Robert P. Mueller

Rob Mueller is a senior technologist and principal investigator in the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Directorate at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He is the co-founder of the NASA Swamp Works innovation labs and the Kennedy Granular Mechanics & Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab.

Experience

Mueller has 35 years of engineering and management experience working for NASA in the space industry. Technical expertise includes regolith geotechnics, robotics, mechanical systems design, composite materials, in-situ resource utilization, planetary outpost construction and excavation, spaceport design, surface and ground operations, conceptual systems design, and mission architecture design. He has worked on the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, X-33, Atlas V, Orbital Space Plane, Second Generation Reusable Launch Vehicles, Asteroid Retrieval Mission, Martian Moon Exploration, Mars Exploration Studies, and both Constellation and Artemis Lunar Exploration programs including the Commercial Lunar Payloads Services program.

He currently serves as the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) topic manager for Excavation, Construction and Outfitting (ECO).

Mueller is a member and former chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee for Regolith Operations, Mobility and Robotics, and a former chairman of the ASCE Aerospace Division Executive Committee. He is a member of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Resources Technical Committee and also the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Tele Presence Future Directions Initiative Steering Committee.

In 2010, Rob Mueller co-founded the NASA Lunabotics Challenge, which provides accredited institutions of higher learning students to design and build a prototype robot, and he continues as the head judge for this competition.

More recently, Mueller has been leading the development of technologies required for planetary surface systems, including developing the specifics of lunar, asteroid and Mars regolith construction, excavation, mining, and other robotic surface support equipment. He has worked for NASA at Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Awards

Mueller has been the recipient of numerous NASA awards, including the astronaut’s personal achievement “Silver Snoopy” award, two NASA Silver Achievement Medals, and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. He has been awarded eleven U.S. patents for new technology inventions.

Education

Mueller received a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Miami in 1988 and a Master (MSSE) of International Space Systems Engineering from the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands in 2006, as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1994.

Biography last updated June 2024