Inside Apollo: Heroes, Rules and Lessons Learned in the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) System Development
By
George Schmidt
September 16, 2019 5:30 PM
Meet and Greet at 5
The University of New Mexico Conference Center, Room B
1634 University Blvd. NE
Free and Open to the Public
Pizza with the speaker will follow the lecture
George T. Schmidt is an IEEE Life Fellow. He is Vice President, Technical Operations of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS). From 1961 through 2007, he was at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and the Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the Apollo GNC program at MIT, he was in charge of mission verification and testing. In 2013 he completed 17 years of service as Editor-in-Chief of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. He has received several awards including the AIAA International Cooperation Award in 2001 and the NATO Science and Technology Organization’s highest technical award, the von Kármán Medal in 2005.
Abstract The Apollo flights, particularly Apollo 8 and 11, were among the greatest explorations of mankind. Dr Schmidt will give his thoughts based on 10 years inside the GNC program design, many hours in the Spacecraft Control room at Cape Kennedy monitoring GNC performance through liftoff, and then providing real-time mission support to NASA from MIT in Cambridge, MA. The talk is particularly focused on helpful lessons for being a successful engineer.