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Alexandra (Alex) Barnett

After finishing a degree in Astrophysics and running the University of Leicester planetarium and observatory for public visitors, Alex joined the BBC as a researcher making astronomy and science programs for BBC1 and BBC2. TV shows can have audiences of millions, but a desire for greater contact with that audience led Alex to Florida to spend a year working in a Planetarium and Science Center undertaking formal studies in the management of such facilities.

On her return to the UK, she set up her own business providing media, science communication and science center consulting services. Her clients included the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, The New Alexandria Library in Egypt, numerous media companies, several of the new Millennium Science Centers and her own pet project, securing the funding and building the National Space Centre in Leicester UK.

Whilst working full time on the latter project, Alex found gaps to host a regular BBC TV series for two and a half years on astronomy and space, called Final Frontier. She also wrote the monthly sky guide column for the British magazine Astronomy Now. A first book for 8 year olds, Black Holes and other Space Oddities was published in August 2002 and a second book, DK Space: Revealed was released in June 2004. Her first general reader book, Cosmic Company, was published in collaboration with the SETI Institute in November of 2003.

As Creative Director for the National Space Centre, Alex drove the vision for what the Space Centre would contain. Her activities involved designing the visitor experience, securing rockets, space suits, capsules, moon rock and a host of other exciting exhibits and artifacts. She also oversaw the installation of the first Challenger Learning Center outside North America and a state-of-the-art planetarium facility. Securing a large part of the funding for the £52m project was also a responsibility, as was seeing the team grow from just half a dozen, to a staff of about 120 at opening.

As Programs Director, Alex devised and set up the education and public outreach programs, and later as Business Development Director, she was involved in masterminding new developments, working strategically to build partnerships, maximizing commercial activities and fundraising. One collaboration of note involved four science centers, several universities, a lobbying group and the UK government in forming the Near Earth Object Information Centre.

Her unique blend of creativity, strong business sense and huge energy make Alex a real force in using astronomy and space to inspire and capture the imagination of children and adults alike.

Nancy Conrad

Ms Conrad has been a champion of space education and space commercialization for many years. She has written for such publications as One Giant Leap for Mankind, is co-founder of Space Available, a company creating virtual space adventures, and has served as Director of Communications for Universal SpaceNetworks, a space services company founded by her late husband, former astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad (GeminiV, GeminiXI, Apollo XII, Skylab 1). As the co creator of the "Rendezvous in Space" exhibit at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington, Ms Conrad helped to design an interactive educational exhibit commemorating the history of manned space flight. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of SpaceWorld at NASA Ames. Ms. Conrad is the co founder of the Community Emergency Healthcare Initiative, a not for profit foundation established in memory of her late husband and dedicated to impacting preventable injuries and deaths in emergency departments. She has spoken at international academic forums in the field of quality care and has received the Spirit Award from the Society of Critical Care. Ms Conrad is the co author of "Rocketman", published by Penguin Publishing, this book is the lively biography of Pete Conrad.

Erik Lindbergh

In the summer of 2000, while creating a sculpture of his grandfather’s famous Spirit of St. Louis, Erik Lindbergh contemplated a startling notion. Could a former flight instructor sidelined by crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis, recreate the Spirit’s famous flights from San Diego to Paris, including the 3,600 mile nonstop journey over the treacherous North Atlantic?

On May 2, 2002, Erik landed the New Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget Airport to mark the 75th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s epic flights. Millions followed the flight via television and the Internet. Erik received worldwide congratulations from individuals ranging from students to the President of the United States.

Master storyteller Erik Lindbergh presents the story of his personal journey with a series of exciting images and video clips and humor. In addition to inspiring and entertaining general audiences, the lessons learned along the way apply to all individuals and teams facing daunting and difficult challenges including:

• Triumph over personal adversity
• Managing Risk
• Project Planning
• The use of training (illustrated by dramatic aircraft ditching and sea survival training footage) to improve the chances of success
• Overcoming concerns from family and friends
• Teamwork and resource management
• How Charles Lindbergh’s legacy is connected to the future of flight

View a list of Erik Lindbergh's Speaking Engagements.

