Thursday, September 19, 2009
Contact: Madge Gibson
news@utsi.edu
“The sky is not the limit. The sky is where we begin.” Those are
the words of Dr. Robert L. Howard, Jr., Manager of the Habitability
Design Center, with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Howard, or “Bobby” as he was affectionately called while he was
a student at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI),
Tullahoma, Tennessee, received his Doctorate in Aerospace
Engineering in 2002. Dr. Frank Collins was his major professor.
Today,
Dr. Howard is leading a team of architects, industrial designers and
engineers in NASA’s Constellation Program who will develop concepts
for the lunar lander, lunar outpost, and lunar rover. It is his
responsibility to design the inside of the space vehicle into
comfortable living quarters for up to four crew members who will be
making their home on the moon for up to six months at a time.
There are many obstacles to overcome before the United States makes
it way to the moon for long durations. Shielding the astronauts from
solar radiation, conservation of all forms of water, including
recycling and purifying perspiration and urine, are just a few but
necessary things that are being investigated as part of the program.br />
Dr. Howard says it helps to have a strong imagination in order to
create something that has never been done before. As a child, his
imagination was allowed to thrive, even when at eight years old his
mother found where he had used a key to “create” a control panel for
a spacecraft on a closet wall.
He met astronaut Ronald McNair on two separate occasions when he was
in grade school and former astronaut Fred Gregory became a mentor
during his internship at Johnson Space Center.
Born in Xenia, Ohio, but raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, Dr.
Howard received a Bachelor of Science in General Science from
Morehouse College in 1995, and a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering
from Georgia Tech in the same year, under the Morehouse-Georgia Tech
Dual Degree Engineering Program. He received a Master of Science in
Industrial Engineering with a focus in Human Factors from North
Carolina A&T State University, graduating in December of 1997. His
thesis was entitled “An Expert Systems Approach to Spacecraft Cabin
Design.” In September of 2002 he received his PhD in Aerospace
Engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. His
dissertation was entitled “Formulation of a Cislunar Human
Transportation Architecture Through Use of Analytic, Heuristic, and
Parametric Algorithms.”
Upon graduation from UTSI, Dr. Howard began working at the NASA
Johnson Space Center in October 2002.
He has been involved with the National Society of Black Engineers
(NSBE) since 1990, serving in numerous chapters. He is the
Chairperson for the 2010 NSBE Aerospace Systems Conference, and
founder and president of the Houston Space Chapter. He is the
founder and director of NSBE’s Space Special Interest Group.
Dr. Howard is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics, National Space Society, and the Moon Society.
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