2/19/2015 Susan Mumm, Media Specialist
Written by Susan Mumm, Media Specialist
Miller's talk, "NASA Technology Drives Exploration (And How You Can Get Involved)" will be at 4 p.m. in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications Building, 1122 NCSA, 1205 W. Clark Street, Urbana. A reception will follow the talk.
The Apollo missions blazed a path to deep space, and today NASA is working on the next giant leap – the path to Mars. Technology drives exploration, according to Miller, and NASA is building on the Apollo program's accomplishments to test and fly transformative, cutting edge technologies today for tomorrow's missions. But unlike the Apollo missions, where the public could only watch, NASA want the public to get involved and be a part of the journey.
Miller serves as NASA's principal advisor and advocate on the agency's technology policy and programs. The Chief Technologist’s Office coordinates, tracks and integrates technology investments across the agency and works to infuse innovative discoveries into future missions. The office leads NASA technology transfer and technology commercialization efforts, facilitating internal creativity and innovation, and works directly with other government agencies, the commercial aerospace community and academia.
In addition, Miller is the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was the Director of the Space Systems Laboratory.
Miller has worked with a broad range of NASA programs including the space shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), the JWST Product Integrity Team, and the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. Most recently, he was the Principal Investigator for the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer for the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, and a NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts fellow. He was the principal investigator for the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, project on the ISS, and the co-principal investigator for the Middeck Active Control Experiment, which was flown on STS-67 and again on the ISS. He also recently served as the Vice Chair of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.
At MIT, Miller’s work focuses on developing reconfigurable spacecraft concepts using proximity operations and docking of modular satellites with universal, standardized interfaces. He has also helped develop a technique to control satellite formations, without the need for propellant, using high temperature super-conducting electromagnets.
Miller developed a unique, multi-semester, hands-on class at M.I.T. that immerses undergraduates in the end-to-end lifecycle process of developing and operating aerospace vehicles, some of which evolved into ISS laboratories. He has extended this educational model to the graduate level.
Miller earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT, and has been part of the faculty there since 1997.
The H.S. Stillwell Memorial Lecture was established in honor of Professor H.S. (Shel) Stillwell. In 1944, when he was 27 years old, Professor Stillwell founded the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Illinois, and served as department head for 32 years. Professor Stillwell was influential in the design of the first ramjet-powered missile and highly respected for his contributions to aerospace engineering education.