Ewald Heer

Last updated

Ewald Heer (July 28, 1930) is an aerospace engineer, author and professor who has worked on robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and large space structures. He is primarily known for his work and advocacy for the development of intelligent robotic systems used to explorate and operate in space.

Contents

Background and education

Heer was born in Friedensfeld, Bessarabia (a principality of Moldavia that was part of the Kingdom of Romania in 1918 before being occupied by the USSR) in 1930. [1] He fled the Russian army and escaped to Germany, eventually making his way to the United States. [1]

Heer received a degree in architectural engineering from the Technical University of Hamburg in 1953, a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the City College of New York in 1959, a Master of Science from Columbia University in 1960, a Civil Engineering from Columbia University in 1962, and a Doktor-Ingenieur degree from the Leibniz University Hannover in 1964. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in New York and California.

Heer married Hannelore Oehlers on January 26, 1952, in Hamburg, Germany. [2] He has two sons; Thomas Heer born on June 4, 1962, and Eric Heer born on April 4, 1964. [3] Heer has seven grandchildren total, but has publicly stated several times that his favorite grandchildren are Thomas' two daughters Hillary and Julia Heer. [4]

Career

He worked for McDonnell Douglas and General Electric's Space Science Laboratory before joining the Jet Propulsion laboratory in 1966. [5] After completing a one-year assignment as program manager of the lunar surface experiments for Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 in the NASA Office for the Exploration of the Moon at NASA Headquarters, Heer returned to the CALTECH Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1971, where he initiated the first NASA research program for space robotics and artificial intelligence.

Heer worked to advance space robotics research and organized the first national conference on remotely manned systems in 1972 at the California Institute of Technology and in 1973 published Remotely Manned Systems: Exploration and Operation in Space. In 1975 he organized and chaired the second conference on remotely operated systems, at the University of Southern California, and published its proceedings.

In 1977, Stanley Sadin at NASA Headquarters asked Heer to evaluate machine intelligence and robotics technologies for future space missions and establish requirements. Heer selected and organized the NASA Study Group on Machine Intelligence and Robotics.

While project manager for autonomous systems and space mechanics at NASA in 1979, he was executive secretary of a NASA study group included Carl Sagan as chairman, James S. Albus, Robert Balzer, Thomas Binford, Ralph C. Gonzales, Peter Hart, John Hill, Gentry Lee, Elliott C. Levinthal, Jack Minker, Marvin Minsky, Donald A Norman, Raj Reddy, Charles J. Rieger, Thomas B. Sheridan, William M. Whitney, Patrick Winston, and Steven Yerazunis. [6] Heer edited and published the findings and recommendations of the Study Group as the NASA/JPL Report No. 715-32.

Ewald Heer was a robotics specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Interviewed in an Omni (magazine) article he called self-replicating robots "one of the most fascinating ideas for the future of space" and said: "This offers a way to create a self-supporting economy by robot labor... Immigrants from Earth could set out, knowing that the means of their survival had already been provided." [7]

In a 1980 article on "Telepresence", Marvin Minsky recommended Heer's Remotely Manned Systems (Caltech, 1973) for more technical details on the subject. [8]

Academic work and professional affiliations

Ewald Heer was an adjunct professor of Industrial Engineering and Systems Engineering (1973–1984) and Founder and Director of the Institute of Techno-Economic Studies (1978–1984) at the University of Southern California. He was invited and contributed to The Book of Predictions (1980). He was a Distinguished Lecturer on Space Robotics of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1983–1984). He received from NASA six New Technology Awards and two Certificates of Recognition for “Creative Development of Technology”.

He was Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Computer Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1981 to 1983) and General Chairman of the Computers in Engineering Conference and Exhibit of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1984). He authored or coauthored more than one hundred technical publications including three books. He chaired two international conferences on remotely manned systems (at California Institute of Technology in 1972 and at USC in 1975) and organized the NASA study group on machine intelligence and robotics in 1977. [5]

Heer has also written on his family background in Chronicle of the Heer family, published in English and German (Cronik der familie Heer).

