FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE WEBINAR
Effectively Preparing for Flight
Speakers:
- Paul De León, Flight Opportunities Campaign Manager
- Annie Meier, Ph.D., NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
- Brett Streetman, Ph.D., Draper
May 5, 2021
Abstract
Early and thorough preparation is key to conducting a suborbital flight test. In this webinar, Flight Opportunities Campaign Manager Paul De León will share insights from his extensive experience working with researchers through the flight test process. He will be joined by Dr. Annie Meier and Dr. Brett Streetman, both experienced researchers with Flight Opportunities, to share concrete actions principal investigators can build into their plans to optimize test logistics. The panel will also discuss how researchers can be better prepared to respond to changes and challenges as they arise.
Download the slides
Speaker Bios
Paul De León is a flight campaign manager for Flight Opportunities, providing technical direction and managing reduced-gravity parabolic, high-altitude balloon, and suborbital flight campaigns with the goal of maturing space technologies of interest to NASA. With a tenure of over 20 years, Paul has supported multiple NASA projects and programs in a variety of fields including airborne science, space vehicle thermal protection systems, space-borne payload development, and integration and launch. Paul has received numerous NASA certificates, awards, and honors during his career, including a 2018 NASA Ames Engineering Honor Award for outstanding contributions to the Flight Opportunities program. He has also completed the NASA-sponsored graduate program in Space Systems Engineering through the Stevens Institute of Technology as well as NASA’s Systems Engineering Leadership Development Program.
Dr. Annie Meier is the chief of the Exploration Systems and Development Office at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, which focuses on in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology development. She also serves a technical role as the ISRU maturation manager for the center and provides research leadership in the applied research areas for space mission logistical waste conversion and resource reutilization for human spaceflight. She was principal investigator for the first suborbital flight of the microgravity trash processing payload called Orbital Syngas/Commodity Augmentation Reactor (OSCAR) project, which has undergone testing through Flight Opportunities, and is being prepared for another test later in 2021 under her mentorship. Additional areas of Annie’s research have included Mars CO2 capture and conversion to methane via Sabatier, and waste conversion with plasma gasification. She is passionate about expanding involvement in waste awareness and engaging the future generation through education and outreach. Annie uses her experience as a crew member and researcher of the HI-SEAS Mars analog simulation to incorporate more realistic expectations of human participation during technology development.
Dr. Brett Streetman is currently a principal member of the technical staff at Draper and has wide experience in technology development and flight testing. He is the principal investigator for the Draper Multi-Environment Navigator (DMEN) technology, which has been tested successfully on high-altitude balloons and is being prepared for upcoming tests on a suborbital rocket-powered vehicle. He is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow and completed a 2014 NIAC Phase I study entitled “Exploration Architecture with Quantum Inertial Gravimetry and In-situ ChipSat Sensors.” He has served as the guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) lead for Draper’s guided parafoil programs, and in that capacity prepared flight software for more than 30 flight test campaigns, and personally supported more than 10 of those. He has also served as the technical director for the ADCS flight software development for a DARPA-funded small spacecraft, and technical director or GN&C task lead on multiple lunar landing projects, as well as participating in the Flight Opportunities-funded GENIE project.
