Denver, Colo.– ispace technologies U.S., inc. (ispace-U.S.), an American lunar exploration company, announced the formation of a Standing Review Board (the “SRB”) to enhance the mission success of ispace’s Mission 3, concurrently named Team Draper Commercial Mission 1.
The SRB will be chaired by Dr. Alan Stern, a former NASA Associate Administrator for Science and was formed to help ensure the successful development and delivery of a lunar landing vehicle by leveraging the expertise of distinguished leaders in the space industry as external advisors.
The SRB is responsible for bringing critical system-level perspectives, and evaluating both known risks and unrecognized or emergent risks—the so-called “unknown unknowns”—through programmatic and technical reviews. The SRB’s guidance will be important to the success of ispace’s Mission 3, concurrently named Team Draper Commercial Mission 1, scheduled for launch in 2027, and ispace’s vision of establishing a cislunar economy.
“The formation of the Standing Review Board underscores ispace’s commitment to the success of our upcoming Mission 3 – Team Draper Commercial Mission 1 – to support NASA’s long-term vision of space exploration. We are thrilled to collaborate with these distinguished leaders to further accelerate our mission maturity,” said Elizabeth Kryst, CEO of ispace-U.S.
SRB Chair Dr. Stern also chairs ispace-U.S.’s Lunar Advisory Board and serves on ispace inc.’s Lunar Advisory Board.
The Standing Review Board includes: (in alphabetical order)
- Steve Battel, President, Battel Engineering and Professor, College of Engineering, University of Michigan
- William (Bill) Clark, Independent Consultant
- Dr. Christopher D’Souza, NASA Technical Fellow for Guidance, Navigation, and Control.
- Todd May, Senior Vice President, Science and Space Business Unit at KBR, Former Director at Marshall Space Flight Center (2016–2018)
- Piero Miotto, Lab Fellow at Draper Laboratory
- Sherry Pervan, Independent Aerospace Engineering Consultant
- Ryo Ujiie, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ispace, Inc.
The Standing Review Board Members:
Dr. Alan Stern (The Board Chair)
Former NASA Associate Administrator for science and principal investigator of the NASA New Horizons mission to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the farthest space exploration of worlds to date. In addition to serving as a commercial astronaut and having served on the U.S. National Science Board, he was twice named to the Time 100 list of most influential people. He has written scientific and technical papers and articles and authored multiple books. Currently, he maintains his own aerospace consulting practice.
Steve Battel
Steve Battel has 48 years of experience as a systems engineer, designer and manager on more than 300 NASA and DOD space projects including over 120 missions in a review or advisory role. He is known within the space community as an inventor and for his engineering leadership related to the development of unique electronic systems and scientific space instruments for Earth observing, planetary geochemistry, space physics and astrophysics applications. President of Battel Engineering, Steve is also a professor in the departments of Electrical and Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan. A member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Steve is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
William (Bill) Clark
Independent Consultant (Sierra Nevada Corp., ispace-U.S.)
Bill Clark is a consultant for various aerospace businesses, including Sierra Nevada Corp and ispace-U.S. He has completed support for establishing competitive assessments of emerging UAV systems and companies, supported price to win modeling algorithms and review of strategic planning efforts. Currently, Clark supports customer growth strategies, program capture strategies, proposal support, organizational development, executive coaching, and is leading Systems Engineering for a commercial space tourism company. His core strengths include program development, strategic planning, strategic and technical systems analysis, business capture, executive program management, program execution, and planning that supports growth and scale-up in process-driven operations.
Dr. Christopher D’Souza
Dr. Christopher D’Souza currently serves as the NASA Technical Fellow for Guidance, Navigation, and Control. He joined the NASA/Johnson Space Center in 2005 and, beginning in 2009, served as the Deputy Branch Chief of the GNC Autonomous Flight Systems Branch, where he led a group of 22 engineers responsible for the onboard Guidance, Navigation, and Targeting of crewed vehicles. In 2014, he was selected to be the Navigation Technical Discipline Lead for Human Spaceflight.
Todd May
Todd May is Senior Vice President, Science and Space Business Unit at KBR and formerly served as director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center from February 2016 to July 2018. Prior to becoming the center director, May served as deputy director of Marshall from August 2015 to November 2015 and served as acting director from November 2015 until being appointed director. Prior to that, he was manager of the Space Launch System program from August 2011. SLS, now under development, is the most powerful rocket ever built, able to carry astronauts in NASA’s Orion spacecraft on deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars. The program is managed at Marshall, and May led SLS through a series of milestones, including engine tests and an in-depth critical design review.
Dr. Piero Miotto
Dr. Piero Miotto is a Lab Fellow at Draper Laboratory specializing in advanced algorithms and flight software for spacecrafts and aerial vehicles, autonomous Guidance, Navigation, and Control. With expertise in flight software, navigation, and robust control, Dr. Miotto has contributed to missions ranging from planetary landing to rendezvous and docking, and hypersonic flight. Dr. Miotto is currently the Technical Director for the ispace M2 and M3 Descent Guidance, Navigation, and Control algorithm and flight software. Dr. Miotto holds a Ph.D. in Stochastic Estimation and Control from the MIT Aero Astro department and a Laurea degree in Aeronautics from the University of Rome, Italy. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow and past ACGSC Chair.
Sherry Pervan
With thirty-five years in the aerospace industry, Sherry Pervan has extensive experience in systems engineering, spacecraft mission design, trajectory design, orbit analysis, launch and on-orbit operations, and ground systems. She has twelve years experience working with multiple clients to improve their NASA science mission proposals and Concept Study Reports prior to submission. Previously, she served as a project manager for NASA Earth and Space Science mission proposal and concept study report evaluations, responsible for reviewing technical, management, and cost (TMC) aspects of each mission, serving as Chair for the NASA TMC panel, and serving on Independent Review Teams for NASA projects.
Ryo Ujiie
Ryo Ujiie, currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for ispace, inc. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in geophysics from Tohoku University in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and M.S. degree in engineering and management from MIT in 2016. He started his professional career at JAXA in 2009 as a software/simulation engineer, was involved in software-independent verification and validation of multiple flight projects, and was engaged in software engineering, Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) simulation, and system safety design research projects until 2015. After graduating from MIT in 2016, he initiated several Multi-disciplinary System Design Optimization research projects at JAXA. In 2017, he became a member of the HTV-X (a JAXA unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft) project team and was primarily involved in GNC tasks and NASA interface management. In 2018, he started his new career at ispace as Deputy Project Manager/Lander System Engineering Group Manager before being appointed CTO in June 2022.
About ispace-U.S.
ispace – U.S. is an American lunar exploration company providing transportation and infrastructure capabilities from Earth to lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon for government and commercial customers. ispace believes that the utilization of lunar resources is the catalyst for enabling human permanence and economic opportunity on and around the Moon and is committed to achieving this goal. The company’s U.S. headquarters serves as the central location for the development of its APEX 1.0 lunar lander and Alpine and Lupine relay satellites, which are being designed, manufactured, and launched in the United States. In partnership with Draper, this lander will deliver a suite of NASA-sponsored science payloads to the lunar surface as part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Initiative.
For more information, follow us on LinkedIn and X: @ispace_us_inc
