Pedro J Llanos de la Concha

I currently serve as an Associate Professor (Tenured) in Spaceflight Operations at the Applied Aviation Sciences department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University: -Our team in the Payload Applied Technology and Operations (PATO) Lab at ERAU has successfully launched payloads on various flights aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard, NASA's WB-57 aircraft and NASA/Zero-G parabolic flights to assess the microgravity environment effects and other flight stressors. From STEM payloads to more advanced in-vitro and in-vivo science experiments - payloads with significant impact on applied basic research and technologies demonstration. -Our team in the Suborbital Space Flight Simulator at ERAU has been engaged in the safe integration and trajectory modeling of suborbital flights into the National Air Space and above using ADS-B data to ensure safety while enhancing science operations, and conducting physiology research during aerobatic flights and hypobaric environments. Previously, Pedro was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at GMV Aerospace, Madrid, as part of the Astronet-II: The Astrodynamic Network coordinated by the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya. He served as designer of novel guidance, navigation and control techniques for proximity operations to prospective missions (Marco Polo R as part of ESA's program) to small bodies. Prior to that, Pedro obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Astronautical Engineering from University of Southern California. During these years, he was the Graduate Teaching Assistant to (perhaps) the largest class of Spacecraft Design in the United States with about 100 students per year, and to the Orbital Mechanics class with near 50 students per year. While at USC, Pedro was a visiting student researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in various areas, such as trajectory mission design, navigation and orbit determination. He also served as a trajectory analyst for a prospective Near Earth Asteroid mission at the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech. Pedro has a M.S degree in Physics (Astrophysics) from University of Oklahoma, and B.S. Physics from University of Valencia (Spain). He is an active member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He received the Award for Artistic Merit from the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research in their 2017 Combustion Art Competition held in Seattle, Washington. Pedro was awarded the McNair Faculty Mentor of the Year in 2016 at Embry- Riddle. Dr. Llanos serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Aerospace Science and Technology, Acta Astronautica, and the Journal of the Astronautical Sciences.