Announcements

Interplanetary Cruising with Earth-to-Mars Transit Examples

An AIAA Professional Development Lecture Series Presentation, via Zoom

presented by

Daniel R. Adamo

Astrodynamics Consultant 

Wednesday, January 31st, 12:00-1:30 PM PST

This 1.5-hour lecture introduces the fundamentals of orbit motion and applies them to designing a realistic Mars mission by solving the Lambert boundary value problem for sun-centered trajectories. The patched conic technique is then applied to a sun-centered transit from Earth to Mars, producing geometric constraints on Earth departure as an example. Summarizing this process, the fundamental design trade between minimal time-of-flight and minimal propulsion is made apparent for missions to the moon, near-Earth asteroids, and Mars. By listening to this lecture, anyone with an understanding of high school physics will become familiar with the challenges of interplanetary spaceflight, particularly when human factors are considered. 

Daniel Adamo is an astrodynamics consultant focused on space mission trajectory design, operations, and architecture. He works with clients primarily at NASA and in academia.  Until retirement in 2008, Mr. Adamo was employed by United Space Alliance as a trajectory expert, serving as a “front room” flight controller for 60 Space Shuttle missions. Along with console duties during simulations and missions, this job entailed development of trajectory designs, software tools, flight rules, console procedures, and operations concepts. Mr. Adamo began his career at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation where he developed and operated proof-of-concept software for computer-controlled polishing of optical elements. He has degrees in Physical Sciences and Optical Engineering from the University of Houston and the University of Rochester, respectively.  Mr. Adamo is an AIAA Associate Fellow and the author of many publications (ref. http://www.aiaahouston.org/adamo_astrodynamics/). He has received numerous awards, including 14 NASA Group Achievement Awards. 

The presentation will be on Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 from 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PST via Zoom. The Zoom link for the meeting is here.