information. - Univelt

PREFACEThis year marked the 35th anniversary of the AAS Rocky Mountain Section’s Guidanceand Control Conference. It was held in Breckenridge, Colorado at the Beaver Run Resortfrom February 3-8, 2012. The planning committee and the national chairs did an outstandingjob in creating a highly-technical conference experience, and I extend many thanksto all those involved.The conference formally began on the morning of Saturday, February 4th with a plenarysession new to the format this year. The speaker was Mr. Keith Uebele of Intel Corporationon “The Future of Computing for Space and Ground Systems: Exploring the Limits”.After this well-received kick-off, the first session began with Space Debris – Tracking,Characterization & Mitigation. This session investigated the nature of debris and ways toensure our safe future in space.To cap off the day, the Technical Exhibits session was held Saturday afternoon. Nineteencompanies and organizations participated with many hardware demonstrations as wellas excellent technical interchanges between conferees, vendors, and family. The session wasaccompanied by a buffet dinner. Many family members and children were present, greatlyenhancing the collegiality of the session. The highly-experienced technical exhibits team didan outstanding job organizing the vendors and exhibits.Sunday, February 5th marked a return of the tutorial sessions with a morning SpaceWeather Tutorial. This session, expanding upon the hazards of space, included a discussionof the current state of space and upper-atmospheric physics along with an overview of measuringsystems and available data sources.Continuing in the educational spirit, MathWorks held a special workshop that afternoonon “Using MATLAB & Simulink for Model-Based Design of Control Systems”. Thiswell-attended lunch-time event covered the iterative process of analysis, design, and optimizationinvolved in the development and implementation of a real-world practical application.The ever-popular Advances in G&C was held later that same afternoon. And with somuch interest this year in the topic, a special follow-up Advances session was held Mondaymorning to further examine the current state-of-the-art. In the afternoon of February 6th,GN&C – The Future addressed how new concepts of operation, algorithms, and componentswill be required to meet increasingly-sophisticated mission needs in the years to come.The banquet was held later that evening, and featured Dr. Greg Chamitoff, NASA Astronautand Mission Specialist who performed the last spacewalk of the Space Shuttle Program.Greg described his mission experiences and life in space in his captivating speech entitled“Completing Construction of the International Space Station – The Last Mission ofSpace Shuttle Endeavour”. The images and videos he showed were truly awe-inspiring.xi