently awarded a €2.5 million ERC Starting Grant—one of Europe’s most prestigious personal grants—to advance next-generation laser sails for interstellar exploration.

His team has achieved significant breakthroughs in laser sail nano-manufacturing, reducing fabrication times from 15 years to a single day by integrating nanophotonics, fabrication techniques, and economic considerations of the Starshot mission. These innovations and expertise position his lab as a global leader in the pursuit of practical materials for laser-based interstellar travel.

Professor Sara Seager, a Canadian-American astrophysicist and planetary scientist, finds inspiration in the vastness of space. Currently the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Science, Professor of Physics, and Professor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Seager pioneered numerous techniques for characterizing exoplanets, revolutionizing our ability to understand these distant worlds. From her pivotal roles in space missions such as the MIT-led NASA Explorer-class TESS and her CubeSat ASTERIA, to her leadership in conceptualizing astrobiology-focused missions to Venus, Seager’s innovative approaches have garnered global recognition, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics, appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and has asteroid 9729 named in her honor. Beyond her scientific endeavors, she shares her journey in ‘The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir,’ offering a glimpse into the human side of scientific exploration.

Slava G. Turyshev is an astrophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He earned an M.S. in physics (with honors) and a Ph.D. in quantum field theory from Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, in 1987 and 1990, respectively, and a Doctor of Science (D. Sc.) degree in astrophysics from the same university in 2008. Dr. Turyshev's research focuses on gravitational and fundamental physics, relativistic astrophysics, gravitational waves, and planetary science. His expertise encompasses high-precision spacecraft navigation, relativistic celestial mechanics, solar system dynamics, satellite and lunar laser ranging, detection and characterization of near-Earth objects (NEOs), and the development of advanced space technologies. Dr. Turyshev served as the NASA Project Scientist for the CNES/ESA MICROSCOPE mission (2016–2020), which conducted precision tests of the Equivalence Principle. Since 2015, he has been the JPL Principal Investigator for the Advanced Lunar Laser Ranging Facility at the Table Mountain Observatory, designed to enhance tests of general relativity and study the Moon’s deep interior. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Principal Investigator for the Pioneer Anomaly investigation, resolving a longstanding puzzle in spacecraft dynamics. Between 2017 and 2022, he led NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phases I–III as Principal Investigator, developing mission architectures to utilize the solar gravitational lens (SGL) for high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy of exoplanets. Since 2023, Dr. Turyshev has served as a member of the Executive Committee of NASA’s Fundamental Physics Advisory Group (FunPAG), advising on the strategic direction of space-based fundamental physics research. He has authored over 230 peer-reviewed research papers and two books and is an Academician of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).