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Space Island Group enlists educators and businesses to help build a commercial space program.

Posted on Jan 30, 2001

Space Island Group, leading developer of the world's first commercial space station, Rochester Institute of Technology and several major corporations, will meet Feb. 6 to explore cooperative relationships that will lead to construction and operation of a 500-person commercial space station by the end of this decade for research, manufacturing, satellite repair, tourism and many other uses in space. The project is called by an RIT official the most rational case going for commercial space stations.

BACKGROUND

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick and Sir Arthur C. Clarke changed history with the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film that created a generation of earth dwellers dreaming of living and working in space. In the years since, Hollywood has helped to foster a global vision that pictured the average person traveling in space in our lifetime.

Space Island Group has taken on the challenge of making that vision a reality by developing a plan to design, build and operate commercial space transportation systems and destinations dedicated to commerce, research, satellite repair, manufacturing, tourism and many other uses in space.

On February 6, 2001, a day before Kubricks visionary film movie is re-released in Berlin, the worlds of Hollywood, Aerospace, Education and Commerce will collide at the Rochester Institute of Technology, one of the nations leading Universities in Hospitality and Service Management.

RIT invited Gene Meyers, Founder and President of Space Island Group, Inc. to cosponsor a noon Business Forum for the Rochester Rotary Club at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center Highland Room, preceded by an 11:15 am news conference and followed by a 4 pm student conference on the RIT campus.

Dr. Francis Domoy, Chair of the Hospitality & Service Management Department in RITs College of Applied Science and Technology describes the SIG plan as the most rational case for development of commercial space stations and intends to explore ways RIT can support the effort. Domoy, whose Department already includes a course on Space Tourism Development, agrees with Meyers that as educators and businesses get behind SIGs technological expertise and workable business plan, the country will see commercial space stations by 2010 or sooner.

There may also be opportunities in other RIT technology, engineering, and applied science departments to expand the curriculum needed to support commercialization of space, noted Domoy.

Said Meyers, I look forward to the opportunity to explore the architecture of such coursework at RIT and encourage the development of this very workable concept.

In addition to the two formal events, Domoy, Meyers and several leaders of major corporations will hold private meetings to discuss ways education, business and technology can work together to create SIGs commercial space stations, making parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey" a reality by the end of this decade.

"Kubricks Space Odyssey vision is no longer a faraway fantasy," said Meyers, "it is a present-day possibility. As the Space Island Project comes on line, the need for highly trained personnel and operational funding will be critical. We will work closely with RIT to develop more courses and with corporate partners for funding to support all that is required to live and work in space.

Together we have the very real opportunity to bring about the next generation of exploration and settlement of the new frontier of space, he said.

Rochester Institute of Technology

BACKGROUND

Rochester Institute of Technologys 108-year-old hospitality and service management department, one of the first in the nation, offers undergraduate degrees in food management, food marketing and distribution, hotel and resort management, nutrition management and travel and tourism management. Part of RIT's College of Applied Science and Technology, the department offers graduate degrees in career and human resource development, health systems administration, hospitality-tourism management, instructional technology and service management.

RIT has the world's only university-level course in Space Tourism Development and is one of few universities where travel and tourism management students learn using a computerized reservation and accounting system designed by American Airlines.

Students also train in a student-run, full-service restaurant and use state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories including a food lab for developing and evaluating new food products and equipment. RIT's hospitality and service management department enrolls 967 students, including those studying hotel and resort management in Croatia.

Founded in 1829 and located in western New York State, Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized as a leader in engineering, imaging, technology, fine and applied arts, and education for the deaf. RIT enrolls 14,500 students in more than 240 undergraduates and graduate programs.

For the past decade, U.S. News and World Report has ranked RIT as one of the nation's leading comprehensive universities. RIT is also included in Yahoo! Internet Life's Top 100 Wired Universities, Fisk's Guide to America's Best Colleges and Barron's Best Buys in Education.