Kathleen Howell, Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University

Lecture: An Orbital Transportation Network to Support the Cislunar Space Enterprise

The cislunar region is the next step in the expansion of human activities further into space. Cislunar space is increasingly strategically important for a variety of current activities that build capabilities and enable technology development. But it also serves as a bridge between the present operations and future deep space missions. Various proposals and plans are focused on expanding the human presence in cislunar space; scenarios include space-based human-crewed facilities, robotic science missions, commercial operations beyond GEO and in the lunar vicinity, national security throughout the region and a range of new technology demonstration options. Many challenges exist to enable a full range of capabilities, but a multipurpose infrastructure is a critical element to achieving human expansion and building a space economy. An orbital transportation network is a foundational element of such an infrastructure and is important for all sectors. Based upon insight and efficiency from the LEO and GEO regimes, current efforts seek to produce roadmaps in this more complex dynamical environment.

Mars2020 Sampling and Caching System (SCS) Team

Accepting the award: Keith Rosette and Louise Jandura, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Citation: “For the design and flight operation of the scientific acquisition system that became the foundation of Mars Sample Return”

The AIAA Space Systems Award is presented to recognize outstanding achievements in the architecture, analysis, design, and implementation of space systems.

This award is sponsored by the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee.

Jonathan Gardner, Deputy Senior Project Scientist, James Webb Space Telescope, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Lecture Title: Early Science Results from the James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas Day 2021, after 25 years of planning, design, development, integration, and testing. Following a six-month deployment and commissioning period, the first science results from Webb have engaged the public and surprised the scientists. Early results range from the most distant galaxies to black holes to interacting galaxies to star-forming regions to exoplanet atmospheres to our own solar system.

A scientific successor to the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency and was built by hundreds of companies and thousands of people. A large (6.6m), cold (55K) deployed telescope in orbit around the second Earth-Sun Lagrange Point, Webb has four instruments that do both imaging and spectroscopy from visible to infrared wavelengths, 0.6 to 28 microns. Its science goals address our origins and the history of the universe: the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang; the morphological and dynamical buildup of galaxies; the formation of stars and planetary systems; and exoplanets, our solar system, and the conditions for life.

Gardner will review Webb’s construction, launch, and deployments, and discuss the commissioning of the telescope and its instruments. He will describe what scientists have learned in the first few months of science results from the telescope and look ahead to additional results expected in the coming years.