Space exploration is a lot of things. Important. Groundbreaking. Inspiring.

But cheap isn’t one of them.

The NASA JPL Curiosity Mars Rover Mission from 2011 had a price tag of $2.5 billion. It’s Artemis program to go back to the moon has a budget of $35-billion.

Those budgets are doable for large government agencies, but they’re out of the realm of possibility for commercial “new space” applications. In fact, adapting NASA space technologies for commercial applications often means creating significant cost efficiencies, sometimes by a factor of 10. Without sacrificing capability,reliability or flexibility.

Sound tough?

It is, but one Pasadena Company has been on both sides of the equation.

Chris Thayer, the CEO of Motiv Space Systems will tell the story of how the company successfully executed large NASA contracts, like building the primary robotic arm for JPL’s mars 2020 rover, and then used that knowledge, experience and capability to move the cost of those systems nearly one decimal point to the left.

The result of Chris and Motiv’s work is putting advanced space robotics in reach of commercial applications that could never even consider them before.

BIO: Chris ThayerChris Thayer is an engineer, and CEO of Motiv Space Systems Inc., in Pasadena. Chris leads the company’s work developing ground, and space-based robotic systems and components. The company’s work includes robotic systems for NASA JPL’s Mars 2020 mission, as well as the recently launched xLink Space-Rated Modular Robotic Arm System that’s available for a wide range of commercial, government and education-focused missions.

Chris is a frequent speaker at space, and robotics conferences and events.