This collaboration will focus on the development of space technologies specifically looking over the Pacific Ocean for scientific research purposes. Using the world class facilities at the University of Hawaii in combination with MDAA’s connections in the government and policy sector, this program aims at creating a leading institution for space studies. This agreement continues MDAA’s mission to make the world safer by adovcating for the devlopment and deployment of missile defense systems to defend the United States, its armed forces, and its allies. This marks the third such collaboration between the Alliance and institutions of higher education, following the USC SHIELD and University of Arizona AETOS programs
“This program is one important step toward making Hawaiʻi the nation’s center for space-based observation of the Pacific… There is a real need to better understand what’s going on in the Pacific. It’s this vast domain that is impossible to monitor, especially from the ground. You really have to begin to monitor from space… I think a critical need is to connect our leading-edge research to education, and that is a big part of what this program is going to seek to do.”
– Provost Michael Bruno, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa
MDAA is led by Riki Ellison, a 1983 graduate of the USC School of International Relations and a recipient of a certificate in Defense and Strategic Studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Art and Sciences. Mr. Ellison was also presented the Scholar-Athlete Award of Honor by the David X. Marks Foundation. During his time at USC, he started at middle linebacker on the football teams that won the 1978 national championship and 1979 and 1980 Rose Bowls.
“Instead of looking up, it’s going to look down with sensors to pick up the ability to see the entire Pacific, which we have not done in the history of mankind… This will be the first time that we will be able to see everything around us in the Pacific, whether it’s movements of fish, ships, planes, agriculture, everything… And the other thing is that, being the center of the Pacific, to have our other Pacific nations send their students to (UH) is in the best interests for the security of our world and for keeping the status quo… Right now we’ve got a vast Pacific that’s uncharted and unknown.”
– Mr. Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of MDAA
News on this collaboration:
https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/01/16/space-science-initiative-mou/
