Robert Potter graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2015. At Cal Poly, he participated in the Rose Float club as a member of the construction team. Robert joined the PolySat program in 2014 and became the mission manager for ExoCube, a 3U CubeSat that measured the density and composition of the exosphere.
Robert started at Purdue in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the fall of 2015 and received his M.S. degree in 2017. During his Master's program he was the Chief Engineer for the Gemini Mars design competition in 2015-2016, which was a follow-on to the Inspiration Mars competition. In addition, Robert was one of two Principal Architects for a two-semester design course in 2016-2017 called "Human Journey to Mars" where he managed a class in the design of a mission architecture and feasibility study of a 50-person Mars research station.
Robert is currently a Ph.D. student at Purdue with research interests in interplanetary trajectory design, Earth-Mars cyclers, and human exploration architectures.
Contact Info: potter22@purdue.edu
Publications
- Potter, R., Longuski, J., and Saikia, S., “Survey of Low-Thrust, Earth-Mars Cyclers” AAS 19-799, Portland, ME: 2019.
- Potter, R., Saikia, S., and Longuski, J., “Leveraging NASA's Lunar Gateway and Human Landing System for Low-Cost Mars Orbital Missions,” AAS 19-800, Portland, ME: 2019.
- Agrawal, R., Potter, R., Saikia, S., and Longuski, J., “Enabling Sustainable Human Exploration of Mars via an Orbital Logistics Node,” AAS 19-918, Portland, ME: 2019.
- Potter, R., Saikia, S., and Longuski, J., “Resilient Architecture Pathways to Establish and Operate a Pioneering Base on Mars,” IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT: 2018.
- Rolley, R. J., Potter, R., Zusack, S., and Saikia, S. J., “Life Cycle Cost Estimation of Conceptual Human Spaceflight Architectures,” AIAA Space 2017 Conference, Orlando, FL: 2017.
- Potter, R., Woolley, R., Nicholas, A., and Longuski, J., “Features and Characteristics of Earth-Mars Bacon Plots,” AAS 17-671, Stevenson, WA: 2017.
- Aldrin, B., Witsberger, P., Potter, R., Millane, J., Saikia, S., Kaplinger, B., and Longuski, J., “Hyperbolic Abort Options for Human Missions to Mars,” AAS 17-648, Stevenson, WA: 2017.