I kept notes of who asked what during my Mars seminar. I saw PAM Abusali, a famous researcher at the Center for Space Research out on Balcones Road – I took his orbital dynamics class, and we got along well – and he wondered why I was still on campus. He thought that was my dissertation defense. Dr. Hull was there, the nonlinear optimization expert, but he did not ask any questions. I had solved the Mars problem without his monster algorithm. He did not even ask how I did it.
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<u>Presentation Comments</u> 11-2-00
Abusali – distance of semi-minor axis from $f = 90$? – $f = 90$ exactly? (asked 3x)
Fowler – why @ $f = 90$? – why would tangential thrust @ $f = 90^\circ$ elongate orbit? – “free-return” is at Sun – aren’t going to Earth?
Ocampo – how get IC for s/c ~ position; what abt. velocity?
– how can you compare this to a real NASA JPL mission?
Hull – never said a word, smiled, or <u>anything</u>
grad student – isn’t this a bi-elliptic transfer
$\Rightarrow$ Notices posted 4 hours before the seminar. $\Leftarrow$ <u>only</u> after I cancelled…
