Copernicus Space Corporation Appoints Peter Worden and Richard Stein to its Board of Directors
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts – April 14, 2022: Copernicus Space Corporation is pleased to announce that Dr. Peter Worden and Mr. Richard Stein have joined its board of directors. They are joining Copernicus co-founders Drs. Avi Loeb and Frank Laukien on the board.
Simon Peter “Pete” Worden, (Brig. Gen., USAF, Ret., PhD) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona. Dr. Worden was Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center from May 2006 until March 2015. He has held several positions in the United States Air Force and was research professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is a recognized expert on space and science issues – both civil and military, and he has been a leader in building partnerships between governments and the private sector internationally.
Dr. Worden has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers in astrophysics space sciences, and strategic studies. He served as a scientific co-investigator for three NASA space science missions – most recently the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph launched in 2013 to study the Sun. He received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for the 1994 Clementine Mission to the moon. Dr. Worden was named the 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium Laboratory ‘Director of the Year’ and is the recipient of the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Innovator’s Award.
Dr. Worden said: “I am truly honored to join the Copernicus Board. I’m looking forward to searching for life throughout our solar system and expanding our reach into the Galaxy.”
Corporate attorney Mr. Richard Stein has represented a variety of life science companies and other corporate and non-profit entities during his 45 years of legal practice. In January 2022, Rich retired as a partner from Nixon Peabody LLP. Richard is a graduate of Brandeis University and received his law degree from Boston College Law School. Rich has deep and broad experience from service on several private and US public-company boards of directors, and currently serves as a director of a medical device company. Richard’s corporate legal practice included or interfaced with venture and private equity financings, M&A, IPOs, follow-on offerings, SEC matters, corporate dispute resolution and litigation, and numerous contractual, IP, regulatory, tax, export, HR and other legal matters, as well as strategic and tactical business advice.
Richard Stein commented: “It is an honor to serve on the Board of the visionary Copernicus Space Corporation. I look forward to working with Avi, Frank and Pete on the important mission and strategic plans of Copernicus.” Copernicus co-founders Drs. Avi Loeb and Frank Laukien added: “Copernicus Space Corporation is excited to add such renowned and highly regarded experts to our Board of Directors. Pete and Rich bring exceptional expertise, wisdom and vision to Copernicus. They will greatly accelerate Copernicus to advance the exciting future of ‘the next Copernican Revolution’.”
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About Copernicus Space Corporation
Copernicus Space Corporation (“Copernicus”) is a novel space exploration company with astrophysics, space technology and synthetic biology founders, executives and scientific advisors. Copernicus advances a unique space technology platform strategy for scalable and distributed Swarm Exploration™, breaking away from the traditional paradigms of n=1 probes or rovers, crewed space exploration, or sample-return missions. In its solar systems exploration phase, Copernicus is developing semi-autonomous swarms and networks of hundreds or thousands of miniaturized, intelligent in situ probes in search of extant or extinct microbial life, of scientific discoveries and commercial opportunities on interesting planets, moons and asteroids in our solar system. For its future interstellar phase, Copernicus will deploy millions and eventually billions of hybrid nanotechnology and synthetic biology-based space nanoprobes for exploring and seeding our galaxy to prepare humankind and terrestrial life for a multi-planetary future.
Copernicus enables the next generation of space exploration and operations by pioneering everincreasing capabilities in sensors, scientific detectors, artificial intelligence, computing, and robotics. Copernicus products and systems will provide scalable platforms for distributed space exploration, solar system positioning, navigation and timing, security applications, and commercial endeavors. Copernicus-enabled swarm architectures aim to alter the paradigm of space exploration to create more highly scalable, cost effective, redundant, in situ-capable, intelligent and resilient systems.
Copernicus leverages differentiated and disruptive concepts and proprietary, novel technology combinations for next-generation, semi-autonomous exploration strategies. This will lead to a rich IP estate of patents, proprietary code and know-how. Copernicus also fosters ultralong-range thinking in human-directed interstellar exploration, and eventual hybrid nano- and biotechnological seeding of our galaxy. Copernicus leverages AI/ML-driven nanorobots, bioengineering for sensing and replication, as well as biology-derived ‘panspermia’ long-range information transmission.
