Bob Citron
Encyclopedia
SPACEHAB
Astrotech Corporation , formerly Spacehab Inc., is an aerospace company headquartered in Austin, Texas which provides commercial space products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, international space agencies, and global commercial customers...
, Inc. – 1983), reusable satellite launch systems (Kistler Aerospace Corporation – 1993), and Lunar transportation and logistics (Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. – 2004). Citron also started three nonprofit foundations dealing with scientific field research (Earthwatch – 1969), short-lived phenomena (Center for Short-Lived Phenomena
Center for Short-Lived Phenomena
The Center for Short-Lived Phenomena was an office at the Smithsonian Institution from 1968 to 1975 designed to assist Smithsonian scientists in studying unusual short-lived natural phenomena such as meteorite impacts, volcanic events, earthquakes, and unusual ecological events such as plagues,...
– 1975), and the study of the long-term future of humanity (Foundation For the Future – 1996).
Early career
Citron worked for the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
for 17 years, establishing satellite tracking stations around the world, and creating and managing scientific field research projects. While at the Smithsonian he built and managed astrophysical research observatories in the USA, Spain, Norway, Ethiopia, South Africa, and India (1959–1968) and founded the Smithsonian Institution Center for Short-lived Phenomena (CSLP) in 1968. The purpose of the Smithsonian Satellite Tracking Program was to track satellites to determine their precision orbits in order to better understand the Earth’s atmosphere and to better define the geodesy of planet Earth. Citron created and managed the Smithsonian Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) program for NASA during the Apollo Program (1968–1972) and established the NASA/Smithsonian Skylab Earth Observing Program (1973–1974) during the post-Apollo period. He established a global Student Environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring
Environmental monitoring describes the processes and activities that need to take place to characterise and monitor the quality of the environment...
network (1974), involving high school students from 20 countries, to report on significant environmental events (1974).
While at the Smithsonian, Citron was a consultant to a number of United Nations organizations including UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
and the United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its...
(UNEP). As a consultant to these organizations he was involved in helping to define the goals and operations of UNESCO’s “Man and the Biosphere” Programme (1973) and he helped develop requirements for UNEP’s “Global Environmental Monitoring System” (1974). Citron also participated in a number of other United Nations programs involved with global environmental monitoring and assessing the human impact on planet Earth (1972–1975).
Companies
Citron founded or co-founded five companies: Limpopo Films, Pty. Ltd. (1964); Adventure Travel, Inc. (1976); SPACEHAB, Inc. (1984); Kistler Aerospace Corporation (1993); and Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. (2004).Limpopo Films Pty. Ltd.
In 1964, while living in Africa, Citron founded Limpopo Films, Pty. Ltd. to produce documentary films for television. Limpopo Films produced a wide variety of films from 1964 to 1968 including Man in Ethiopia (which won numerous national and international awards), Vigeland on Life, Ten Thousand Mile Safari, From Zululand to Zambia, The Lions of Gorongoza, The Crocodiles of the Nile, The Elephants of Wankie, Meteorite Hunt, The Mystery of Zimbabwe, and many others.Adventure Travel, Inc.
In 1976 Citron founded the American Adventurer’s Association (AAA), which was an international organization for adventurers throughout the world. The American Adventurer’s Association eventually grew to a membership of over 10,000 and published a monthly national magazine, Adventure Travel; a monthly newsletter on worldwide adventure, Adventure Travel Newsletter; and an annual Worldwide Adventure TravelGuide (1978–1981). Adventure Travel magazine eventually reached a national circulation of over 100,000 and was distributed on half a dozen major international airlines. Citron sold his company to the Ziff Davis Publishing Company in 1981.SPACEHAB
In 1983 Citron founded SPACEHABSPACEHAB
Astrotech Corporation , formerly Spacehab Inc., is an aerospace company headquartered in Austin, Texas which provides commercial space products and services to NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, international space agencies, and global commercial customers...
, Inc., which designs, builds, and operates space research laboratories and space logistics modules that fly aboard the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
fleet. SPACEHAB began its space commercialization roots through the development of privately owned, pressurized modules that fly in the shuttle’s cargo bay and double the amount of working and living space available to the astronaut crew.
Citron incorporated SPACEHAB in 1984 and the company made its initial public offering in 1995. The company flew its first module on a Space Shuttle mission on June 21, 1993. The SPACEHAB modules that Citron and Tom Taylor invented have been the primary payload on 17 Space Shuttle missions, including research missions on board the fleet of orbiters, and resupply missions to both the Russian space station MIR and the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
(ISS).
SPACEHAB has earned the title of “space pioneer” and continues to be a frontrunner in space commerce initiatives. Today, with $50 million in annual revenue and over $75 million in private assets, SPACEHAB is a leading provider of commercial space services.
