Upcoming SPEAKERS
Dr. MICHAEL MARTIN
Dr. Martin has been working in the aerospace industry for 23 years as a test engineer, design analyst, flight controller, and a Principal Investigator for 14 government-funded projects. While with Lockheed Martin, he designed the propulsion sub-assembly for the Orion Service Module, led a committee that selected fasteners for the entire module, and was given an award for his work.
In his current role as Director of the Advanced Propellants group at Benchmark Space Systems, he manages a range of propellant and propulsion research to develop less expensive and more effective means of providing spacecraft thrust. His expertise is in utilizing computational models to reduce the design cycle duration by reducing the need for physical tests. He graduated in 2014 with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and holds degrees from the University of New Orleans. He is a Senior Member of AIAA and enjoys speaking to student organizations about space exploration.
February 7th, 2024 | 7-8pm @ MSC 2501
Steve RILEY
Steve Riley is the Acting Chief of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, used for astronaut training and systems familiarization. Steve was born in Northern California and grew up in Northwest Houston. He began his career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1996 after graduating from Texas A&M University with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He supported assembly of the International Space Station as a Robotics Flight Controller from 1996 to 2010, and served as the Group Lead for Mechanisms and Maintenance Systems, coordinating maintenance and repair activities onboard the International Space Station, from 2010 to 2015.
March 6th, 2024 | 7-8pm @ MSC 2501
GEORGE SALAZAR
Mr. Salazar has over 40 years of experience in telemetry, communications, speech control, command and data handling, audio, displays and controls, intelligent lighting, project management, and systems engineering. He has been involved with the design of advanced telemetry, speech recognition, and intelligent computer systems of which he has received various patents.
Mr. Salazar has received numerous awards including the NASA Silver Achievement Medal, the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award, and the NASA/JSC Engineering Directorate Legacy Award for his contributions to human spaceflight. His roles include the Displays and Controls Subsystem Manager for the Commercial Crew Program, responsible for astronaut crew interfaces of both the SpaceX Dragon crew vehicle and the Artemis Human Lander System Computer Human Interface System Manager. Mr. Salazar was also co-founder of the successful NASA/JSC Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group, with the key goal of infusing HSI into the NASA agency development process.
Mr. Salazar received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston and his Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Southern Methodist University.
April 3rd, 2024 | 7-8pm @ MSC 2501
