
Max Fagin of Blue Origin will present some of his work prior to Blue Origin, with an overview of the history of the space elevator, as well as the present state of the obstacles–engineering, economic, material science and otherwise–that remain to be overcome before a space elevator becomes competitive as a mode of transportation to space.

Max is an aerospace engineer at Blue Origin, and a member of the team designing the Orbital Reef space station. He previously worked at NASA Ames in the mission design center, at Made in Space on the Archinaut Spacecraft, and at SpaceX on the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon vehicles. He has been part of a crew at the Mars Desert Research Station owned and operated by the Mars Society twice: once as astronomer, once as commander.
He holds BAs from Vassar and Dartmouth in astrophysics and mechanical engineering, and an MS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue focusing on aerospace systems and astrodynamics. He received his first patent in January of this year for “System and method for hybrid additive and subtractive manufacturing with dimensional verification.”
His parrot’s name is Beetlejuice (just so you’ll know).
No need to RSVP! Just mark your calendar, be sure your Zoom setup in working and come on in!
The technical details:
- WHEN: May 30th Wednesday 7:00-8:00 pm
- HOW: ONLINE ONLY. Zoom link is https://aiaa.zoom.us/j/82722575682