Transfer Orbit

This blog entry has been long overdo. And lots has happened since my last update, SGC15 and IAC2015 came and went, the Technion hosted the SSP16 curriculum planning meetings, SGAC Israel is planning another event, I progressed a lot in my research and progressed somewhat in achieving my career goals. And now I have to find a way to sum it all up here...

The SGAC's 2015 Space Generation Congress, of which I was a member of the organizing team, was a huge success, we were overbooked and everyone that participated had a great experience. Not everything went according plan, but we managed to handle the crises and get everyone through an awesome learning and social experience. The SGC included five working groups in which the congress delegates discussed issues that ranged from human exploration to commercial small satellites. In addition we had lectures by distinguished guests from NASA, the Israeli Space Agency, the International Astronautical Federation, Lockheed Martin and other organizations. The event concluded in a gala dinner with the SGC delegates, heads of space agencies and industry executives. I worked for months on this three day congress together with some wonderful people, my co-NPoC of Israel Yevgeny Tsodikovich, the executive director of SGAC, Minoo Rathnasabapathy, the congress manager Jan Svoboda and so many others. The feelings of pride and achievement we had after the SGC (and IAC) concluded showed me how invested we were in making SGC15 the best it could be. It was.
A three part summary of the event can be found here, here and here.

 

Yevgeny and I playing with cosmonaut gloves (left) and Dan and I with NASA administrator Charles Bolden (right) 

The SGC was event packed and went by in a heartbeat, but there was no time to relax because two days after the SGC ended the 2015 International Astronautical Congress began. After setting up the SGAC booth on the day before IAC opening I was basically done with my SGAC responsibilities, so I had the time to meet up with people, attend lectures and presentations and roam around the exhibition areas. I had specific goals for the IAC - present a paper I co-authored, meet up with people relevant to SSP16 and more important, I had set up some corridor meetings with professors I would love to work with in my PhD. The paper I presented discussed the global efforts required for an Earth threatening asteroid deflection mission, it was written together with Dr. Jim Burke, a retired JPL engineer and Yole De-Angelis from the French Air Force. My section dealt mainly with the technical capabilities of a kinetic interceptor for medium size asteroids. This paper was the first opportunity I had to seriously research asteroid astrodynamics and asteroid deflection concepts. I enjoyed it a lot. I am now toying with the idea of incorporating asteroids into my current research. And I hope in the future I will be able to work on asteroid focused research. Asteroid research is not only super interesting it is also marked as a future frontier for manned space exploration. I have an idea for a followup paper for the next IAC, and I need to get around to writing the abstract by the submission date in February.

Jim and I presenting the paper at the IAC

In many ways the SGC and IAC were a hop back into orbit for me, they were intense space-filled experiences. Experiences in which I learned a lot about the space community and met some (even more) great spacies. The return to routine after the events was easier than the last de-orbit, I think mostly because I know the routine I came back to is actually a part of transfer orbit I am on.  

Humanity's journey to Mars envisioned by NASA, in many ways this map presentments our civilization's transfer orbit.
This map was presented in more than one lecture during the SGC, I have a feeling Mars is important to the spacies...

A month after the IAC ended the Asher Space Research Institute (where I spend most of my days) hosted the International Space University 2016 Space Studies Program Curriculum Planning Meetings (ISU SSP16 CPM). During this week long event the leading staff of SSP16 came to the Technion to discuss content and logistics for the SSP. It wasn't the most exciting experience, but crucial for the program and an important landmark towards this upcoming summer. I have several hats in SSP16; first, I am a local (country, city and university) ISU alumni, this makes me very invested in the program because I want my home to be represented properly in the SSP. Second, I have been appointed be an associate chair for the Big Space Data Team Project (TP), originally I was supposed to be a teaching associate, but my high involvement from the get-go (with some help from circumstances) got me bumped up. I think SSP16 has a great line up of TPs, but more on that in future blog entries. The third, and most time consuming, hat is my position in the local organizing team, I am responsible for coordinating local content for the SSP. This means setting up tours, local guest lecturers, logistics for the activities and lots more. I get to work with a great team at the Asher Space Research Institute and get to help shape the whole SSP16 experience. An emphasis I try to put in my work on the SSP is getting local involvement in the program by opening events to the Technion public and by looking for collaborations with local spacies. On the last day of the CPM we had a great pilot run for the "SSP gives back" concept in the form of a lecture to the general public given by SSP16 director John Connolly. John, a NASA human exploration missions engineer, gave the jam-packed auditorium a glimpse into the complexity of a manned journey to Mars. It was a great event, and I hope to get more of these set up during the summer. We concluded the week of meetings with a get-together of local ISU alums and the CPM participants, with beer, as the ISU tradition requires.

The full house in John's lecture (picture credit to Technion Student Union)

As the transfer orbit towards SSP16 continues with program set ups and getting local spacies interested in registration and funding for the their participation another transfer orbit is on its way for me. I have applied to several universities in the US for my PhD studies. I am hoping to start my studies in the Fall Semester of 2016. Unlike the SSP preparations which are a consent low thrust transfer orbit done in small increments that include constant work on minor tasks and status checks, the PhD transfer orbit feels like a pulse velocity shift (ΔV) transfer. I have sent the applications (pulse #1), then went into hibernation, waiting for reply (mid course check and adjust) and hoping I reach my target and enter a new orbit in life (pulse #2) with no means to influence what happens in between pulses. This type of transfer orbit is requires patience (I'm doing my best at the moment) and includes working according to a plan based on assumptions made on the characteristics of the designated orbit, an orbit that might not be reached. The assumption based plan comes with personal costs, waiving things I might want and opportunities that come by. I do have several contingency plans in mind and I'm sure my future orbit(s) will be even more interesting than past orbits, but still, not knowing how I will wake up from hibernation is difficult.

The SSP16 staff with Israeli ISU alums

In the mean time I am working on my research (hope I'll have the opportunity to update on that in a dedicated blog entry soon), setting up for the SSP and working on the next SGAC event in Israel, the SGx-Israel. I also hope I'll be able to attend the Space Generation Fusion Forum (en-route to the next orbit) and I'm sure I'll try update more often.

SGx-Israel logo, had a great graphic designer on this one