91É«°É

Jay McMahon
Associate Professor, Smead Aerospace
Friday, Sept. 12 | 10:40 A.M. | AERO 111

Abstract: Our solar system is a fascinating place full of incredible mysteries that help explain where life came from, and where humanity may be going in the future. I have devoted my career so far to participating in the exploration of the solar system. We have learned more about our place in the universe with every successful mission. In participating in missions such as OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa2, DART, Hera, EMA, and INCUS we are helping to explore scientific questions, and to uncover many new mysteries. Similarly, each mission reveals ways in which we could learn more efficiently in our next missions with more capable spacecraft and deeper understanding of the environments we are visiting. This talk will take a trip through the variety of exciting work that has been done by my lab - ORCCA - over the past 10+ years. I will walk through some of our main areas of research and highlight our contributions to this field. Finally, I’ll spend a few moments talking our current work and future directions as we try to help develop the technology to further space exploration and humanity’s expansion beyond Earth.Ìý

Bio: Jay McMahon is an Associate Professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences department at the 91É«°É. His research focuses on autonomy, guidance, navigation, and control for spacecraft, along with the governing dynamics for these systems. He has especially focused on applications to small bodies. He was a Participating Scientist for the DART Mission, and was on the science teams investigating gravity science for NASA's OSIRIS-REx and JAXA's Hayabusa2 missions, and is currently supporting the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt. He was named the 2020 Outstanding Faculty Graduate Advisor Award in 91É«°É's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He obtained his PhD from the 91É«°É in 2011, his MS in 2006 from the University of Southern California, and his BS from the University of Michigan in 2004. He previously worked on launch vehicle guidance systems at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA. Asteroid (46829) McMahon - a main belt binary asteroid - is named in his honor.
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