Often times the most interesting science in our universe is hidden away in hard-to-reach places. To explore these regions, JPL is developing a smart and robust landing system capable of localizing and avoiding hazards. This talk covers the various lander technologies, specifically JPL’s COBALT project and the many adventures of field-testing with VTVL rockets.
A Robotics Engineer at JPL with an extensive background in high altitude ballooning, DeLorean time machines, self-balancing robots, omni-directional drive systems, flight controllers, UAV’s, and Mars watches.
Steve Collins is a guidance and control engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Steve was Cruise ACS System Engineer for the Mars Curiosity Rover, and has worked on numerous NASA/JPL missions including Dawn, Deep Impact, MER, DS1, and Galileo. In flight, Steve's job consists of keeping the spacecraft pointed in the right direction, making trajectory corrections and figuring out "what the heck just happened??