LOCAL STUDENTS, ENTREPRENEURS, AND VETS OFFERED ENTRY TO SPACE EXPANDING FRONTIERS

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

With the hoopla surrounding billionaire Elon Musk and his plans to incorporate Starbase, Texas out at Boca Chica Beach, another space-based enterprise had been busy providing students, veterans, and aspiring entrepreneurs with a vehicle to ride the development crest that will "create and accelerate the growth of an innovation ecosystem."

And while the enterprise – known as Expanding 
Frontiers – is not as flashy as SpaceX and/or Tesla electric cars and does not hand out millions to the City of Brownsville and local school districts, it has set the foundation to equip local residents with the tools they need to launch their careers.

Headed by founder and Executive Director Dr. Fredrik Jenet, Expanded Frontiers has put together an impressive syllabus called the NewSpace City Brownsville Commercial Space Webinar series that convenes experts to discuss the pillars of the new space industry, from rocket companies to 3D printing to satellite and communications industries, and more.

The featured speakers range in background from venture capitalists to astropreneurs to retired military leaders. 

According to its website, the first hour-long discussion was broadcast by the Brownsville Convention and Visitors Bureau on Facebook Live May 1, 2020. Upcoming episodes, planned to roll out quarterly, will explore many themes in commercial space, including discussions on transitioning from old space to new space, technology transfer, women and minorities in new space, and telling the story of commercial space.

So whether SpaceX succeeds in building its space ships that they claim will one day take earthlings to
Mars and the stars "and beyond" from Boca Chica Beach, Expanded Frontiers is striving to provide local residents with an opportunity to launch space-related ventures and careers. 

Jenet is no newcomer to science or astrophysics. He is an experienced entrepreneur, researcher, and innovative educator, having founded several initiatives in Texas that are fostering the development of a state and national ecosystem for space exploration and commercialization. He graduated from MIT with an S.B. in Physics in 1993 and obtained his PhD in physics from Caltech in 2001. He was a senior research scientist at Schlumberger Doll research laboratory and a Postdoctoral Scholar at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

He was also the founder of the Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy – the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s first center of excellence –  as well as STARGATE, a NewSpace technology development program that pioneered the establishment of research facilities at the Boca Chica launch complex in South Texas.

And the mission goes far beyond the SpaceX vision of testing rockets at Boca Chica, but also to include local aspiring students to become scientists and entrepreneurs to get on the space wagon in the technology of space.

"SpaceX does not have a monopoly on the new frontier of space-related technology or research," he said during a recent interview. "We are particularly proud of our programs for veterans. Our Rockets and Rigs is an academic/industry/government collaboration to solve common problems and challenges in both the space development and energy sectors."

One such effort is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence Apprenticeship Program that aims to attract and prepare the best and brightest students and aspiring entrepreneurs in South Texas to successfully launch startups in the space, energy, and technology industries. 

Interested? Expanded Frontiers is holding a EIRA Informational Webinar March 15, 2022 at 5 to 6 p.m. Among some of the topics that will be covered are: Guidance on licensing vetted NASA space-tech, mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs and subject-area experts, and the opportunity to launch a startup based on your own ideas. https://expandingfrontiers.org/eira/

Jenet said that recent high school and college STEM graduates report having too few job opportunities in the area have created a "brain drain" that has deprived South Texas of its most valuable asset, its people.  and while many of these students have an interest in entrepreneurship, they just don’t have a clear path on how to begin. 

"The ExF’s EIR apprenticeship program was designed to specifically solve this problem, their website states. "This initiative offers aspiring entrepreneurs time, training, compensation, and access to vetted technologies ready for commercialization. Participants receive interdisciplinary business training, direct access to the startup community, tailored mentoring, and compensated work experiences, all of which help them launch successful companies. The goal of this program is to advance hardware technology commercialization, develop and retain local talent, and unlock the entrepreneurial spirit in South Texas."

It offers aspiring entrepreneurs time, training, compensation, and access to vetted technologies ready for commercialization, he said.

Other notable programs include:

*Space Coders: A program that provides participants with the most in-demand skillsets for emerging space and technology startups is software engineering. The Space Coders Program's goal is to develop a network of developers experienced in writing code in a variety of programming languages.

* The Space Entrepreneur Summer Academy: This summer camp is like no other:  It is a crash course in astropreneurship. This is space-business camp. 

The three-week program, held at Expanding Frontiers and in close collaboration with the Brownsville Independent School District, exposes ambitious high school students to the opportunities for careers in new space. Guest speakers from NASA, the Silicon Valley Space Center, UTRGV’s Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy, and other industry leaders.

* Space Settlement Design Tournament that invites high school students to learn the nitty-gritty of conceptualizing, planning, and pitching plans for future space exploration. The tournament, modeled on and developed in conjunction with the internationally famous Space Settlement Design Competition®, offers students unique insight and expertise into one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, commercial space. It is the only sanctioned tournament of its kind in South Texas.

* The Veterans Ascension Program that recognizes that to build a commercial space economy, nothing is more important than talent. One hugely untapped resource is local veterans of the U.S. military, especially highly skilled enlisted servicemen and women without college degrees. Founded by Sgt. Scott Castle, the Veterans Ascension Program aims to find, attract, and support highly trained veterans to careers in the commercial space industry and commercial space startups.

"Veterans have many hard and soft skills that make them ideal for careers in NewSpace: they are disciplined, work well in teams, often have highly technical and engineering abilities, and are mission-driven," according to Expanded Frontiers. It actively matches veterans with companies who need their talents, and then supports veterans as they integrate into civilian life more broadly."

Expanding Frontiers, which was started in Brownsville in 2019, was one of the winners of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s inaugural STEM Talent Challenge and just one of the seven incubator/accelerators across the country to win an award up to $300,000. The grant will support the growth of Expanding Frontiers’ Space Entrepreneur in Residence Apprenticeship Program.

"We're excited about our initiative and encourage interested students, veterans and entrepreneurs to look at us as a resource to make their dreams come true," Jent said. 

"This enormous vote of confidence in Brownsville and our organization will help us have a more substantial impact in developing the region’s commercial space economy more quickly," he stated. "The Expanding Frontiers team wants to acknowledge and thank the City of Brownsville, the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, and the Brownsville Independent School District, who have supported and encouraged our efforts from the very beginning."

For more information on Expanded Frontiers, its staff and its board of directors and to applications to the programs in the new space research and economy that offer opportunities to the community, click on  https://expandingfrontiers.org/news/ .