2014 SPACE SCHOLAR NOMINATION

Name of Mentor Submitting Nomination: _Dr. Josue D. Muñoz___________________ Name of Scholar Nominated: _Mr. Tristan Newman____________________________ Program: (Space, Phillips RV, DE, Phillips RD) _Space Scholar_____________________

Dear AFRL Space Scholars Program,

I wish to express my support for Mr. Tristan Newman to be awarded the 2014 Outstanding Space

Scholar Award for his contributions to the AFRL/RVES effort to investigate Constrained Dynamics and

Control Solutions for Translational and Rotational Motion. I make this recommendation based on what

Mr. Tristan Newman has been able to produce during his tenure as a Space Scholar as well as what he

has been able to learn in that time.

With regard to his contributions, Mr. Tristan Newman has solved two novel problems pertaining to

attitude control. From his first week, he quickly became an expert in the field of attitude dynamics and

control. He was also asked to investigate ways of applying the artificial potential function method to

solving the constrained attitude control problem. Within weeks he was able to solve for a closed-form

feedback control law that: 1) accounts for pointing and slew rate constraints and 2) mitigates the local

minima problem associated with pointing constraints through early avoidance. Having these two

solutions in a closed-form feedback control law would greatly reduce the complexity of the concept of

operations for space vehicles that have exclusion angles or pointing keep-out-zones. Mr. Tristan

Newman is now working on demonstrating his solutions through Matlab simulations. Once his results

are obtained, he will be presenting a seminar at the AFRL GNC Program’s seminar series and publish his

results in peer-reviewed journals.

With regard to learning, Mr. Tristan Newman now fully understands attitude dynamics and control and

the artificial potential function methodology, but can also apply the techniques he has learned to any

constrained dynamics problem. He has shown great rigor in the development of his solutions (including

proofs of all control solutions). He has also maintained constant and excellent documentation

throughout his stay here, which shows great merit to his organizational skills. This will also reduce the

amount of effort required to transition his work to a seminar presentation and preprint of a journal

submission. In my opinion, he has demonstrated superior analytical and critical thinking skills.

To summarize, I would like to recommend Mr. Tristan Newman for the 2014 Outstanding Space Scholar

Award. In the couple of months that Mr. Tristan Newman has been a Space Scholar, Mr. Tristan

Newman has developed solutions that are easily transitioned to flight code and would improve the

efficiency with which attitude control is performed. Mr. Tristan Newman has shown great potential to

be an excellent researcher and engineer if he chooses to continue on this path. Feel free to contact me

if you wish to discuss Mr. Tristan Newman’s performance as a Space Scholar further.