The Space series of conferences began in 1988 as the biennial meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Aerospace Division. In 1994 we began holding the co-located Robotics series of conferences as a similar meeting for the ASCE Committee on Field Sensing and Robotics. The steering committee is the same for both conferences, and attendees of either conference may attend the other one.

After the first conferences the series branched out into other areas, all sharing the common theme of engineering, construction and operations in space. In 1996 the steering committee agreed that space business had become a large enough topic that we should begin encouraging the presentation of papers in that area, and the word "business" became a part of the title.

Many people work from year to year on the Space and Robotics series of conferences. We work to organize these meetings because of our strong belief that space is a limitless frontier, that it is humanity's requirement and destiny to explore it and learn to live there, and that the field of robotics will be an integral part of our future in challenging environments both here on Earth and elsewhere. We are committed to the continuation of the two co-located conferences, and we have dedicated our time, our money, our initiative, and our thoughts and dreams toward making this important series of meetings take place successfully every two years.

Many of those who are active on the conferences steering committee have been involved since the first ASCE Space conference in 1988. Some have come to be involved through their professions, and some have joined our group out of a wish to participate in the organization of an event they have greatly enjoyed. All share a common desire to come to the conferences and build dreams of the future on the reality of solid engineering and science. These visionary conferences are a delightful opportunity to inspire new thought and innovation in the field, a chance to find new solutions to old problems in the pursuit of new solutions to new problems, and a chance for civil engineers to join many other disciplines in committing themselves to the flowering of human civilization.

Humanity has already entered the commercial space age. Recognizing this reality, we have endeavored for the last two conferences to involve the corporate sector in our activities. Much of this conference will be devoted again to that end. We will also have greater outreach efforts through roundtables, debates, programs for elementary school children and university students, and an ongoing Internet presence. We will be delighted if you choose to attend.

Steering Committee Leadership

Richard L. Servidio, PE
Executive Chair
Servidio Engineering
135 College St.
2nd Fl Suite
Burlington, VT 05401
802.860.0400 or email richard@servidio-engineering.com

Dave Klingler
Space 2002 and Robotics 2002 General Chair
314 Wellesley Dr. SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106-1422
505.255.0653 or email davek@commercedata.com

Dr. Stewart W. Johnson
Space 2002 and Robotics 2002 Technical Co-Chair
820 Rio Arriba SE
Albuquerque, NM 87123
505.298.2124 or email stwjohnson@aol.com

Professor Samuel E. Moskowitz
Technical Chair, Robotics 2002
The Hebrew University
P. O. Box 7843
Jerusalem 91078 Israel
email mosk@cc.huji.ac.il

Dr. Bryan Laubscher
Space 2002 Technical Co-Chair
2073 North Road
Los Alamos, NM 87544
505.667.1804 or email blaubscher@lanl.gov

Leonore Jordan, CMP
Manager, Conferences
American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
703.295.6110
ljordan@asce.org