The New Age of Space Dirt: How Space Resources Power Humanity’s Green Future
Having received an MSc at the ETH Zurich in Physics in 2006 and a PhD in Planetary Sciences at the University of Münster in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center in 2012 with a focus on interfaces between space sciences and geophysics, Dr Vlada Stamenković continued his research and career at MIT, Caltech, and the NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory before joining Blue Origin in 2020 to build the Space Resources Program. He is now the Senior Director of Space Resources at Blue Origin and leads the developments required to live off the land on the Moon and beyond and to use these new technologies to mine and process terrestrial resources sustainably whilst protecting our planet. He is particularly interested in connections between space resources, space exploration, terrestrial mining, green energies and brining more equity to the world.
Blue Origin was founded with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Blue Origin envisions a time when people can tap into the limitless resources of space and enable the movement of damaging industries into space to preserve Earth, humanity’s blue origin. Blue Origin is working today to create that future by developing reusable launch vehicles and in-space systems that are safe, low cost, and serve the needs of all civil, commercial, and defence customers. Blue Origin’s efforts include flying astronauts to space on New Shepard, producing reusable liquid rocket engines, developing an orbital launch vehicle with New Glenn, building next-generation space habitats, and returning to the surface of the Moon in a permanent way. These endeavours will add new chapters to the history of spaceflight and move all of humanity closer to that founding vision.

A key part of this vision is the opening of space resources and their in-situ utilization. The Space Resources Program at Blue Origin has been established to address the challenges required for opening space resources to humanity and to use them in-situ, starting with the Moon, whilst simultaneously infusing technologies back on Earth to benefit humanity today. The Space Resources Program was ignited in 2020 and consists today of nearly seventy scientists and engineers across various disciplines from geophysics, planetary sciences, material sciences, chemistry, metallurgy, semiconductor sciences, and all engineering disciplines required to design, build, and maintain resource prospecting, processing, and manufacturing systems, on the Moon and on the ground.

In this talk, I will introduce Blue Origin and our Space Resources Program, our vision, and goals, and will dive into the technologies we are developing in our dedicated Space Resources Center of Excellence in Los Angeles, which range from prospecting for reserves on the Moon and learning how to transform sand and regolith into solar panels to revolutionizing how we mine and process critical metals carbon neutrally and environmentally friendly in a world that calls for profound climate actions.
Date: 19 November 2024, 13:00 (Tuesday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: University Museum of Natural History, Parks Road OX1 3PW
Venue Details: Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Dr Vlada Stamenkovic (Space Resources Programme, Blue Origin)
Organising department: Department of Earth Sciences
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/event/lobanov-rostovsky-lecture-2024
Audience: Public
Editor: Maria Petrunova