The Isle of Man, also known as Mann, is an island nation and self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. The head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The United Kingdom is responsible for the isle's military defence.
The Isle of Man has an extensive communications infrastructure consisting of telephone cables, submarine cables, and an array of television and mobile phone transmitters and towers.
Douglas is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Man, with a population of 27,938 (2011). It is located at the mouth of the River Douglas, and on a sweeping bay of two miles. The River Douglas forms part of the town's harbour and main commercial port.
Norman (Norm) Ralph Augustine is a U.S. aerospace businessman who served as United States Under Secretary of the Army from 1975 to 1977. Augustine served as chairman and CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He was chairman of the Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee.
Peter H. Diamandis is a Greek-American engineer, physician, and entrepreneur best known for being founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, cofounder and executive chairman of Singularity University and coauthor of The New York Times bestsellers Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD: How to Go Big, Create Wealth, and Impact the World. He is former CEO and cofounder of the Zero Gravity Corporation, cofounder and vice chairman of Space Adventures Ltd., founder and chairman of the Rocket Racing League, cofounder of the International Space University, cofounder of Planetary Resources, cofounder of Celularity, founder of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, vice chairman and cofounder of Human Longevity, Inc.
The International Space University (ISU) is dedicated to the discovery, research, and development of outer space and its applications for peaceful purposes, through international and multidisciplinary education and research programs. ISU was founded in 1987 and is registered in France and in the US as a non profit organisation. The university offers a one or two-year Master in Space Studies (MSS) in Strasbourg and shorter professional development programs across the world. The latter include an itinerant nine-week Space Studies Program (SSP), a five-week Southern Hemisphere SSP in partnership with the University of South Australia, a 6-week Commercial Space graduate certificate in partnership with the Florida Institute of Technology, and one-week Executive Space Courses in Australia, Europe and the USA.
Robert J. Stevens, is a retired executive chairman of Lockheed Martin. He was the chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Lockheed Martin from 2004 until 2013, when Marillyn Hewson became CEO and president.
Vance D. Coffman was the former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation. He has additionally served on the board of directors for 3M, John Deere, and Amgen.
The Isle of Man Government is the government of the Isle of Man. The formal head of the Isle of Man Government is the Lieutenant Governor, the personal representative of Elizabeth II. The executive head is the Chief Minister.
Stephen Charles Rodan MLC is a Manx politician who served as the President of Tynwald from 2016 to 2021 and is a former Minister of the Isle of Man Government and former MHK for the constituency of Garff. He was first elected to the seat in a by-election in 1995.
The Liberal Vannin Party is a political party in the Isle of Man. It was founded in 2006 by Peter Karran, then an Independent MHK for Onchan. Karran had been, until 2004, a member of the Manx Labour Party. The "Vannin" in the party name is a form of the name of the Isle of Man in the native Manx Gaelic language, while "Liberal" is a reference to the general political position of the party. The party is currently led by Lawrie Hooper MHK.
Yi So-yeon is a South Korean astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space. Upon return from her mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Yi continued as a KARI researcher attending the International Space University before retiring from the agency to pursue an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.
Robert D. Richards is a Canadian-born space entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, Inc., a U.S. company partnered with NASA and developing robotic spacecraft to provide low cost access to the Moon for science, exploration and commerce. He is also the founder and former CEO of Odyssey Moon Limited, an Isle of Man based commercial lunar enterprise and the first official contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. From 2002-2009 he was the founding Director of the Space Division at Optech Incorporated, providing advanced lidar systems for spacecraft operations and planetary exploration, including NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander and OSIRIS-REx missions.
Tung Chee-chen, GBS, SBS, JP is a Hong Kong billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive of shipping company Orient Overseas and a member of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, a pro-Beijing political thinktank. He is Monaco's honorary consul to Hong Kong.
Peter B. Teets was the thirteenth Director of the National Reconnaissance Office and the Under Secretary of the Air Force.
Education in the Isle of Man is compulsory for children aged between 5 and 16. As a Crown dependency the Isle of Man parliament and government have competence over all domestic matters, including education; however the structure and curriculum are broadly in line with that of UK schools and particularly the English national curriculum. Education is overseen by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture and regulated by the Isle of Man Education Act 2001. As of September 2017 there were 6,492 pupils in primary schools, and 5,218 pupils in secondary education.
David Charles Napier Webb was a consultant to government agencies, corporations, universities and nonprofit organizations on various aspects of aerospace development, technology, and education. Government and corporate agencies include: DOD, DARPA, USAF, NASA, Rockwell International, McDonnell Douglas, SAIC, Rocketdyne, Space Services, General Space Corporation, Eagle Engineering, International Space Corporation, Aerospace Industries Association. Universities include: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, California, Texas, Georgetown, George Washington University, George Mason University, William & Mary, North Carolina, North Dakota, Florida, Central Florida, Embry-Riddle. Non-profit organizations include: The Webb Vocational Institute, Florida and California Space Grant Consortia, Florida Space Research Foundation, Astronauts Memorial Foundation, Space Studies Institute, National Space Society, U.S. Space Foundation, Mid-West Space Development Corporation, others. Activities include consulting to government agencies in national and international technological, economic and policy development issues; to corporations on space commercialization, space remote sensing, political and media issues; to universities on multidisciplinary space curricula development, information technology and 'virtual' program development and multi-university, cross-cultural program issues. Prepared a number of studies, reports, memoranda and presentations on these and other specific requirements.
The International Institute of Space Commerce (IISC) was established at the Isle of Man in 2007 as a corporation between the International Space University (ISU) and the Government of the Isle of Man. Realizing that the new space economy is being confronted with new challenges, it was felt necessary to establish a new think-tank focusing on commercial space aspects in addition to other space think-tanks, most of them with an emphasis on governmental space activities.
Michael Potter is an entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, author, and social enterprise investor.
Pascale Ehrenfreund is an Austrian astrophysicist. Ehrenfreund holds degrees from the University of Vienna and Webster Leiden. Prior to becoming a Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs at George Washington University, she was a Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen, Leiden University, and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She was the first woman president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and from 2015-2020, she was the CEO of the German Aerospace Center. Since 2019, she is the President of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and since 2018, she is the Chancellor of the International Space University (ISU). Since 2021 she is president of the ISU. The main-belt asteroid 9826 Ehrenfreund is named in her honor.
