“Planetary Resources: Asteroid Mining Company’’ is the title of the upcoming Lanning Lecture, set for Wednesday, November 6, 12:10 p.m. in ETRL 101 at Washington State University.
The speakers will include Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer, and Chris Voorhees, vice president of space development, at Planetary Resources, Inc, a start-up company based in Bellevue, Washington. The company is aiming to mine near-earth asteroids for precious metals.
At Planetary Resources, Lewicki is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s mission and vision, engagement with customers and the scientific community, serves as technical compass, and leads day to day operations. An aerospace engineer, he has been intimately involved with the life cycle of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and the Phoenix Mars Lander. He performed system engineering development and participated in assembly, test and launch operations for both Mars missions.
Voorhees leads the technical team in implementing the detailed design, development, integration, and operation of the company’s spacecraft line of products at Planetary Resources. He has played an integral role in both the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Science Laboratory projects and served as chief engineer for mechanical assembly, integration and testing for NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).
Sponsored by WSU’s College of Engineering and Architecture as part of the Lanning Lecture, the event is free and open to the public. The Lanning Lecture was established in 1988 and is funded by civil engineering alumnus Jack Dillon, ’41.
