Jeffrey Parker

Dr. Jeffrey Parker is a preeminent expert on all matters pertaining to the mission design and navigation of spacecraft in cislunar space. He completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado in 2007, examining low-energy ballistic lunar transfers: trajectories that a spacecraft may take to travel between the Earth and the Moon using less fuel than conventional transfers. After graduating from CU Boulder in 2007, Dr. Parker joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a mission design and navigation specialist. He immediately became the lead designer for the proposed MoonRise New Frontiers mission, a complex mission traversing every aspect of cislunar space to return samples from the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin to Earth. Dr. Parker joined the University of Colorado Boulder in 2012 and developed research groups in low-energy mission design, low-thrust trajectory optimization, and advanced spacecraft navigation. He has supported advanced concepts for future Orion missions, as well as future concepts for lunar landers and other missions in any region of the Earth-Moon system.