John Strickland

Mr. Strickland has been an active member of space and science-related organizations since 1961, when he joined the American Rocket Society as a student member. In 1976 he joined both the National Space Institute and the L-5 Society ­ the "parents" of NSS. He was the founder of the Austin Space Frontier Society and has served as its chairman from 1981 to the present.

He created the Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award for the National Space Society in 1988, (shortly after the author's death), and has managed the award from its inception.  He is the NSS Awards Committee chair.  In 1988, Mr. Strickland was a founder of the NSS Chapters Assembly, and served as one of its officers. His involvement with both Austin environmental groups and CSI ­ a national group working for better science coverage and less pseudo-science in the mass media ­ has given him a unique perspective on such controversial issues as energy vs. environment.

 Since 1976, Mr. Strickland has produced articles for The Space Review, NASAWatch, L5 News, Ad Astra, Space News, The Humanist, and other local and regional publications. His articles focus primarily on national space policy, access to space, space infrastructure and space solar power. His creation of a slide show and talk in 1990, explaining and promoting space solar power to non-technical audiences, led to the publication of his first technical SPS article in 1995, and a second in 1996.

 He served as the director for science and space programming (about 50 events) at the 1997 LoneStarCon World Science Fiction Convention. He contributed a comprehensive chapter on energy systems in the book, Solar Power Satellites - A Space Energy System for Earth, edited by Dr. Peter Glaser et al., and published by Wiley-Praxis in 1998. In 2005 he also contributed the chapter "Access to Luna" to the 2005 book Return to the Moon. He since has contributed many technical papers and presentations to the annual NSS conventions, to the Mars Society's conventions, the Wireless Power Transmission Conference of 2001, the Houston World Space Congress in 2002, and the Toronto Space Solar Power Symposium in 2009.

 Mr. Strickland lived for 30 years in western New York before moving to Austin, Texas in 1976. He received a B. A. in Anthropology with a minor in Biology from SUNY at Buffalo in 1967, and a second B.A. in Computer Science from St. Edwards University in Austin in 1986. He also earned graduate credits in both Anthropology and Biology. He worked as a professional programmer and analyst from 1980, and worked as a Senior Programmer/Analyst for the State of Texas in Austin from July, 1989 until June 2009.  He is now working on a book covering space development, and in-space transport and infrastructure.

Some online publications by John Strickland:

•The Space Review October 2014: The incredible, expendable Mars mission

•The Space Review June 2014: It’s time for NASA to abandon the Apollo mission model

•The Space Review April 2014: Humans and robots to the Moon and Mars: a unified and integrated space program strategy

•The Space Review July 2013: Revisiting SLS/Orion launch costs

•The Space Review January 2013: Cislunar transportation: the space trucking system

•The Space Review October 2012: The cislunar gateway with no gate

•The Space Review November 2011: The SLS: too expensive for exploration?

•NSS Blog August 2011: Orbital Propellant Depots: Building the Interplanetary Highway

•The Space Review August 2011: Current strategies towards air-breathing space launch vehicles

•International Space Development Conference May 2011: Access to Mars [PDF 2.3 MB]

•Space Ref June 2010: Space Tugs: Filling the Space Jobs Gap and Privatization Too!

•Space Ref February 2010: NASA and Space — The Future vs. the Past

•The Space Review January 2010: Space fetishism: obsession or rational action?

•Journal of Space Communication Winter 2010: Global Warming in Perspective: Understanding Climate Change in a World of Contradictory Information

•Journal of Space Communication Winter 2010: Space Solar vs Base Load Ground Solar and Wind Power

•Space Ref August 2009: The Space-Industrial Complex in Transition

•The Space Review January 2007: The "base first" decision: crew survival and reusability

•Space Daily May 2006: Space Advocate Reviews the Vision for Space in 2006

•Space.com October 2005: The Mega-Module Path to Space Exploration (Or: How to Use an HLV)

•Space Daily September 2005: The Urgency of a Real Vision for Space Exploration