AIAA Los Angeles Section Town Hall Meeting 11/18

(A Hybrid Meeting with an in-person presentation and both in-person & online attendance.)

Wednesday, November 18, 2026 (5:45 PM Check-in / Networking | 7 PM Presentation)

Tentative Agenda (All Times PST (GMT -0800) (U.S. and Canada)):

5:45 PM: Check-in, Networking (Welcome to bring your own dinner.)

7:00 PM: Welcome and Introduction

7:05 PM: Presentation and Q&A

8:35 PM: Networking | Adjourn

9:00 PM: Meeting Room closes

Disclaimer: The views of the speaker do not represent the views of AIAA or the AIAA Los Angeles Section.

Social Lunar Settlements: A near-term, low-cost lunar settlement

Based on USC’s ASTE 523 course, this seminar describes the Selene Social Lunar Settlement. It explores the creation of a near-term, low-cost, high-income, commercial and international lunar colony lived in by ordinary people, including graduate students, scientists, diplomats, and business entrepreneurs.

Dr. James (Jim) Wertz 

Adjunct Professor of Astronautics at USC

President of Microcosm

Chairman of the Scorpius Space Launch Company

Ph.D.  Physics                                               University of Texas at Austin (1970)

M.S.   Science & Tech Admin.                    George Washington University (1978)

S.B.    Physics                                               Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1966)

For more than 40 years, Dr. Wertz has been a world-recognized expert in space mission analysis and design, space systems design, spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control, spacecraft orbit and attitude systems, and developing “New Space,” i.e., low cost, high performance, responsive spacecraft and launch systems.

In addition to being an Adjunct Professor of Astronautics at USC, Dr. Wertz is the President of Microcosm, a small business in Torrance, CA whose main business areas are: space mission engineering, low cost space and launch systems, autonomous navigation and orbit control, space sensor design, and space hardware and software development. He is also Chairman of the Scorpius Space Launch Company, which manufactures space hardware, including, in Feb. 2024, the first commercial propellant tanks to land on the Moon.

Dr. Wertz’s experience includes virtually all mission phases: concept exploration, hardware design and development (both at spacecraft and component levels), spacecraft integration and test, launch support, and mission operations. He is the editor and principal author of:

·      Space Mission Analysis and Design (SMAD) (Kluwer Academic, 1st edition, 1990, 2nd edition, 1992, 3rd Edition, 1999, 969 pg.), the most widely used astronautics text and reference in print.

·      Space Mission Engineering– the New SMAD (Microcosm Press, 2011, 1033 pg.), entirely new, more extensive replacement for SMAD

·      Reducing Space Mission Cost (Kluwer Academic and Microcosm, 1996, 617 pg.), volume aimed at changing the way we do business in space.

·      Mission Geometry: Orbit and Constellation Design and Management (Kluwer Academic, 2001, 934 pg.), intended as the new standard reference in Spacecraft Orbit Analysis and Design.

·      Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control (D. Reidel, 1978, 858 pg.), the standard reference work in this field now in its 14th printing.



Dr. Wertz has taught courses worldwide in “Space Mission Analysis and Design,” “Reducing Space Mission Cost,” and “Constellation Design, Management and Economics.” He is currently teaching a course at USC in a near-term, low-cost, profit-making lunar settlement. Dr. Wertz is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Figure 1. Three of the books edited by Dr. Wertz. From left to right: Space Mission Analysis and Design (SMAD), 3^rd Ed.; Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD; and Reducing Space Mission Cost.

[AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]