Kathleen Howell is developing potential orbits around a Lagrange point.

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President Bill and Hillary Clinton, tweeted the following on July 30:

“In awe of Kathleen Howell. Her contributions to mathematics may make it possible for @NASA to put people on Mars.” Clinton refers to the story “One woman’s math could help NASA put people on Mars.”

Howell is a world leader in unconventional orbits, which, according to the article, “is in fresh demand.” One of Howell’s specialties, near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO), would be an ideal location, in NASA’s opinion, for the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a planned way station for future human flights to the moon and eventually Mars. Mission planners, the Bloomberg piece states, already have brought Howell in for advice.

Howell is a member of the NASA Advisory Council – Technology, Innovation, and Engineering Committee, the National Academy of Engineering, and is an AIAA fellow and American Astronautical Society Fellow, among many others.

As of this writing, Clinton’s tweet has 526 retweets and 2.7 thousand likes. She has 2.31 million Twitter followers. She describes herself as an advocate, author and teacher.

Sources:
https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/1023997904401383424?s=09
One Woman’s Math Could Help NASA Put People on Mars