Selected bibliography

Articles

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</span> Research and development center and NASA field center in California, United States

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in Pasadena, California, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Robinson</span> American astronaut (born 1955)

Stephen Kern "Steve" Robinson is an American former NASA astronaut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John M. Fabian</span>

John McCreary Fabian is a former NASA astronaut and Air Force officer who flew two Space Shuttle missions and worked on the development of the Shuttle's robotic arm. He later led the Air Force's space operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. David Low</span> American astronaut (1956–2008)

George David Low was an American aerospace executive and a NASA astronaut. With undergraduate degrees in physics and mechanical engineering and a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics, he worked in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology in the early 80's, before being picked as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1984. In addition to holding some technical assignments, he logged more than 700 hours in space, before he left NASA in 1996 to pursue a career in the private sector. He was the son of George M. Low, the manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, and later, the 14th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics</span> Professional society for the field of aerospace engineering

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences. In 2015, it had more than 30,000 members among aerospace professionals worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Dana</span> NASA research pilot and astronaut (1930–2014)

William Harvey Dana was an American aeronautical engineer, U.S. Air Force pilot, NASA test pilot, and astronaut. He was one of twelve pilots who flew the North American X-15, an experimental spaceplane jointly operated by the Air Force and NASA. He was also selected for participation in the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Elachi</span> Lebanese electrical engineer, JPL director

Charles Elachi is a Lebanese-American professor (emeritus) of electrical engineering and planetary science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). From 2001 to 2016 he was the 8th director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and vice president of Caltech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Mark</span> American government official (1929–2021)

Hans Michael Mark was a German-born American government official who served as Secretary of the Air Force and as a Deputy Administrator of NASA. He was an expert and consultant in aerospace design and national defense policy.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the aerospace field:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregory Chamitoff</span> Canadian born engineer and NASA astronaut (born 1962)

Gregory Errol Chamitoff is a Canadian-born American engineer and former NASA astronaut. He has been to space twice, spending 6 months aboard the ISS across Expedition 17 and 18 in 2008, and another 15 days as part of STS-134 in 2011. STS-134 was the last of Space Shuttle Endeavour which delivered the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and completed the US Orbital Segment.

Eugene Edzards Covert was an aeronautics specialist born in Rapid City, South Dakota credited with the world's first practical wind tunnel magnetic suspension system, and was a member of the Rogers Commission. In the 1970s he was the chief scientist of the US Air Force and technical director of the European Office of Aerospace Research and Development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory</span>

The Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), was a research institute created in 1926, at first specializing in aeronautics research. In 1930, Hungarian scientist Theodore von Kármán accepted the directorship of the lab and emigrated to the United States. Under his leadership, work on rockets began there in 1936. GALCIT was the first—and from 1936 to 1940 the only—university-based rocket research center. Based on GALCIT's JATO project at the time, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was established under a contract with the United States Army in November 1943.

Eugene F. Lally was American aerospace engineer. He worked in the early 1960s on U.S. interplanetary space programs. Beside his space programs he was also an inventor and developed non-space products with his own company Dynamic Development Co. which he founded in the early 1960s. He later became an active amateur photographer and lubrication product entrepreneur. Lally contributed articles for popular space, astrobiology, photography, travel, and archaeology magazines. He was also a speaker at local space exploration and extraterrestrial intelligence (UFO) society meetings where he gave first-hand accounts of the early U.S. space program, commentaries on current U.S. space exploration activities and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert D. Braun</span> American engineer and academic

Robert David Braun is an American aerospace engineer and academic. He has served as the dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, the David and Andrew Lewis Professor of Space Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the NASA Chief Technologist. Currently, Dr. Braun is the Space Sector Head at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark J. Lewis</span> American scientist (born 1962)

