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In space you can’t stop to ask for directions.��

Kristen Ahner is advancing the science of autonomous space exploration.��

An aerospace PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder, Ahner is being recognized as a The publication honors leading engineering students worldwide who are on course to “shape the future of the aerospace and defense industry.”

“It feels great,” Ahner said. “I was excited to be recognized and join a cohort of people doing impressive things who are all around my age.”

Autonomous Guidance

Ahner’s PhD research is focused on improving autonomous guidance techniques for spacecraft so they arrive at their destinations on time and efficiently. In deep space exploration, even the tiniest of navigation errors can push a satellite radically off course. In an environment where the distance between Point A and Point B is measured in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles, that can create major problems.

“Some of the uncertainty comes from thrust performance errors. We try to test engines in vacuums on Earth but there are always errors associated with that,” Ahner said. “Also, when we model spacecraft moving in space we often use simplified models – traveling between the Earth and the Moon we’ll assume the satellite is only orbiting Earth, but the Moon is pulling too.”

In engineering parlance, Ahner is working to advance the state of the art by combining high-fidelity uncertainty propagation techniques with nonlinear chance constraints for spacecraft control in cislunar space and planetary exploration environments.

Ahner at a future professors workshop held at Georgia Tech last year.

“I want to guide spacecraft more effectively. Computers on spacecraft aren’t smart enough to account for 300 different bodies that are exerting gravitational forces, so how can we develop better algorithms to make our corrections more accurate under simplified dynamical models,” she said.

Bachelor's to PhD

Her enthusiasm for these deep space challenges is palpable, but Ahner did not originally set out to study space or even to earn a PhD.

She grew up in a military family, primarily in Ohio, listening to the sounds of fighter jets taking off from nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Ahner envisioned her career would be on the aeronautics side of aerospace. A college internship at Boeing through the shifted her focus.

“I was working in space modeling and simulation. It was the same kind of analysis and math that I really liked, but had more unknowns than aviation. Space is the last frontier and I find that exciting,” she said.

Academic Future

The Boeing internship was in Colorado Springs, but it is not what brought her back to Colorado for graduate school. As an undergraduate at Princeton, Ahner was required to complete a thesis, and two names kept popping up on the papers she was reading: ���������� Boulder’s Jay McMahon and Dan Scheeres. Today, they are her PhD co-advisors.

Her goal now is to become a university professor herself.

“I had this heavy research load in my final year of undergrad. Initially I was scared of it. There’s uncertainty in doing a research project that may not work out, but I really enjoyed it. The more I learn the less intimidating it seems,” Ahner said.

Both of Ahner’s parents are extremely proud of her accomplishments. Her father is a fellow PhD graduate – earning his degrees in mechanical and systems engineering and teaching as an active duty member of the Army at West Point.

“My Dad loves talking to me about the intricacies of my research,” Ahner said. “It can be intense when we start talking shop. My Mom is my biggest cheerleader – she tells the whole world when I win an award, and she found the 20 Twenties announcement before it had even been officially released. I wouldn’t be where I am today without their support.”