Abstract

The panel discussion will look towards what future opportunities exist as autonomy takes a larger role in space exploration. What kinds of missions are enabled that were unthinkable in the past? What kinds of tasks can be conducted in space—both with and without humans—because of ever-improving autonomy? What questions can we answer about our place in the Cislunar regime, the Solar System, the Milky Way, and the Universe? The panel members bring expertise to discuss this from perspectives of spacecraft trajectory and mission design, autonomous systems for lunar and planetary exploration, and astrobiology and the origin of life from atmospheric and planetary processes.

Moderator

• Nadia Numa, AAE PhD student studying in our astrodynamics and space applications area.

Panelists

• Bobby Braun is the head of the Space Exploration Sector at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
• Ran Dai is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue; her research portfolio includes autonomy for lunar rovers and entry-descent-landing algorithms.
• Ken Oguri is an Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue; he works on robust spacecraft trajectory design under uncertainty in challenging dynamical environments.
• Ben Pearce is an Assistant Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue; he studies the origin of life of Earth and the search for life elsewhere in our solar system.
• Rob Chambers is the Future Concepts Director for Lockheed Martin’s Human and Scientific Space Exploration area. He is a Purdue AAE alumnus and a 2024 recipient of Purdue’s Outstanding Aerospace Engineer award.