Ulfila Mark J. Lewis is a senior American aerospace and defense executive with special expertise in hypersonics. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Defense Industrial Association's Emerging Technologies Institute, following his role in the second half of 2020 as the acting US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and before that the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization. He was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2008 and was the longest-serving Chief Scientist in Air Force history. He served as chief scientific adviser to the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force, and provided assessments on a wide range of scientific and technical issues affecting the Air Force mission. In this role he identified and analyzed technical issues and brought them to attention of Air Force leaders, and interacted with other Air Staff principals, operational commanders, combatant commands, acquisition, and science & technology communities to address cross-organizational technical issues and solutions. His primary areas of focus included energy, sustainment, long-range strike technologies, advanced propulsion systems, and workforce development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Parks</span> American aerospace engineer

Robert J. "Bob" Parks was an American aerospace engineer and pioneer in the space program where he was intricately involved and/or directed for some of the most historic and important U.S. unmanned space missions. Over a 40-year tenure at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL/NASA), located in Pasadena, California, Parks’ impact was essential to helping the United States lead the world in space exploration. He served as Guidance Engineer for Explorer 1, the first successfully launched satellite by the United States. He directed the initial flyby missions to the Moon, the first soft landing on the Moon, Earth's first successful mission to another planet and initial missions to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy André Boy</span>

Guy André Boy is a French and American scientist and engineer, Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), the Air and Space Academy, and the International Academy of Astronautics. He is FlexTech chair holder at CentraleSupélec and ESTIA Institute of Technology. He is also a visiting scholar at ISAE-SUPAERO. He was a university professor and dean (2015–2017) at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), where he created the Human-Centered Design Institute in 2010. He was senior research scientist at Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). He was Chief Scientist for Human-Centered Design at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) from 2010 to 2016. He is known for his work on intelligent assistance, cognitive function analysis, human-centered design (HCD), orchestration of life-critical systems, tangible interactive systems, and human systems integration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael M. Watkins</span>

Michael M. Watkins is an American engineer, scientist, and a Professor of Aerospace and Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He previously served as the 9th director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and as a vice president of Caltech, which staffs and manages JPL for NASA. His directorial position was effective from July 1, 2016 to August 20, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swati Mohan</span> American aerospace engineer

Swati Mohan is an Indian-American aerospace engineer and was the Guidance and Controls Operations Lead on the NASA Mars 2020 mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyle Norman Long</span> Academic and computational scientist

Lyle Norman Long is an academic, and computational scientist. He is a Professor Emeritus of Computational Science, Mathematics, and Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, and is most known for developing algorithms and software for mathematical models, including neural networks, and robotics. His research has been focused in the fields of computational science, computational neuroscience, cognitive robotics, parallel computing, and software engineering.

References

  1. 1 2 Five Generations in One Lifetime Archived 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine October 2005 American Society of Germans from Russia Southern California Chapter newsletter
  2. Heer, Ewald (2012). Chronicle of the Heer Family (2 ed.). Pasadena, CA: Printing and Copy Store. p. 98.
  3. Heer, Ewald (2012). Chronicle of the Heer Family (2 ed.). Pasadena, CA: Printing and Copy Store. p. 95.
  4. Heer, Ewald (2012). Chronicle of the Heer Family (2 ed.). Pasadena, CA: Printing and Copy Store. p. 125.
  5. 1 2 R. Arvikar Dr. Edwald Heer September 1982 American Society of Mechanical Engineering
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-07-23. Retrieved 2009-11-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. Robert Freitas, Jr. Roboclone; A robot that duplicates itself? It is entirely possible, says this expert. 5(July, 1983):44-47,117-118. 1983 Omni
  8. Marvin Minsky Telepresence June 1980 OMNI magazine
  9. 1 2 3 "Refs1000-1099". www.molecularassembler.com.
  10. Monica, 1776 Main Street Santa; California 90401-3208. "Ewald Heer". www.rand.org.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. Heer, Ewald; Lum, Henry, eds. (30 January 1988). "Machine intelligence and autonomy for aerospace systems". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics via National Library of Australia (new catalog).
  12. OpenLibrary.org. "Ewald Heer". Open Library.