Mark Uhran, former director of NASA’s International Space Station Division, will speak in Oak Ridge on Thursday. The title of his presentation is “An Achievable Vision for Space Exploration: Establishing a Gateway Proving Ground for Space Exploration Technology.”
The event is sponsored by Friends of ORNL. It is free to attend, and it will be held at the new American Museum of Science and Energy at 115 East Main Street in Oak Ridge.
Uhran was director of the International Space Station Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he spent 28 years working with international partners in Canada, Europe, Russia, and Japan on the design, development, and operation of the approximately 500 metric ton, full-service, crewed space station currently in orbit, the press release said.
In 2012, Uhran joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory to participate in the US ITER Project—a partnership among China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States to build a 500 megawatt-thermal, industrial-scale, nuclear fusion reactor in southern France.
Uhran has a bachelor’s degree in natural resources from Cornell University, a master’s degree in technology management from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University.
The Thursday evening presentation at AMSE will review a strategy for future human expeditions to Mars and beyond, the press release said. Activities required before then include establishing a proving ground for developing next-generation space technologies in conjunction with a “Gateway” platform in lunar orbit. Uhran will address key enabling technologies that can be demonstrated from the Gateway, such as nuclear thermal propulsion, in-situ resource utilization, and power beaming, the press release said. Supporting technologies, covering a much wider spectrum, will also require design, development, test and evaluation. Most importantly, a pragmatic government financing strategy for the enterprise will be summarized, the release said.
“Please join us for this entertaining and instructive presentation,” the press release said.
FORNL is an organization formed to facilitate and maintain a beneficial association of those who have an interest in ORNL (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). FORNL provides a mechanism for members to keep in touch with co-workers, retirees, and current ORNL activities by providing the community at large with presentations and events. More information can be found on the FORNL website at http://www.fornl.info.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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