1 00:00:00,699 --> 00:00:03,420 I am a political scientist . I study 2 00:00:03,420 --> 00:00:06,119 space policy . Um , and I guess , you 3 00:00:06,119 --> 00:00:08,063 know , one of the things I'm often 4 00:00:08,063 --> 00:00:10,286 asked is like how did I get into this ? 5 00:00:10,286 --> 00:00:12,452 I , and I guess that's probably a good 6 00:00:12,452 --> 00:00:14,397 place to start . Um , I'm a native 7 00:00:14,397 --> 00:00:16,730 Floridian . I grew up , uh , in Florida , 8 00:00:16,730 --> 00:00:18,952 born and raised , and I actually got to 9 00:00:18,952 --> 00:00:18,639 grow up watching space shuttles launch . 10 00:00:18,860 --> 00:00:20,916 We're on the cutting edge of what it 11 00:00:20,916 --> 00:00:23,680 means to think about space power , 12 00:00:23,879 --> 00:00:26,000 teach it , understand it , uh , and 13 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,167 that really is an exciting thing to be 14 00:00:28,167 --> 00:00:30,167 able to do . And so I think when we 15 00:00:30,167 --> 00:00:32,056 bring that to the students in the 16 00:00:32,056 --> 00:00:34,167 classroom , we're , we're honest with 17 00:00:34,167 --> 00:00:36,278 them , you know . This is an evolving 18 00:00:36,278 --> 00:00:38,389 emerging field , um , it's relatively 19 00:00:38,389 --> 00:00:40,389 new . The space domain is not a new 20 00:00:40,389 --> 00:00:42,444 domain , but studying it is , and so 21 00:00:42,444 --> 00:00:44,556 it's challenging but also it's really 22 00:00:44,556 --> 00:00:46,611 exciting at the same time . So we're 23 00:00:46,611 --> 00:00:46,334 pretty open , honest that , you know , 24 00:00:46,494 --> 00:00:48,605 here's , here's what we know so far , 25 00:00:48,605 --> 00:00:50,661 but there's still a lot of questions 26 00:00:50,661 --> 00:00:52,883 unanswered , and our students are gonna 27 00:00:52,883 --> 00:00:52,854 be the ones to go off and answer them . 28 00:00:53,174 --> 00:00:55,396 We , you know , get the students really 29 00:00:55,396 --> 00:00:57,563 involved in sort of thinking about not 30 00:00:57,563 --> 00:00:59,396 just what space power is or what 31 00:00:59,396 --> 00:01:01,563 current policy is , current strategy . 32 00:01:01,810 --> 00:01:03,977 But what are the major issues that are 33 00:01:03,977 --> 00:01:06,032 coming up like commercial space like 34 00:01:06,032 --> 00:01:08,088 Russia and China and other potential 35 00:01:08,088 --> 00:01:10,310 competitors in space , so we're getting 36 00:01:10,310 --> 00:01:12,366 them to think about that . We have a 37 00:01:12,366 --> 00:01:14,254 wealth of knowledge and expertise 38 00:01:14,254 --> 00:01:16,032 amongst our faculty here at Air 39 00:01:16,032 --> 00:01:18,254 University and within SASS , and we are 40 00:01:18,254 --> 00:01:20,839 often , uh , called on to to contribute 41 00:01:20,839 --> 00:01:23,061 to . Combatant commands and things that 42 00:01:23,061 --> 00:01:25,283 they're thinking about engagements with 43 00:01:25,283 --> 00:01:27,172 the joint force , and I think the 44 00:01:27,172 --> 00:01:29,395 biggest thing we can do is send back to 45 00:01:29,395 --> 00:01:31,395 the joint force the educated people 46 00:01:31,430 --> 00:01:33,486 that will be in place to solve these 47 00:01:33,486 --> 00:01:35,708 really hard operational problems . Uh , 48 00:01:35,709 --> 00:01:38,139 I think that as a as a professor , as a 49 00:01:38,139 --> 00:01:40,169 teacher , that's my biggest . 50 00:01:41,220 --> 00:01:44,180 Contribution is I am giving students 51 00:01:44,180 --> 00:01:46,347 the tools that they will take back out 52 00:01:46,347 --> 00:01:48,569 to the operational force to solve those 53 00:01:48,569 --> 00:01:50,736 problems . So even if I'm not involved 54 00:01:50,736 --> 00:01:53,180 in them directly , I , I , I am keenly 55 00:01:53,180 --> 00:01:55,480 aware that my students will be facing 56 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:57,424 some of the hardest . Problems out 57 00:01:57,424 --> 00:01:59,480 there and so nowadays space is baked 58 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:01,591 into everything we do , so there's no 59 00:02:01,591 --> 00:02:03,702 going back . We're only going to find 60 00:02:03,702 --> 00:02:05,889 more and more ways to utilize the data 61 00:02:05,889 --> 00:02:08,169 that we generate in space , more things 62 00:02:08,169 --> 00:02:10,539 that we can do in the space domain now 63 00:02:10,539 --> 00:02:12,970 that the costs have come down . Now 64 00:02:12,970 --> 00:02:15,089 that there are viable models of 65 00:02:15,089 --> 00:02:17,367 commercial success in the space domain , 66 00:02:17,529 --> 00:02:19,362 we're going to see more and more 67 00:02:19,770 --> 00:02:22,250 countries , more companies , more 68 00:02:22,250 --> 00:02:24,690 people be involved in the space domain 69 00:02:24,690 --> 00:02:26,912 than ever before . So that's only going 70 00:02:26,912 --> 00:02:28,968 to complicate matters and make space 71 00:02:28,968 --> 00:02:30,968 even more important to how we think 72 00:02:30,968 --> 00:02:33,134 about space power , space strategy for 73 00:02:33,134 --> 00:02:35,301 the United States , and how the United 74 00:02:35,301 --> 00:02:37,523 States can best take advantage of these 75 00:02:37,523 --> 00:02:39,690 coming developments . So we only go up 76 00:02:39,690 --> 00:02:38,990 from here .