David Brandt-Erichsen
Secretary
National Space Society Board of Directors
David Brandt-Erichsen has been involved with the space movement for over 40 years, playing a leadership role in the L5 Society and the National Space Society, and was mentioned six times in the book Reaching for the High Frontier: The American Pro-Space Movement, 1972-1984. His space activism was sparked by reading T. A. Heppenheimer’s Colonies in Space.
In 2007 David created the online NSS Library, now containing over 40,000 pages, including the largest and most important collection of material on space settlement and space solar power on the web. The Library includes such significant books as Colonies in Space by T. A. Heppenheimer, Sun Power: The Global Solution to the Coming Energy Crisis by Ralph Nansen, and Space Power by G. Harry Stine — as well as numerous other books, papers, and videos. David personally converted all of these items to web format, volunteering many hundreds of hours in the process, to make this material easily accessible world-wide and help inspire the next generation of space activists.
His past activities for L5 and NSS include:
- Founded San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (1978)
- Founded the Oregon State University Chapter as faculty advisor (1979)
- National Phone Tree Coordinator (1980-1982)
- Re-activated Tucson Chapter (1982)
- Board of Directors (1981-1988; 1992-1996; 2008-present)
- Treasurer (1982-1986)
- Volunteer bookkeeper (1984-1986)
- Assistant Secretary (1987-1990; 1997-1998; 2021-2022)
- Secretary (1991-1996; 2023-present)
- Put L-5 News on the web (2002).
David’s pro-space political work in the 1980s was acknowledged in the article “L-5’s Campaign to Save the Satellite Solar Power Station” and in a plaque awarded to him “for outstanding contributions to the political effort on behalf of America’s Space Station program and for the important role this played in obtaining full funding for the initial year of the program.”
David currently serves on the NSS Space Settlement Advocacy Committee, the Book Review Committee (as webmaster and contributor), and is part of the volunteer NSS Website Team (MIS Team).
David also served as webmaster for the Natural Arch and Bridge Society for 23 years and would love to catalog any natural arches on Mars (one possible candidate has already been found by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter). For many years he was also webmaster for the Elverhøj Museum in Solvang, California. What is now the Elverhøj Museum was formerly the home in which he grew up.
Now retired, David’s vocational background is as a research technician in molecular genetics. He is also an avid hiker who has been a volunteer guide for numerous trips to the canyonlands of southern Utah for the Southern Arizona Hiking Club and the Natural Arch and Bridge Society. He and his wife reside in Tucson, Arizona.
