He will serve with co-chair Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 

 

Pourpoint, who also is the Purdue faculty liaison with Sandia National Laboratories, is a leading expert on propulsion systems and experimental testing for propulsion research and development. He joined the faculty of the School of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering after receiving a PhD from the School in 2005.

 

The Cislunar Initiative’s mission is to provide national leadership in the development of cislunar space – the area between the Earth and the moon. Through exploration and discovery, the initiative is working to expand access to space, identify and utilize space resources, advance the development of space policy, and grow the cislunar economy.

 

“I grew up reading the adventures of Tintin walking on the surface of the Moon in the comic books by Hergé,” Pourpoint says. “These rather far-fetched adventures got me dreaming, got me to follow a passion for aerospace propulsion, and got me to today with an active role in an initiative that, in some ways, aims to get all of us dreaming about the future of space exploration. Those dreams have a chance to become reality with the projects supported by the Cislunar Initiative.”

 

In his role with the Cislunar Initiative, Pourpoint succeeds David Spencer, who has left his position as Purdue associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics to become Mars Sample Return Campaign Mission manager at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.