Kistler Aerospace
In 1993 Citron and Walter KistlerWalter Kistler
Walter P. Kistler is a physicist, inventor, and philanthropist, born in 1918 in Biel, Switzerland. Kistler is a life member of the Swiss Physical Society and a member of AIAA and ISA, which presented him the Life Achievement Award in 2000. He is listed in American Men of Science, Who’s Who in...
founded Kistler Aerospace Corporation to develop fully reusable, low-cost rocketships to take commercial satellites to Low Earth and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit as well as provide logistic support for the International Space Station.
The K-1 is the world’s first fully reusable aerospace vehicle, designed to deliver payloads to orbit and provide a low-cost alternative to single-use launch vehicles. The company intends the K-1 rocketships to become the reliable, low-cost providers of launch services for commercial and government payloads destined for Low Earth Orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...
(LEO), Medium Earth Orbit
Medium Earth Orbit
Medium Earth orbit , sometimes called intermediate circular orbit , is the region of space around the Earth above low Earth orbit and below geostationary orbit ....
(MEO), and Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), as well as for cargo resupply and recovery flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS).
Kistler Aerospace Corporation has raised over $600 million in private financing and, in 2006, received a NASA contract for $207 million to further the development of the K-1 launch vehicle fleet.
Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc.
In 2004, after NASA announced plans to return humans to the Moon and build a lunar base, Citron and Walter Kistler founded Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. (LTS).Lunar Transportation Systems, Inc. is developing a new lunar architecture that has a number of advantages over current known and evolving architectures. The LTS architecture uses new innovations for modularity and flexibility, leading to reduced development cost, a faster development schedule, and better evolvability.
LTS architecture will enable NASA to meet its near-term strategic objectives, including sending small payloads to the lunar surface in a few years, sending larger payloads to the lunar surface in succeeding years, and sending crews to the Moon and back to the Earth by the end of the next decade. In addition, the LTS architecture can provide routine logistic support for the lunar base now being planned by NASA.
LTS is a privately financed company that requires cooperation from NASA in order to raise the private capital required to design, build, ground test, flight test, and operate its Earth-Moon transportation system.
Nonprofit Foundations
Citron founded or co-founded three nonprofit foundations: Earthwatch Institute (with Clarence Truesdell in 1969), the Center for Short-lived Phenomena (spun off from the Smithsonian Institution in 1975), and Foundation For the Future (with Walter Kistler in 1996).Center for Short-Lived Phenomena
The Center for Short-Lived PhenomenaCenter for Short-Lived Phenomena
The Center for Short-Lived Phenomena was an office at the Smithsonian Institution from 1968 to 1975 designed to assist Smithsonian scientists in studying unusual short-lived natural phenomena such as meteorite impacts, volcanic events, earthquakes, and unusual ecological events such as plagues,...
was a global wire service that included a network of over 3,200 scientists and scientific institutions in 34 countries that reported on and undertook field research on short-lived phenomena such as volcanic eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanic Eruptions is a company owned by Crispin Glover. The company produces and issues Glover's work: It has released two films to date, What Is It? and its sequel, It is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE . Its current plans include releasing the final film in the trilogy titled It Is Mine...
, earthquakes, tidal surges, oil spills, meteorite falls
Meteorite falls
Meteorite falls, also called observed falls, are those meteorites that were witnessed by people or automated devices as they moved through the atmosphere or hit the Earth, and were subsequently collected. All other meteorites are called "finds"...
, unusual animal migration, insect infestations, moonquakes, and other short-lived events worthy of scientific investigation. The Center was involved in NASA’s Apollo Program (1968–1972), NASA’s Transient Lunar Phenomena Program (1969–1972), and NASA’s Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
Earth Observing Program (1973–1974), and established the global Student Environmental Monitoring Network (1973–1975). Citron spun off The Center for Short-lived Phenomena from the Smithsonian Institution in 1975 and established it as a nonprofit organization.
Earthwatch
Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization that brings science to life for people concerned about the Earth’s future. Founded by Citron and Truesdell in 1969, Earthwatch supports scientific field research by offering volunteers the opportunity to join research teams around the world. This unique model is creating a systematic change in how the public views science and its role in environmental sustainability.Today, Earthwatch recruits close to 4,000 volunteers every year to collect field data in the areas of rainforest ecology, wildlife conservation, marine science, archaeology, and more. Through this process, it educates, inspires, and involves a diversity of people who actively contribute to conserving our planet.
Currently raising approximately $15 million a year from the generosity of institutions, individuals, governments, and corporations, Earthwatch has a global reach. Earthwatch is currently supported by more than 150 staff, located in our headquarters in Maynard, Massachusetts, as well as in offices in Oxford, England; Melbourne, Australia; and Tokyo, Japan.
Foundation For the Future
Citron co-founded (with Walter KistlerWalter Kistler
Walter P. Kistler is a physicist, inventor, and philanthropist, born in 1918 in Biel, Switzerland. Kistler is a life member of the Swiss Physical Society and a member of AIAA and ISA, which presented him the Life Achievement Award in 2000. He is listed in American Men of Science, Who’s Who in...