Rick N. Tumlinson

Named a "Visionary" and one the top one hundred most influential people in the space field by Space News, Rick Tumlinson is the Co-Founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, which has been called "pound for pound the most effective space organization on Earth." From an old Texas family whose pioneering credits include co-founding the Texas Rangers and fighting in the Alamo, Rick has spent his life fighting to open the space frontier. The son of an Air Force Sergeant and his English wife, he was educated primarily in England and Texas.

Mr. Tumlinson worked for noted scientist Gerard K. O'Neill at the Space Studies Institute, founded the New York L-5 Society, and was a key player in starting the Lunar Prospector project which discovered hints of water on the Moon. He also helped pass the Space Settlement Act of 1988, testified before President Reagan's National Commission on Space, and was a founding trustee of the X-Prize. Over the years he has been a lead witness in six congressional hearings on the future of NASA, the US space program and space tourism, most recently in early 2004, testifying before Senator John McCain and the Senate Space and Technology Committee on the Moon, Mars and Beyond program.

Not satisfied to just talk, write about and help get funding for projects, Mr. Tumlinson has put his time and money where his mouth is. He co-founded the firm LunaCorp which produced the first ever TV commercial shot on the International Space Station for Radio Shack. He led the team which turned the Mir Space Station into the world's first commercial space facility, and was a co-founder of the space firm MirCorp. Along the way he personally signed up Dennis Tito, the world's first "citizen explorer," and has assisted in numerous other such projects.

Rick was also Executive Director and co-Founder of the Foundation for the International Non-Governmental Development of Space (FINDS), a foundation which funds breakthrough projects and activities such as Helium 3 research, laser launch studies, and asteroid processing projects. The organization provided the first $100k in seed money for the founding of the Mars Society, operated the Cheap Access to Space Prize and supported such projects as The WATCH asteroid search program. FINDS also underwrote and co-sponsored a very successful series of Senate Roundtables on space issues in conjunction with the Foundation and the lobby Pro-Space over the last few years. In the realm of education and inspiration, Rick Founded the "Permission to Dream" project, which has over the years placed dozens of telescopes in the hands of schools and educational groups around the world, from Sri Lanka to Iran and Russia.

To support his activism in his early years, Tumlinson produced the animated videos used to gain funding for the Air Force's DC-X rocket project, the International Space University, the X-33 rocket program, the Air Force's Space Command and created the first ever paid political announcement for space, which was featured on NPR's All Things Considered. A regular contributor to the space industry paper Space News Tumlinson's writings and quotes have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Reader's Digest and dozens of other publications around the world. He has appeared on such television programs as ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Morning Show, and Politically Incorrect. Internationally he has appeared on TV sets from Russia to China's CCTV and the BBC and been quoted in a wide range of journals, from The Economist to China's People's Daily. Recently, Rick has appeared on the front page of the New York Times, has been featured in two issues of Popular Science, and appeared as an expert guest on the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather," CNBC's "Open Exchange" and was quoted in papers such as the Washington Post, LA Times, and the Orlando Sentinel, regarding the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. He also appears often as a space commentator on CNN.

In 2004 Rick was one of only 20 guests invited by the White House to hear President Bush announce his plans to return to the Moon and explore Mars. This year he joined NASA's prestigious Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, which will be laying out the framework for the first human outpost on the Moon and steps towards putting humans on Mars. He has also been a consultant to the Heinlein Prize Organization, and is working on a book which will be out this fall entitled, "Return to the Moon," and is starting his own space firm "XTreme Space."

Mr. Tumlinson is known as one of the best speakers in the field of space. His stirring and freewheeling talks range from critiques and discussions of current national space policy, to the presentation of a "Frontier" ideology for opening space, to the how and why of returning to the Moon, to a deeply spiritual discussion of our place in the universe, the search for other life and the reasons we are reaching for the stars.

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