Deep Space Industries

Rick Tumlinson

Chairman of the Board

Space News named Rick one of the 100 most influential people in the space field and is considered one of the people who helped create the current commercial space industry. He led the team that took over the Mir Space Station as the world’s first commercial space facility, signed up financier Dennis Tito to become the first citizen explorer to stay on the International Space Station and was a Founding Trustee of the X Prize. He co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation and founded the Texas Space Alliance, the EarthLight Institute and Orbital Outfitters – provider of commercial space suits to the new industry of suborbital space travel. He has testified on space policy issues twice for the US Senate, four times in the US House of Representatives and assisted NASA in the creation of its plan to return to the Moon and the formation of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Space News.

Petr Johnes

Board Member

Petr Johanes is originally from the Czech Republic, although now he spends most of his time at Stanford in Silicon Valley. Petr has experienced innovation from the perspective of a nanotechnology startup engineer at Elmarco, infrastructure and investment data analyst at the World Bank, top-tier venture capital fund associate at Khosla Ventures, and laboratory researcher in the Stanford Cui Research Group. Most recently, Petr has found a clear outlet for his passion for education, teaming up with professors to start as well as revamp courses in the Stanford School of Engineering. The courses vary from engineering thermodynamics and energy conversion technology to design thinking and entrepreneurship. Right now, Petr is switching gears from his career in Materials Science and Engineering to Learning, Design, and Technology at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. When not working on his projects, Petr relaxes by watching movies, drawing, writing, and, most of all, just spending time in nature..

Mark Sonter

Board Member

Mark directs the Deep Space group developing the technologies and operational concepts needed to harvest commercial quantities of asteroid resources. He is an independent scientific consultant in the Australian mining and metallurgical industries, with specific major expertise in radiation management in uranium, mineral sands, and (over the last 5 years) rare earths exploration, mining, and processing. His background in asteroid exploitation began as a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory where he examined the technical and economic feasibility of mining near-Earth asteroids. Then the Foundation for International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS) funded Mark to extend this research, and to prepare and test cometary crust simulant material. Resulting papers were accepted and presented at several scientific forums.

Bill Miller

Chief Executive Officer

Mr. William “Bill” D. Miller is both an accomplished business executive and strategist with an impressive history of success, spearheading all aspects of the development, operation, and optimization of cutting-edge organizations. By pairing his expertise in business management with a strong understanding of technology and marketing, Bill is very much at home building industry-leading businesses to achieve desired results. Through his experiences, he adds value by truly understanding technology and determining ways to make money from it, via his enthusiastic energy, collaborative approach, and long-term vision and strategy development. Also most recently, Bill has been researching and investing private equity in leading-edge New Space startups with sustainable business models. Thus far, he’s invested in two new launch companies and a satellite communications technology company and is a general partner of the Space Angels Network, which is the largest angel fund in the space industry.
Bill began his career while still in grad school, starting up a software/hardware firm, Intercomputer Communications Corp., from scratch. He established and grew this lucrative business from an initial $40K investment to produce $36M in income annually in less than a decade. Growth rates surpassed 100% for 11 consecutive years with sustainable profits for each year. Upon the sale of Intercomputer Communications Corp., Bill was recruited by Digital Communications Associates, a $240M NYSE computer software company. Initially as VP & CTO, he formulated their strategy for the next 10 years, which positioned the business for future success. As a result, he was promoted to President of a newly created division, where he oversaw the development of most of the company’s future technologies and grew revenues to ~$22M/year in a short time period.
In 2008, Bill and his wife decided they wanted to travel the world, so he took a break from his corporate responsibilities and bought a 100-ton, 63’ ocean-going vessel. Upon becoming a licensed Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Captain, they singlehandedly managed all systems and navigation. Together they logged, 20,000 miles at sea, traveling from Long Island to Trinidad without a crew. In addition to Bill’s interesting and eclectic career, he pursued his lifelong dream of becoming a commercial pilot. In 1997, he was recruited by Delta to fly turboprops and jet aircraft on domestic and international routes. Subsequently he operated out of one the world’s busiest airports, successfully logging thousands of hours.
Bill obtained his B.S. degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He also completed Graduate Studies in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Cincinnati as well as Georgia Institute of Technology. Additional notable training includes a 10-week Strategic Planning Seminar for Chief Executive Officers. Bill has served on the Board of Directors for several corporations, including Digital Communications Associates Corp. and Intercomputer Communications Corp. As well, he was an active member of his community in Roswell Georgia, serving as a member of the School Board for Queen of Angels School; Parish Council for St. Peter Chanel Church; and Board of Directors the Kula Project, which advances and supports the businesses of coffee farmers in East Africa.

Kirby Ikin

President

Kirby is a global leader in commercial space development with advanced negotiation, risk management, and analytical skills. At Asia Pacific Aerospace Consultants, he advises the aerospace industry and national governments on finance, insurance, market analysis, project management and launch services. This includes a feasibility study for an Australian spaceport, satellite valuation, and analysis of the regional applications for a new satellite-based service. Kirby earlier created a new aerospace division within a major insurer (GIO Space), managed the commercial operations of a project to create a breakthrough service to extend the profitable working lives of communications satellites (Orbital Recovery Ltd in the UK), and is Chairman of the Board of the National Space Society, one of the world’s leading space advocacy organizations.

