Have been dedicated manned space flight about a 1/3 of my life now I have been to many interesting places and met many interesting and inspiring people.

Some I will likely never meet again and some are probably not working this field anymore. My time at NASA was special and the people I worked with at Johnson Space Center is still in my circle of friends. Later we joined our efforts on conference papers and had beers in Denmark and a great time at Copenhagen Suborbitals. At NASA I got some really great perspectives on things - and also how I wanted to do things differently.

Today I am working closely with the team of Copenhagen Suborbitals and my friend and co-founder Peter Madsen who is one of these inspiring and amazing people I met on this journey. Teaming up with others and joining brains and efforts are the most powerful things you can engage yourself in. By doing so, there is pretty much no limits to what you can accomplish.

Back in 2006 I was invited to join a group at ESA - working concepts for lunar and Martian habitat design. My group was chosen to work Martian concepts and during that week in ESTEC / ESA I was working closely with a very cool and dedicated guy called Bas Lansdorp. The work we did at ESA on locally produced Martian glass habitation was later published by Bas and myself at the Journal of British Interplanetary Society.

Concept sketch on glass habitation structure for Mars. Image: Bas Lansdorp and Kristian von Bengtson

It was an interesting project - identifying the potential of glass production using Martian regolith with chemical analysis, structural strength and production methods added to the paper.

Eventually, we each went to our part of the world and Bas co-founded Mars One and I co-founded Copenhagen Suborbitals. Needles to say, we have been following each others projects and I must say I am a big fan of the Mars One project and have maintained my respect for Bas and his dedication and efforts.

Today, we met up. I just came back from a lecture in Lithuania and Bas came back from Washington where he announced the Mars One collaboration with Lockheed Marting and Surrey Satellites. Bas was on route to Malmoe Sweden for a lecture and we decided to meet up for this road trip - catching up on each others projects and simply as space nerds and friends.

During the day we had a great time talking funding, technical stuff and was updated on each others projects. Bas did a great speech and was bombarded by questions by the audience and me as well.

Space nerds, friends and co-founders Mars One and Copenhagen Suborbitals. Image: Some guy at the speech.

For a few hours we joined our brains dedicated for space talk and ideas and left once more - with an equal desire for making an effort to place space on the agenda for today and the future. Dont forget to participate and support the Mars One project. I know Bas - he will make this happen!

Who knows, who I or you will meet in the future?

There are so many cool people out there. Looking forward to meeting you!

Ad Astra

Kristian von Bengtson