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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 18, 2013 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Rich Burns

"Is The Sky Really Falling? Identifying And Managing Spacecraft Conjunction Risks"

ABSTRACT -- The era of managing spacecraft conjunction risks using the "big sky" theory is over. Today's more crowded space environment dictates a more rigorous approach. This talk will discuss the current processes in place to predict and mitigate the threat of conjunctions from a mission perspective. Included in the discussion will be examples such as Fermi's first-ever maneuver to dodge space junk and the decision to forego an SDO maneuver in light of (nearly) hidden conjunction risk.

SPEAKER -- Rich Burns is the Project Manager for Space Science Mission Operations (SSMO), which manages operations for 14 Phase E missions with 6 operated locally at GSFC. Rich joined SSMO as Deputy Project Manager in 2007 and took over as Project Manager in 2011. Before that Rich worked in Code 590 as a GN&C systems engineer at GSFC since 2001 on such projects as the Formation Flying Testbed and Hubble Servicing. He started his career working as an Astrodynamics Engineer for 10 years at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Rich earned a Bachelor's degree from Notre Dame and a Master's from Stanford, both in Mechanical Engineering.


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov