
We are people from around the world dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. We are an independent nonprofit nonpartisan educational membership organization.
The 2009 Wernher Von Braun Memorial Award was presented to Elon Musk for his work to enable inexpensive, safe, and reliable cargo and passenger transportation to space by a private company. Among other ventures, he is CEO of SpaceX, which is creating the Falcon family of potentially re-usable booster rockets. In attempting to develop lower cost access to space, using strict business methods, he seems about to achieve a goal which has eluded governments and other entrepreneurs for decades. At a house hearing in 2005 he said “SpaceX is dedicated to improving the reliability and cost of access to space for the greater purpose of helping us become a true space-faring civilization.”
The 2009 Gerard K. O’Neill Award for Space Settlement Advocacy was awarded to Peter Kokh, for his publication of the Moon Miners Manifesto for over 22 years. His editing and writing has created a huge resource of ideas and descriptions of space colony designs and equipment on the Moon and Mars, along with discussions of space settlements, the vehicles to access them, and the technology needed to sustain them economically. The vision of self-sustaining human settlements, in space and on planetary surfaces, and as part of a free, spacefaring civilization, is at the very heart of the space movement. Few have made such a large contribution to this field.
The Space Pioneer Awards for 2009 went to:
A special Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. David C. Webb for his longtime efforts in support of economical access to space, his crucial role in the creation of the International Space University and many other projects.
The 2009 Chris Pancratz Space Activist of the Year Award was presented to Joshua Powers. He was recognized for the huge amount of work he has performed for the NSS during the past few years, including: being an extremely dedicated secretary, as the Downlink editor, as the former Ad Astra online editor, Chairing the 2008 DC ISDC conference, and providing timely and critical assistance with programming for the 2009 ISDC.
The NSS Grand Prize for the 2009 NSS / NASA-Ames Space Settlement Design Contest was awarded to Eric Yam of Toronto, Canada, for his presentation and settlement design ASTEN. Eric’s design is of a large cylindrical structure at GEO that supports hundreds of inflatable habitat modules similar to Bigelow’s, each of which allows movement in 4 directions to the 4 neighboring modules. Photo shows Eric receiving the award from Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
The 2009 NSS Excellence Awards for distinguished service to the Society were presented to:
We are people from around the world dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization. We are an independent nonprofit nonpartisan educational membership organization.