AIAA Exposition
Draper Laboratory helped celebrate its 80 years of national service and 40th anniversary as an independent research and development lab by participating in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Guidance, Navigation and Control conference held in Boston the week of August 19-22.The field of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) is one of the cornerstones that the lab was built upon: Dr. Charles Stark Draper, the lab’s founder, is known as the father of inertial navigation, and his innovations allowed the U.S. to land on the moon and is crucial in current missile guidance technologies.Reflecting the diversity of Draper’s research projects, a technical display booth showcased Draper research from five main areas: space exploration, guidance and microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and biomedical engineering and energy. In addition to presenting six technical papers and serving as session chairs on various technical topics, Draper staff also organized an overview of the field titled “The History and Future Directions of Inertial Navigation-enabled GN&C.” Draper also sponsored a reception for all AIAA conference attendees on August 21st.Panel session topics chaired by Draper staff included modeling and simulation, adaptive flight control methods, fault-tolerant controls, and Earth science information and decision systems.