Space Mission Involvement
On this page we list space mission involvement. This includes projects related to actual space missions or theoretical projects that had the potential to become real space missions had they advanced to the next stage. This also includes some missions for which I didn’t have any active involvement but participated in the popular outreach activities.
Europa Clipper Orbiter: Launched 14 October 2024, will arrive in Jupiter orbit in April 2030. Name included with ‘Message in a Bottle’ campaign, etched by an electron beam onto a silicon chip with other names, including my immediate family. Organised by NASA, JPL and JHAPL.
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return: Launched 08 September 2016, rendezvous with asteroid Bennu on 03 December 2018 and returned a sample to Earth on 24 September 2023. Name included with ‘Messages to Bennu’ placed in the sample return capsule, organised by the Planetary Society as a part of the ‘Messages from Earth’ program.
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover: Launched 30 July 2020 and landed on Mars 18 February 2021. Name included with ‘Send Your Name to Mars’ etched by an electron beam onto a silicon chip with other names.
Parker Solar Probe: Launched 12 August 2018 on a mission to conduct closer observations of the outer corona of the Sun. The mission is ongoing. Name included on a memory card onboard the spacecraft installed below the high-gain antenna, along with the names of my immediate family. Organised by NASA and JHAPL. The chip also includes photos of Eugene Parker and his famous 1958 paper on the Solar Wind.
Hayabusa2 Asteroid Sample Return: Launched 03 December 2014, rendezvous with asteroid 162173 Ryugu on 27 June 2018, returned samples to Earth on 05 December 2020. A Japanese space agency (JAXA) mission that is still operating. Participated in ‘Send your Name’ campaign with support of the Planetary Society.
Phoenix Spacecraft Mars Lander: Launched 04 August 2007, landed on Mars 25 May 2008 and operated until 02 November 2008. Name included with ‘Visions of Mars’ project on a silica mini-DVD provided by the Planetary Society, along with some of the greatest works of literature and art about the Red Planet.
SETI@Home: Participated in this online search survey in 2008 searching for technological signatures within observed astrophysical data. This was conducted by the University of California at Berkely and sponsored by the Planetary Society.
Stardust Comet Mission: Launched 07 February 1999, flyby of asteroid Annefrank on 02 November 2002, intercepted Comet Wild 2 on 02 January 2004 and returned a sample to Earth 15 January 2006. The mission was ended on 24 March 2011 after an interstellar phase. Name included on Stardust microchip installed on spacecraft
The following are also listed:
Project Starshot Laser Sail Mission Concept (2016 - 2023)
This was an innovative project to examine the possibility of launching a laser-power sail on an interstellar mission. The project was managed by the Breakthrough Initiatives. The plan was to look at launching such a probe, which would be gram-scale in mass using 100s GW ground based lasers, in the next 20 years or so. Travelling at 60,000 km/s or 0.2c it would arrive at the nearest stars 4.3 light years away around 20 years after launch. I was involved in helping to define the project, steer some of the theoretical and experimental research, attending many meetings in the United States. I also conducted personal design calculations relating to interstellar dust and systems architecture.
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1,000 AU Interstellar Probe Mission Concept (2018 - 2019)
This was a project managed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. It is a proposal for a pragmatic near-term mission concept that would enable ground breaking science using technology that is near-launch ready now. It would take 50 years to complete its journey to 1,000 AU traveling at a speed of 100 km/s. The Interstellar Probe was designed to explore questions about our place in the universe, enabled by multiple generations of engineers, scientists and visionaries. I was a collaborator of this project for for two years attending multiple meetings in the US where the initial concept layout was derived. I also did separate calculations pertaining to dust erosion measurements which contributed to the inclusion of an Interstellar Dust Analyzer (IDA) instrument on the mission proposal to measure the interplanetary and interstellar dust grain densities and compositions within the heliosphere and the LISM.
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Parker Solar Probe (2018+)
Although not directly involved in the mission, I was fortunate to witness the spacecraft undergoing thermal testing at the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Centre in 2018. In addition, mine and my family’s names are etched onto a microcircuit of the spacecraft which is now in orbit around the Sun and has broken speed records in space traveling close to 200 km/s. The Parker Solar Probe is named after Eugene Parker, the scientist who developed our basic theoretical model of the Solar Wind, which I studied on my master’s thesis project so having some connection to this mission felt right. In addition, since I am interesting in sending spacecraft to other stars, I can at least say I had some tertiary connection to the spacecraft that was sent to our star. The mission continues to amaze us in its achievements.
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Stardust Space Mission (2017)
The Stardust mission was launched in 1999 on route to Comet Wild 2. But what interested me more about this probe was its collection of interstellar dust particles. Using a unique clam shell design, it captured low velocity dust particles that were at the outer reaches of our solar system. These dust samples were returned to Earth in 2006. On a visit to the NASA Johnson Space Centre in 2017 I was fortunate to get a tour of the Stardust laboratory and see the actual samples returned which were encased in aerogel. This also informed my own knowledge of dust particle impacts on spacecraft design and I conducted several calculations for different projects relating to this problem.
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200 AU IAA Interstellar Probe Study (2009 - 2012)
I was involved in Commission 3 study of the International Academy of Astronautics to examine a potential mission to be sent to 200 AU distance. The main purpose of the study was to look at the different technologies that could be used for such a mission which would go far beyond the Voyager probes. Working with others I was looking at the advanced reaction engine options, in particular fusion and antimatter. In the end, it was concluded that the best technology for this specific mission would be solar sails.
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Skylon SSTO Spaceplane (2013)
For a while I was contracted as a consultant to Reaction Engines Ltd to work on orbital mechanics problems and the release of payloads into high orbit. Working with another consultant, where I managed the project, we produced reports with real solutions that could be implemented into future missions using the Sabre engine. This was for the Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) Spaceplane concept known as Skylon. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
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Stratospheric Balloon Experiments (2015-2016)
For two years I was involved in running a high altitude balloon company where we sent payloads up into the stratosphere. Our highest launch went to over 109,000 ft in a flight time of 7 hours carrying a nearly 4 kg payload. On our various flights we launched space components, marketing materials, plants and even cockroaches. The flights were launched from the UK and US and we conducted flights for several clients. This was all a part of a company for which I was involved in co-founding called Nebula Sciences. In our various flights the curvature of the Earth is clearly visible as well as its thin atmosphere.
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CubeSat Satellite Launch of ChipSats to LEO (2011-2014)
I acted as the liaison for the British Interplanetary Society and Cornell University in a project called Kicksat run by Zac Manchester. The project aimed to put tiny satellite spacecraft into orbit launched from a CubeSat. KickSat 1 failed to deploy the small probes but KickSat 2 was launched later and the probes were successfully released. The BIS members were able to establish radio contact with the small probes for a brief duration via the CubeSat.
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Mars Express Re-entry Mission (1999 - 2000)
During my undergraduate studies I was fortunate to do a project on thermal protection systems for atmospheric re-entry. In that capacity I worked with several companies and was given the UK candidate re-entry material for the Mars Express mission. This was an ablative carbon micro-balloon material and I set up thermal temperature conduction tests in the basement of the University and measured the thermal properties of the material. In the end it was not chosen for the mission, but I did do those experiments and they were a lot of fun.