Annual Meeting – Elections / Artemis RPOD: An Intentional Crash Course

Annual Membership Meeting Agenda:

• Announcements
• Annual Financial Report
• Presentation by Kyle Edson
• Election results announced
• Observing Reports

Lockheed Martin

Presentation Title:

“Artemis RPOD: An Intentional Crash Course”

Presentation:

Kyle will give a high-level overview of Artemis, add more details for Artemis II, and then focus primarily on Artemis III. He will present the Artemis III mission trajectory and timeline with the phases of flight and explain the several orbits required to reach the Moon’s surface and return to Earth. He’ll then focus on the Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD) phase and discuss the challenges associated with it, such as requiring very accurate knowledge of Orion and the target vehicle’s orbital state, Orion’s precise burn requirements and passive safety. He will cover how spacecraft control systems work if there’s time after that. And, of course, leave some time for questions.

Our Speaker:

Kyle was born and raised in Boulder, CO. He always had a passion for space, particularly in human spaceflight. With CU’s excellent aerospace program down the street, he received a bachelor’s degree in 2015 and a master’s in 2019 in Aerospace Engineering with a certificate in Astrodynamics and Satellite Navigation. He started at Lockheed Martin in 2016, working on Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF), a military communication program, on the launch team out of Colorado Springs. After a multi-year launch slip, he briefly worked on Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) before moving to Orion at the end of 2018. Since then, Kyle has joined the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) subsystem, focusing on Controls. He’s primarily working on Artemis III, which will be the first mission to land humans on the Moon since Apollo. Artemis III and beyond include one or more RPOD periods, which require careful coordination between two spacecraft in halo orbits around the Moon.

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Open to members and non-members alike, the Monthly General Meetings feature club announcements, member observing reports, and a headline guest speaker. Speakers typically hail from one of Colorado’s many science or technical organizations and share their experiences on a wide range of astronomy topics.

Location: In-person at Regis University’s Peter Claver Hall, Room 315.
Meeting attendees can arrive at Regis starting at 6:30 p.m.
* Park in Lot 4, Lowell Boulevard, between 52nd and 53rd Avenue

The meeting will also be available via Zoom for those unable to attend in person. The Zoom link will be posted closer to the event.