Roger Myers, who oversees development and production of next-generation space propulsion systems and vehicles for Aerojet Inc., will present a lecture on space exploration on Friday, Oct. 5, at 10 a.m. in the Engineering, Teaching, and Research Laboratory (ETRL) 101 on the Pullman campus.
Myers, executive director of Electric Propulsion and Integrated Systems at Aerojet, will lecture on “Toward an Affordable Space Exploration Architecture,’’ a discussion of Aerojet’s ideas for a human mission to Mars by 2033. For distant space exploration,
Aerojet is developing ideas for a system of high-powered, solar-electric propulsion freighter vehicles that they hope will be able to pre-position supplies and habitats for a human crew, who would eventually be transported to distant sites in a more conventional, liquid hydrogen-powered rocket. Such a system of freighters would minimize risks to the crew and allow for sharing and reduction of exploration costs, says Myers.
Sponsored by Washington State University’s College of Engineering and Architecture as part of the Lanning Lecture, the event is free and open to the public. The Lanning Lecture was established in 1988 and is funded by civil engineering alumnus Jack Dillon, ’41.