What are some of the opportunities for growth and mentorship at Relative Dynamics?
At Relative Dynamics I have been given many opportunities for growth--we are encouraged to seek out and develop our own SBIR proposals, for example. I have been able to work on exciting projects simply because I asked to work on them, and everyone has always been happy to share what they know.
What does a typical day at Relative Dynamics look like for you?
On the NOAA GOES-R Mission Operations Support Team, I ensure the maneuver planners always have what they need to plan maneuvers. The GOES-R satellites are the first geostationary satellites to use GPS for navigation, which means old workflows have been replaced with new ones. I help resolve any issues that come up when moving from those old workflows to the new ones.
How would you describe the culture at Relative Dynamics?
I would describe the culture as having high expectations but giving a lot of freedom to meet those expectations. There is no micromanaging, and people are willing to give you a hand if you ask. I've found it very easy to get along with everyone here.
What is an example of a hard problem or project you've had to solve?
I was part of a two-man team which had to figure out how to locate Earth from a cubesat without any ephemeris or time information, without an RF uplink to hone in on, and only knowing the general geometry of the bodies the cubesat would be passing near. All we had was a camera with a circle-finding image processing algorithm running on it, and we had to find the most efficient way of spinning the cubesat such that it found the circle representing Earth, not the Sun or other celestial bodies.