Technical Projects

Here are brief descriptions of some of my ongoing technical research interests.

Small satellites and cooperative sensing

Small satellites in the Cubesat class have a variety of useful applications considering their size. For example, a 3U-format Cubesat with an all-reflective visible/near-IR sensor can be used for Earth remote sensing missions include ocean color sensing, atmospheric sampling, wildfire detection, and natural resource assessment. Cooperative arrays of Cubesat-class and other small satellite designs can be used with adaptive data recombination methods for enhanced spatial and spectral resolution, and at much lower cost and complexity than traditional designs. I was one of the first aerospace scientists to seriously propose Cubesats for Earth remote sensing, and continue to work in this area as well as investigating newer applications of small satellites.

Unmanned Aerospace Systems (UAS)

The rapid growth of unmanned systems in recent years opens up many possibilities for cooperative and networked sensing. UAS systems in air, space, and in/over the oceans offer great potential for expanding network coverage and distributed sensing of environmental data. Wide-area surveys and flexible network configurations are two of my research interests, as well as advanced processing methodology such as data "skimming" to preview complex image data for rapid assessment to aid human operators.

Other research interests

I have ongoing research interests in other areas, including the following:

• Astrophysical instrumentation for exoplanet detection and characterization
• Missions to the asteroids and outer Solar System for astronomy and space exploration
• Applications of Quantum Information Science to aerospace systems, including quantum sensing

Please contact me for more information about my work and interests in any of these areas.