Homer J. Stewart Lecture in Aerospace

This lecture is given in honor and memory of Homer J. Stewart (1915-2007), Professor of Aeronautics and a faculty member of GALCIT from 1942 to 1980. He made pioneering contributions in rocketry, satellite and spacecraft design, control, dynamics and navigation, and wind energy.

Over the last few decades we have visited all the planets in our solar system and established continuous scientific presence on and around one of them (Mars). We have detected hundreds of planets around neighboring stars, peered back to a few hundred million years from the formation of our universe and developed the capability to monitor almost every parameter in our planet s environment. Now we stand at the threshold of the next age of exploration: Bringing samples from other planets, searching for habitable environments in and beyond our solar system, shedding light on how our universe was made and what it is made of and how our planet will react to all the climatic and environmental changes. The talk will describe the scientific, technological and engineering challenges that will enable this second age of space exploration.