Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
To ensure that current and future Mars exploration missions will be able to communicate their data to Earth efficiently, NASA is in the early planning stages for a new orbiter mission that would launch to the red planet in 2013. "We're studying what that ought to be, and it's going to be a hybrid science/telecommunications orbiter," said Doug McCuistion, NASA's director of Mars exploration.
Retired Vice Adm. Joseph Dyer, executive vice president and general manager of iRobot, envisions the number of missions undertaken by the company's PackBot multiplying as robots become more important in day-to-day military operations. "I really look at PackBot as the F-18 of ground robots," said Dyer, the former head of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) and current chair of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. "That basic platform will take on many payloads, sensors, manipulators, what have you, over time."
The U.S. Air Force wrapped up its first space program managers conference in Los Angeles on Feb. 23, which brought together more than 160 space acquisition personnel to discuss their programs and share best practices. The event was spearheaded by Air Force Undersecretary Ronald Sega, who is leading the military space acquisition community in a "back to basics" reform approach aimed at curtailing the budget overruns and schedule slips that have plagued so many major space programs.
