25Speakers

25th Space Simulation Conference
Conference Keynote Speakers

Tuesday
Keynote Speaker

Robert Gold

Tuesday
Luncheon Speaker

Phil Sabelhaus

Thursday
Keynote Speaker

Bill Breeden

Keynote Speaker Tuesday - Dr. Robert Gold

Robert Gold is the Chief Technologist at The Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory. He also is a physicist who has specialized in heliospheric and planetary particles and fields research. Dr. Gold served as the APL project scientist for the NASA Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission, which provides early warning of interplanetary disturbances before they hit the Earth. He was the Payload Manager for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, the first to orbit and land on an asteroid, and for the MESSENGER mission that will be the first to orbit the planet Mercury. He is also an investigator on the Ulysses mission that has orbited above the poles of the Sun. Dr. Gold received a Ph. D. from the University of Denver in 1972 and has written over 75 scientific publications. Asteroid 4955 Gold was named for his work on the NEAR mission.

The MESSENGER mission will be the first to orbit planet Mercury and explore its unique properties. Mercury has the highest uncompressed density of any planet, its core is about three quarters the size of the entire planet and it has an extremely thin atmosphere. The sunward surface of Mercury is about 450 °C and yet there may be ice in permanently shadowed craters near the poles. Mercury is also the only other planet with an Earth-like magnetosphere. Getting to Mercury orbit is difficult and the complex mission trajectory executes 6 planetary flybys before it can inject into orbit around Mercury. And, when it gets there it must deal with solar intensity of 14 kW/m2 and a large 450 °C black body illuminating the spacecraft.

This talk will examine how many of the design challenges were met and show some of the extraordinary observations of the first two Mercury flybys.

Tuesday Luncheon Speaker - Phil Sabelhaus

Phil Sabelhaus serves as the Manager of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The JWST project is responsible for the development, launch, operations and science data processing for the 21st century follow-on of the highly successful Hubble Space Telescope.

Phil has over 20 years of distinguished experience at NASA. Over this time, he has served as the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere, Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) Deputy Project Manager, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) Project Manager, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) Deputy Project Manager, and the Landsat 7 Project Manager. In late 1998, Phil was appointed the Deputy Associate Director of Flight Projects for EOS Development. As part of these duties, he served as the ESSP VCL Project Manager and the EOS Aqua Project Manager. In September 2001, Mr. Sabelhaus was appointed the Associate Director of Flight Projects for EOS. Phil graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.

The JWST project is currently in Phase C with its launch scheduled for June 2013. The project is a partnership between NASA, ESA and CSA. The U.S. JWST team is in place. Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST) is the prime contractor for the observatory and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the mission operations and science data processing lead.

As our lunch speaker, Phil will provide an overview of the planned JWST science, current architecture, and mission status, including technology developments and risks.

Keynote Speaker Thursday - Bill Breeden

Bill Breeden is the Director of the Engineering Laboratories for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. His organization provides a wide variety of test services such as full scale and component structural testing, wind tunnel testing, ground vibration testing, aircraft systems testing, and material processing development. His team also designs and builds wind tunnel and radar cross section models, and supports both ground and flight test instrumentation. The Engineering Laboratories provide support to all Lockheed Martin aircraft programs including F-35, F-22, F-16, C-130, C-5, ADP and several others.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in 2006, Bill worked for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (SSC) for over 20 years. In his last position at SSC Bill was Senior Manager of the Engineering Test Labs & Services organization. Bill was an integral part of the test programs for several satellite and spacecraft programs including Magellan, Tethered Satellite, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Stardust, Genesis, Commercial Satellites and Classified Programs. He also supported the Titan and Atlas launch vehicle programs.

Bill has participated in the Space Simulation Conference in a number of roles publishing and presenting technical papers at the 19th and 20th conferences and serving on the Technical Program Committee for 20th and 21st conferences. He was the Technical Chairman and a presenter for the 22nd conference and served as General Chair for the 23rd conference. Bill was also a member of the AIAA Working Group on Space Simulation for 10 years. Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla and an MBA from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Tuesday Keynote Speaker