Kurt Leucht
Kurt used to be quiet and shy as a child. But he found his voice along with his passion while working in the NASA Swamp Works lab on software for robots and other systems that could someday help us live off the land on Mars during manned exploration missions. He started at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center 30 years ago as a young college intern and then graduated to electronics failure analysis investigator. Then he worked as a software developer and tester for several command and control systems and advisory systems. Now he performs exploration research and technology development for NASA. That’s tech-speak for preparing the way for humans to live on Mars!
Experience
Kurt enjoys speaking to all ages and abilities from grade school students to colleges and professionals.
Kurt can speak at all technical levels from chatting with after school clubs and user groups, to keynotes at
professional conferences.
Kurt speaks regularly on the following topics:
- Robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars
- NASA’s plans to send human missions to the Moon and then to Mars
- Living off the land on the Moon or on Mars, or in-situ resource utilization (ISRU)
- Swarming robotics and biologically inspired robots
- NASA KSC Swamp Works lab projects and capabilities
- NASA’s intern program
Recent speaking engagements:
- Lunar Pilot Excavator Interview: NASA Edge 2021, remote interview from home
- I chose curiosity, a TED-style talk: NASA Launching Leaders 2020, KSC Florida
- Meet Kurt Leucht Interview: FIRST Robotics Competition 2019, Tampa Florida
- ISRU Story Keynote: Delivery of Things World 2018, software conference, Berlin Germany
- Mars Robot Presentation & Activity: Cool Minds Knowledge Center 2017, Malmo Sweden
- ISRU Story Keynote: OreDev 2017, software developer conference, Malmo Sweden
- Software on Mars Technical Talk: OreDev 2017, software developer conference, Malmo Sweden
- Swarmie Technical Talk: DevDay 2016, software developer conference, Krakow Poland
- Swarmie Interview: NASA Great American Teach-In 2016, KSC Florida