MILO Institute Leads Efforts Toward Global Access to Space

The MILO Institute, led by Executive Director David Thomas and Chief Scientist and NewSpace Initiative Director James Bell, is leading educational and commercial efforts to promote space access globally.

“MILO’s primary mission is to create access to space for as many people as possible, [which] puts ASU in a position of leading the world, in innovative ways, to organize, fund and conduct space exploration and space commerce,” said Thomas in a promotional video from ASU Enterprise Partners.

He continued, “our main goal is to encourage participation in space science. And so, we define missions to space stations, to the moon, to asteroids that are really opportunities to engage in compelling space science.”

The MILO Institute is the latest in a long history of space-related explorations led by Arizona State University, including Psyche, LunaH-Map and others. “ASU brings an extraordinary heritage in space,” said Thomas. “We have faculty, we have scientists that have been involved in so many different missions that are relevant to where the world wants to go.”

Still, those at ASU who are experienced in the space industry do not seek to hoard their knowledge and experience, but are dedicated to using these resources to benefit the space industry as a whole.

“...one of the most important things we’re doing is sharing the world of science-focused space exploration with the world,” said Dr. Bell. “So many others have that… passion and those aspirations, but they don’t have the experience. With MILO, we can help them learn at their own pace, within their own parameters, their own universities, companies… infrastructure, their own space agencies.”

As part of this effort to spread space industry knowledge on a global level, MILO will implement 12-week programs in which teams of students will learn to build a payload design for one of any number of destinations in space.

“The Mission Academy is based on a very successful program that’s been implemented by ASU here in the United States, and we now have permission to take this to our international partners,” said Thomas. “And so, what we do is, we identify a deep space mission, we help build the capacity in-country to participate in that mission, and then we provide infrastructure as a service to reduce the cost to execute the mission.”

By developing and fostering these resources in each respective country, ASU and the MILO Institute are ensuring a global network of potential partners with which to pursue future projects and missions within the space industry.

Bell summed it up best: "MILO is helping to… bring the world together around this theme of great science done from space."

As Director of ASU’s NewSpace Initiative, Bell is familiar with building relationships and networks of mutual benefit with various partners throughout the space industry. ASU is the nation's leading innovative university and the only university with executive member status at CSF, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The mission of CSF is to build connections across leading names in space education, industry and government to propel exploration and economy.

With the MILO Institute, Thomas and Bell are working to take this purpose to a global platform and spread knowledge of space in an impactful way.