Dr. McMahon's research is focused on the dynamics, guidance, navigation and control of aerospace vehicles, including space robotics, with a focus on increasing autonomy for space exploration. He also focuses on the dynamics of asteroids, particularly binary asteroids under the influence of non-gravitational forces. He is leading the Navigation team for the UAE Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA). He is a Participating Scientist for NASA Double-Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission. He was the deputy lead of the Radio Science team for the NASA OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission and was on the science team for JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission. He was also the Deputy-PI for NASA's planned Janus mission to visit two binary asteroid systems. He is a member of the investigation team for ESA's Hera mission to return to the Didymos binary asteroid impacted by DART. He combines his expertise in aerospace engineering and asteroid science to develop new methods for interacting with, and potentially mining, asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system.
keywords
astrodynamics, orbital mechanics, guidance navigation and controls, autonomy, asteroid science, binary asteroids, aerospace engineering, asteroid mining, space robotics, solar system exploration
ASEN 2003 - Aerospace 3: Introduction to Dynamics and Systems
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2020
Introduces the principles of particle and planar rigid body dynamics, systems, and controls. Topics include kinematics, kinetics, momentum and energy methods, system modeling, and simple feedback control. Class includes experimental and design laboratory exercises for aerospace applications of dynamic principles.
ASEN 5044 - Statistical Estimation for Dynamical Systems
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Summer 2021 / Fall 2021
Introduces theory and methods of statistical estimation for general linear and nonlinear dynamical systems, with emphasis on aerospace engineering applications. Major topics include: review of applied probability and statistics; optimal parameter and dynamic state estimation; theory and design of Kalman filters for linear systems; extended/unscented Kalman filters and general Bayesian filters for non-linear systems.
ASEN 5940 - Engineering Research Internship
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Summer 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023
Grants credit to foreign visiting graduate students for conducting research within the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. Credits can be transferred to the student's home institution. CU-Boulder students may also receive credit for conducting research outside of the university, either overseas or in the US.
ASEN 6015 - Space Vehicle Guidance and Control
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020 / Fall 2021 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2024
The course gives a comprehensive view of guidance systems used in space vehicles, and methods for analyzing the performance of these systems. The types of guidance systems that will be covered are launch vehicle ascent, intercept/rendezvous, interplanetary, orbit station-keeping, atmospheric re-entry, lander, and low-thrust. The mathematical foundation of these systems will be derived and discussed. Real world applications will be presented by reviewing selections from published literature. Course work will emphasize the analysis of the guidance system performance to achieve stated goals. Previously offered as a special topics course.
ASEN 6080 - Statistical Orbit Determination
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Course on orbit and advanced estimation techniques. Emphasizes orthogonal transformation techniques such as Givens and Householder, square root filtering and smoothing and considers covariance analysis. Also nonlinear filters and dynamic model compensation techniques. Requires term project that involves the application of many of the techniques required for precise orbit determination.
ASEN 6519 - Special Topics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Reflects upon specialized aspects of aerospace engineering sciences. Course content is indicated in the online Schedule Planner. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Recommended prerequisite: varies.
ASEN 6949 - Master's Candidate for Degree
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023 / Summer 2023 / Fall 2023
Registration intended for students preparing for a thesis defense, final examination, culminating activity, or completion of degree.
ASEN 6950 - Master's Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Fall 2024
ASTR 5835 - Seminar in Planetary Science
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
Studies current research on a topic in planetary science. Students and faculty give presentations. Subjects may vary each semester. May be repeated up to 4 total credit hours to meet candidacy requirements. Department enforced prerequisite: senior level undergraduate physics. Same as ATOC 5835 and GEOL 5835.
ATOC 5835 - Seminar in Planetary Science
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
Studies current research on a topic in planetary science. Students and faculty give presentations. Subjects may vary each semester. May be repeated up to 4 total credit hours to meet candidacy requirements. Department enforced prerequisite: senior level undergraduate physics. Same as ASTR 5835 and GEOL 5835.
GEOL 5835 - Seminar in Planetary Science
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
Studies current research on a topic in planetary science. Students and faculty give presentations. Subjects may vary each semester. May be repeated up to 4 total credit hours to meet candidacy requirements. Department enforced prerequisite: senior level undergraduate physics. Same as ATOC 5835 and ASTR 5835.
