Geoffrey Landis
Geoffrey A. Landis
is a scientist with the Ohio Aerospace Institute on permanent assignment to
the Photovoltaics
Branch of the N.A.S.A. Lewis Research Center. He has published over a
hundred scientific papers in the fields of photovoltaics, power systems for
space, and astronautics (see list), holds four
patents on photovoltaic device designs, and organized and served as the
technical chairman of the Vision-21 symposium on advanced concepts. His
work on the Pathfinder project involves understanding the effect of Martian
dust on the solar energy reaching the surface of Mars (see the Solar Energy on Mars
web page, and learning how much dust deposits on the solar arrays.
Geoffrey Landis received bachelors degrees in physics and in electrical
engineering from MIT, and a PhD in physics from Brown University. He
spent five years in the photovoltaic research group at Spire Corporation,
where he participated in development of technology that lead to record
efficiency silicon solar cells, and two years as a NRC Research Fellow at
NASA Lewis. He is the author of 180 scientific papers, 4 patents, dozens
of articles about model rocket technology, is a regular participant in
Science Fiction Age magazine's "Science Forum", and has
written 12 popular science articles, including "The Demon Under Hawaii,"
Analog, July 1992, winner of the AnLab reader's award for best science
article.
"After spending ten years doing research on solar-cell development, I now
work at NASA, where I get to think about more interesting things. Some of
the projects I've been involved with have been use of lasers to beam power
to spacecraft, new designs for solar power satellites, ways to mine the
resources of the moon and Mars, solar power systems for Pluto probes, and
meteor protection for interstellar probes. At the moment, I'm the
principal investigator of a project to fly a dust experiment to Mars on the
2001 Surveyor Lander, and also the principal investigator for a project to
fly a photovoltaic testbed on the International Space Station.".
In addition to his work at NASA, Landis has published over fifty science
fiction short stories, including "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" which won the
Nebula award for best short story in 1990, and "A Walk in the Sun" which
won the Hugo award in 1992. His work has been translated into fourteen
languages. He was also a member of the flight teams for the MIT Chrysalis
and Monarch human-powered airplanes, and on planning team for the MIT
Daedalus project.
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