John Lewis

Chief Scientist

Dr. John S. Lewis is one of the foremost asteroid experts in the world. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, prior to which he taught space science and cosmo-chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the author of several seminal works about asteroids including Asteroid Mining 101 as well as Rain of Iron and Ice, and its companion, Mining The Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets. Dr. Lewis was the Founder and Co-Director of the Space Engineering Research Center for the use of planetary resources, a joint NASA-University of Arizona laboratory. He was the recipient in 1976 of the American Geophysical Union’s James B MacElwane award, which recognizes the work of young scientists. And in 1983 he was the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement medal. He has been a visiting professor at CalTech and Tsinghua University Beijing, and is a commentator on (Chinese Central Television, English-language service) during Chinese space launches. He was a member of the Board of Directors of American Rocket Company under George Koopman. Dr. Lewis was among the first leading academic voices recognizing the importance of meteor impacts in Earth’s history and future.

Grant Bonin

Chief Engineer

Grant Bonin is an aerospace management and engineering professional specializing in spacecraft systems engineering, project management, and business development. His broad industry and academic experience spans end-to-end spacecraft development, manned and unmanned space mission analysis and design, orbital mechanics research, and nuclear systems engineering. His accomplishments include 11 different spacecraft operating successfully in orbit, with several more in development. Most recently, he served as manager and lead engineer of the highly successful CanX-4&5 mission, which demonstrated sub-meter autonomous formation flight on orbit. His overall professional goal is to further the human development of space.

Meagan Crawford

VP – Strategic Communications

Successful Entrepreneur, Start-up Coach and Mentor, Space Industry Expert, and Off-World Business Enthusiast. Meagan is devoted to using the power of free enterprise to manifest humanity’s settlement of the final frontier. As a successful entrepreneur, she utilizes her experience and education in implementing practical business and management knowledge to support the growth of small companies with big ideas. Meagan is a managing team member of the NewSpace Business Plan Competition and a member of the Board of Directors for the Space Frontier Foundation. Meagan holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Finance from Rice University as well as a BBA in Management and Marketing from the University of Houston.

Sagi Kfir

General Counsel

Sagi is a corporate and commercial transactions attorney specializing in the aerospace sector. Starting his legal career in Florida representing Fortune 500 aviation companies in product liability and insurance defense, Sagi moved on to serve as general counsel of an aviation company in California for eleven years. Focusing his legal practice in the commercial space sector, Sagi facilitated the corporate establishment of Deep Space Industries. Sagi is also involved with non-profit space organizations such as the Earthlight Institute and the National Space Society, and is a member of the International Institute of Space Law.

Stephen D. Covey

Director Research and Development

Stephen D. Covey is the Director of Research and Development for, and a co-founder of, Deep Space Industries Inc., where his focus is the production of marketable products from asteroid materials. He has given multiple presentations at conferences, and as an asteroid expert he chaired the Asteroid Track at the 2013 International Space Development Conference. His background spans telecom research and development, software consulting for the Defense Dept., process control, robotics, and utilization of asteroid resources. He was director of R&D for Applied Innovation Inc., where he created new products to provide DSL over existing copper wires, and an optical Ethernet product to wavelength-multiplex circuits on existing fiber networks. Stephen invented the MicroGravity Foundry (USPTO pending patent US 13/907,098) that Deep Space Industries will use to transform asteroid material into metal parts using a compact and efficient 3D printing process. He also invented the Electromagnetic Regolith Excavator (USPTO pending patent US 13/901,570) and related offshoots such as the Electromagnetic Regolith Rocket.

Scott Armitage

Director of Space Systems

Scott Armitage is an aerospace engineer specializing in spacecraft systems engineering and subsystems design. His industry and academic experience includes end-to-end spacecraft development, the design, assembly, and test of small spacecraft propulsion systems, embedded systems design, and software architecture design. Scott was the lead systems engineer for the highly successful CanX-4&5 nanosatellite mission which demonstrated sub-meter autonomous formation flight on orbit. In aggregate, he has contributed to eight different spacecraft operating successfully on orbit and several others currently in development or awaiting launch.

Chris Cassell

Astrodynamics Lead

Chris Cassell is an Aerospace Engineer specializing in orbital mechanics, though his background is broad, including Physics and the Geophysical Sciences. He’s had a lifelong interest in space exploration but this interest became focused, during his work at General Dynamics, on the importance of Space Resource Utilization as an enabler to the expansion of humanity into space as a true frontier. This inspired the direction of his subsequent doctoral research and, more recently, his becoming a co-founder of Deep Space Industries where he leads the Mission Analysis Team. His experience is solidified by 17 years as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company where he has worked on numerous programs and proposals in commercial GEO communications satellites, NASA programs, and Special Programs. A highlight was being the orbit analyst for Lockheed’s (unsuccessful) proposal for the James Webb Space Telescope to the Earth-Sun L2 region. He has also served as an orbit analyst during launch operations of several GEO-bound satellites.