(CGUHS) On Tuesday, April 2, students from the CTE Engineering and CTE Software & App Design programs visited FreeFall Aerospace in Tucson, Arizona, for the monthly Arizona Space Business Roundtable meeting. The University of Arizona sponsors the Arizona Space Business Roundtable as a leadership forum promoting the state’s commercial space ecosystem. The roundtable’s primary activity is monthly meetings featuring industry, government, or military speakers, with ample time for both informal networking and facilitated discussion.
The keynote speaker was Mr. Dan Geraci, Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Planetary Society and CEO & President of FreeFall Aerospace. He is a member of the Board of The Foundation for the Future, a group focused on space policy and workforce development for the space economy. Mr. Geraci has more than 40 years of experience as a senior executive in the asset management and securities industries. He has served as President of Fidelity Investments Private Wealth Management Group, CEO of Pioneer Investment Management USA, Inc., President and CEO of Phoenix Investment Partners, and Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Cygnus Investment Partners Inc. Mr. Geraci has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lafayette College.
Mr. Geraci spoke on the topic of CIS Lunar and Ground Communications in the New Space Economy. He highlighted that business is moving into orbit and includes such opportunities as space debris mitigation, satellite constellations, orbital manufacturing, and CIS Lunar communications. Mr. Geraci went on to describe how commercial space is expanding and how the incentives offered by the State of Arizona must be expanded with pro-business and pro-space legislation.
After the talk by Mr. Geraci, the students spent time networking with other attendees before being treated to a tour of the facility by FreeFall Aerospace engineer Dr. Juan-Carlos Lopez-Tonazzi. Dr. Lopez-Tonazzi shared with the students, at a level they could understand, the work being done at FreeFall Aerospace, including detailed descriptions of prototype devices, revolutionary new antenna designs, and some of the physics involved in the functioning of these devices. The students also met with Rick Kettner, VP of Product Development at FreeFall Aerospace. Mr. Kettner described the product development process used generally in the aerospace industry. He stressed that how business has been done in the past is insufficient for the challenges of the future space economy and that the key lies with smaller, more innovative companies. Our students found many similarities in what Mr. Kettner described and they are learning in their CTE courses at CGUHS.
Our students plan on using the information they learned to better inform their own projects. The concepts and processes are very similar to those they are developing in projects such as the NASA ASCEND project, Students for the Exploration & Development of Space chapter at CGUHS, and the CGUHS Robotics Team. Mr. Geraci invited our students back to learn more about what they do at FreeFall Aerospace, including gaining hands-on experience on their current projects.
Our students are looking forward to attending the next Arizona Space Business Roundtable meeting at the ASU Tempe campus in May. The keynote speaker will be Kevin Margeson, a Senior Program Manager for Honeywell Aerospace.