Agenda: SpaceTech 2025

From the Earth to the Moon

Register Here
Wednesday, April 23
9:00am – 5:00pm

Agenda

9:00 AM | Opening
Prof. Julie Shah, Department Head
George Lordos (MBA ’00, SM ’18, Ph.D ’24), Research Scientist, SpaceTech emcee

Part 1: Glimpses of the Future of Space Tech

9:15 AM | Keynote
Julien Lamamy (SM ’04, PhD ’07) Managing Director, iSpace Europe

9:45 AM | Student lightning talks
Adriana Mitchell, Patrick Riley, Taylor Hampson
Audience real-time voting

10:00 AM | Panel: New space technology startups
Moderator: Palak Patel (MechE PhD ’26), Extreme space environment researcher & inventor
Panelists: Scarlet Koller (SB ’16), CEO Mithril; Maximillian Bhatti, CEO Basalt Space; Evelyn Ruff (SM ’23), GNC Engineer II, True Anomaly

10:45 AM | Networking coffee break

11:05 AM | Future Space Systems Capabilities for Science and Exploration
Chloe Gentgen, PhD student

Part 2: From Space, for Earth

11:30 AM | Broadband from Space
Alexa Aguilar (SM ’19, PhD ’22), Lead space lasers engineer, SpaceX

12:00PM | Lunch | AeroAstro SpaceTech Expo and Networking

Demos
BRICCS
WORMS
AR/VR for human space exploration
Deployable lunar tower
Lunar Autonomy Challenge

Posters
Space nuclear propulsion
Lunar ISRU
Cislunar trajectory design for multi-body models
Testing nuclear thermal rocket fuel

Company tables
Ansys – Mission planning and design software

The Aerospace Corporation – Technical analysis, assessments, and solutions for space-related challenges. 

Basalt Space – Small satellite software technologies

12:45 AM | Student lightning talks
Hannah Tomio, Shreya Sharma, Amelia Gagnon
Audience real-time voting

1:00 PM | Panel: STEM Space & Science Communication
Moderator: Maia Weinstock, MIT News Office
Panelists: James Dingley, AeroAstro PhD student / Founder, Atomic Frontier; Jeff Foust (MIT EAPS PhD ‘99), SpaceNews; Stephanie Sjoblom (MIT Sloan MBA ’24), Aurelia Institute

Part 3: From the Earth to the Moon

1:50 PM | Keynote
Bhavya Lal (BS ’90, SM ’92 (MIT Nuclear Engineering), former NASA Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy and Strategy

2:20 PM | Networking coffee break

2:40 PM | Lunar Governance
Mehak Sarang, Open Lunar Foundation

3:00 PM | Alumni Panel: Return to the Moon
Moderator: Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor of the Practice MIT AeroAstro, former NASA astronaut
Panelists: Forrest Meyen (SM, PhD ’17), Co-founder and CTO, Lunar Outpost; Afreen Siddiqi (BS ‘99, SM ‘01, PhD ‘06), Research Scientist, MIT AeroAstro; Cody Paige (PhD ’23), Director, MIT Space Exploration Initiative

3:40 PM | Networking coffee break

4:10 PM | Student lightning talks
Cesar Meza, Anna Wadhwa, Annika Thomas
Audience real-time voting

4:25 PM | Project THERMOS and Project MATER
Project THERMOS: Translunar HEat Rejection and Mixing for Orbital Sustainability
Beverly Ma ‘26, Daniel Rojas ‘27, Stone Smith ‘27, Nicole Ding ‘27, and Pranav Bala ’27

Project MATER: Mars Advanced Tanking and Extraction of Resources
Elizabeth Romero ‘26, Eva Oppenheim ‘25, Daniel Monaghan ‘25,
Annika Vaidyanathan ‘26

Closing

4:45 PM | Lightning Talk Awards and Farewell
Julie Shah, Department Head
Olivier de Weck, Associate Department Head

5:00 PM | AeroAstro SpaceTech Expo and Networking

AeroAstro’s SpaceTech conference is part of Massachusetts Space Week, a grassroots collaboration & community effort among space experts across the state aiming to make space science accessible to all. This annual, week-long celebration seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the broader community and to foster a shared enthusiasm for space science.