) a nonprofit foundation called Foundation For the Future, which brings together scholars from all over the world to discuss the major issues that are having or will have a significant impact on the long-term future of humanity. Foundation For the Future was established with the mission to increase and diffuse knowledge concerning the long-term future. It is concerned with issues that include population, climate, global warming, natural resource conservation, evolution, the preservation of biological diversity, endangered species, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and the impact of science and technology on society.
The Foundation conducts a broad range of programs and activities to promote an understanding of the factors in the social, genetic, biological, medical, psychological, physiological, cultural, technological, and ecological fields that may have an impact on human life during coming millennia.
To fulfill its mandate, Foundation For the Future:
- Promotes public awareness of and education in futures issues.
- Convenes seminars, workshops, and symposia that focus on issues associated with the long-term future of humanity.
- Publishes scholarly works that address issues concerning the factors that will affect the future of human life.
- Awards the annual Kistler PrizeKistler PrizeThe Kistler Prize is awarded annually to recognize original contributions "to the understanding of the connection between human heredity and human society," and includes a cash award of US $100,000 and a 200-gram gold medallion....
(cash and gold medallion), the Walter P. Kistler Book Award (cash and certificate), the Walter P. Kistler Science Teacher of the Year Award (cash and certificate), and the Walter P. Kistler Science Documentary Film Award (cash and certificate). - Provides financial support to scholars’ research through Research Grant Awards.
- Facilitates a Student Education Program that encourages young scholars to think about the future.
The Foundation’s benefactor and founding President is Walter Kistler. A Board of Trustees oversees all Foundation activities and is supported by an Executive Director, two Deputy Directors, and a small administrative staff. The Foundation has assembled teams of prominent scholars and humanists to serve on the Foundation’s Board of Advisors and on the Kistler Prize Advisory Panel. The Foundation is sustained in perpetuity by a permanent endowment.
Film and Television Production
1964 – presentCitron began making films in 1964 while living in Africa and founded a film production company, Limpopo Films Ltd., which produced a series of documentary and travel films for television. These films included Zululand to Zambia, Ten Thousand Mile Safari, Europe North, Africa South, An American Boy in Russia, and others.
In the 1960s, while with the Smithsonian Institution, Citron made a series of films in Africa on field research expeditions including The Wama Pygmies of the Congo, The Borana Tribe of Ethiopia, The Meteorites of Southwest Africa, and others.
In the 1970s Citron and National Geographic made a series of television documentaries and educational films based on his EARTHWATCH field research expeditions, including The Search for Fossil Man, The Day the Sun Died, The Violent Earth, Earth, the Restless Planet, and others. During this period Citron was also a consultant to a number of film projects for the National Geographic Society, David Wolper Productions, and MGM Documentary Films.
Recently Citron created a 15-minute film entitled Cosmic Origins: From the Big Bang to Humanity as a showcase for the work of the Foundation For the Future. He also supervises the production of a series of short films for the Foundation, including Where Does Humanity Go from Here?, Visions of the Future, and The Young Scholars Inquiry Program. Citron created a television series called The Next Thousand Years, now in development, for public television distribution.
Scientific Field Research Expeditions
Citron has organized, managed, and/or participated in more than 60 scientific field research expeditions in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and the South Pacific in fields that include volcanic eruption research, paleoanthropology, archaeology, anthropology, ecology, ethology, zoology, astronomy, meteoritics, and geophysics. He has participated in eight total solar eclipse expeditions in the Philippines, Mexico, Canada, Turkey, Mauritania, Ethiopia, India, and the Libyan Sahara between 1956 and 2006.Citron has organized, managed, and/or participated in more than a dozen archaeological excavations in Africa and Europe, including excavating early hominid and iron-age sites in South and East Africa with prominent archeological teams (1964–1974).
While working for the Smithsonian, Citron also organized and managed and was the principal cinematographer on 18 volcanic eruption expeditions in Africa, the South Pacific, North and Central America, Hawaii, the Philippines, and New Guinea (1968–1974). He recently donated 40 hours of volcano expedition films to the Smithsonian Institution archives for research and education.
In 2001 Citron organized a major expedition to the South Pacific to observe the reentry of the Russian MIR Space Station in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. That expedition included chartering two aircraft from Fiji with 31 observers on board. The observers included the Russian Chief Designer of the MIR Space Station as well as three cosmonauts who lived aboard MIR for lengthy durations.
Memberships
Citron is a member of many professional organizations and special-interest groups, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...
, British Interplanetary Society
British Interplanetary Society
The British Interplanetary Society founded in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest space advocacy organisation in the world whose aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration.-Structure:...
, The Planetary Society, African Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
, Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, Sierra Club
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...
, Union of Concerned Scientists
Union of Concerned Scientists
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit science advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. James J...
, Seattle Astronomical Society, The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
, The Wilderness Society, American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, Seattle Film Society, Space Frontier Foundation
Space Frontier Foundation
The Space Frontier Foundation is a space advocacy nonprofit corporation organized to promote the interests of increased involvement of the private sector, in collaboration with government, in the exploration and development of space...
, and the National Space Society
National Space Society
The National Space Society is an international nonprofit 501, educational, and scientific organization specializing in space advocacy...
.