1. 2014 SPACE SCHOLAR NOMINATION
Name of Mentor Submitting Nomination: _Dr. Josue D. Muñoz___________________
Name of Scholar Nominated: _Mr. Tristan Newman____________________________
Program: (Space, Phillips RV, DE, Phillips RD) _Space Scholar_____________________
Dear AFRL Space Scholars Program,
I wish to express my support for Mr. Tristan Newman to be awarded the 2014 Outstanding Space
Scholar Award for his contributions to the AFRL/RVES effort to investigate Constrained Dynamics and
Control Solutions for Translational and Rotational Motion. I make this recommendation based on what
Mr. Tristan Newman has been able to produce during his tenure as a Space Scholar as well as what he
has been able to learn in that time.
With regard to his contributions, Mr. Tristan Newman has solved two novel problems pertaining to
attitude control. From his first week, he quickly became an expert in the field of attitude dynamics and
control. He was also asked to investigate ways of applying the artificial potential function method to
solving the constrained attitude control problem. Within weeks he was able to solve for a closed-form
feedback control law that: 1) accounts for pointing and slew rate constraints and 2) mitigates the local
minima problem associated with pointing constraints through early avoidance. Having these two
solutions in a closed-form feedback control law would greatly reduce the complexity of the concept of
operations for space vehicles that have exclusion angles or pointing keep-out-zones. Mr. Tristan
Newman is now working on demonstrating his solutions through Matlab simulations. Once his results
are obtained, he will be presenting a seminar at the AFRL GNC Program’s seminar series and publish his
results in peer-reviewed journals.
With regard to learning, Mr. Tristan Newman now fully understands attitude dynamics and control and
the artificial potential function methodology, but can also apply the techniques he has learned to any
constrained dynamics problem. He has shown great rigor in the development of his solutions (including
proofs of all control solutions). He has also maintained constant and excellent documentation
throughout his stay here, which shows great merit to his organizational skills. This will also reduce the
amount of effort required to transition his work to a seminar presentation and preprint of a journal
submission. In my opinion, he has demonstrated superior analytical and critical thinking skills.
To summarize, I would like to recommend Mr. Tristan Newman for the 2014 Outstanding Space Scholar
Award. In the couple of months that Mr. Tristan Newman has been a Space Scholar, Mr. Tristan
Newman has developed solutions that are easily transitioned to flight code and would improve the
efficiency with which attitude control is performed. Mr. Tristan Newman has shown great potential to
be an excellent researcher and engineer if he chooses to continue on this path. Feel free to contact me
if you wish to discuss Mr. Tristan Newman’s performance as a Space Scholar further.