Alessandra Babuscia received her B.S. and M.S degrees from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and her Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, in 2012. She is a Telecommunication Product Delivery Manager at NASA JPL (337K). Currently, she is telecom lead for VERITAS mission, and she supports Clipper telecommunication engineering system team. In the small satellite domain, she leads the telecommunication efforts at TeamXc, and she is task manager at JPL for the following missions: LunaH-Map, LunarIce Cube and BioSentinel. Previously, she has been a telecommunication system engineer for Mars 202, telecommunication lead for ASTERIA and RainCube missions at JPL, and PI for the Inflatable antenna for CubeSat effort. Before JPL, she has worked as a postdoctoral researcher and teaching assistant at MIT where she developed communication systems for different university missions (CASTOR, ExoplanetSat, Ter- Sat, REXIS, TALARIS).
Her current research interests include communication architecture design, statistical risk estimation, multidisciplinary design optimization, and mission scheduling and planning. She is a founding member for ISSC since its first edition at MIT in 2012 (formerly known as iCubeSat), and she is a session chair at the IEEE Aerospace Conference.
Carlyn Lee
Carlyn serves as Head of Software at Oligo Space. With over 12 years of experience in space communications, high-performance computing, and technology development at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Telecommunication Architecture Group, she has led the development of telecom tools and advanced algorithms that enhance the performance of deep space communication systems. Her roles spanned multiple disciplines, including software design and architecture for NASA’s Deep Space Network operations, flight software V&V, and supercomputing algorithms to support Deep Space Optical Comm.
Chi-Wung Lau
Chi-Wung Lau is a member of the Signal Processing Research group at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. He has been working at JPL for 15 years and has been involved with such projects as Galileo, Deep Impact, MER, Phoenix and MSL. Research areas of interest are 34 meter array tracking quantum communications, and link analysis. He received bachelor’s from U.C. Berkeley in 1996 and master’s from the University of Southern California in 2001.
Pamela Clark
Pamela Clark, of the Advanced Instrument Concepts and Science Applications Group in the Instrument Division, at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, is Technical Advisor of the JPL Cubesat Development Lab. She is also Science PI of the NASA EM1 Lunar IceCube Mission, as well as Convener and Program Chair for the Annual LunarCubes Workshops, and an adjunct research professor at Catholic University of America. She holds a PhD in Geochemical Remote Sensing from University of Maryland. Her interests include extending the cubesat paradigm to deep space technology demonstrations and science requirements driven cubesat missions, developing compact science instruments, evolving a low-cost development model for deep space missions, and using the cubesat paradigm to set up distributed networks for studying whole system dynamics. She is the author of several books, including Remote Sensing Tools for Exploration, Constant-Scale Natural Boundary Mapping to Reveal Global and Cosmic Processes, and Dynamic Planet: Mercury in the Context of its Environment.
Michael Saing
Michael is a Systems Engineer in the Project Systems Engineering and Formulation Section at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He is in the System Model, Analysis, and Architecture group and is a subject matter expert in space mission cost estimation and small satellites systems engineering. He is also one of the subsystem’s engineer chair for JPL’s Foundry elite concurrent engineering design teams - TeamX, TeamXc, and A-Team. Michael is also tasked by NASA Headquarters as a proposal reviewer, small satellites/cubesats data collection, and model development. He graduated with an Aerospace Engineering degree (B.S.) from CSU Long Beach. After graduation, he started his early career work at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA prior to joining JPL. As an amateur backyard astronomer, his interests and hobbies are in the areas of astrophysics and heliophysics science, astrophotography, and telescopes.
Kris Angkasa
Kris Angkasa is a Program Area Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Interplanetary Network Directorate (IND), home of the NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) and Multi-mission Ground Systems & Services (MGSS) programs. She has over 30 years of experience in space exploration, focusing her work in the DSN & space communication systems. Her efforts in the space industry include the development of a Ka-band TT&C subsystem for a commercial satellite at the Hughes Space & Communications. At JPL, her work includes the design, implementation, and testing of the DSN Block V Receiver and Flight Radios (SDST, Electra, Iris) for the flagship missions (Kepler, MER, MRO, MSL, Juno, MAVEN, and Mars 2020) as well as, the secondary payload CubeSats onboard Artemis I. Kris holds an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a BS degree in Computer Science from the California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Jekan Thanga
Jekan Thanga has a background in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto. He worked on Canadarm, Canadarm 2, and the DARPA Orbital Express missions at MDA Space Missions. Jekan obtained his Ph.D. in space robotics at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and did his postdoctoral training at MIT's Field and Space Robotics Laboratory (FSRL). Jekan Thanga is an Associate Professor and heads the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory and the NASA-funded ASTEROID (Asteroid Science, Technology and Exploration Research Organized by Inclusive eDucation) Center in Formation at the University of Arizona. He has been an advocate and leader in implementing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in aerospace research, with nearly 300 graduate and undergraduate students matriculating through those programs. Jekan and his team of students have co-authored nearly 200 technical publications. He is the Engineering Principal Investigator on the AOSAT I CubeSat Centrifuge mission. He and his team of students were winners of the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2016 for proposing the SunCube FemtoSat and won a Best Paper Presentation Award at AMOS 2019 for the Early Warning Constellation to Detect Incoming Meteor Threats. Jekan and his team of students were finalists for the NASA 2020 BIG Competition and winners of the 2021 NASA RASCAL Competition.
Kristofer Buckmaster
Kristofer is a Mission Interface Manager supporting NASA's Deep Space Network and Multimission Ground System and Services programs. After receiving a BS degree in Engineering Physics from Westmont College, he started his career in deep space tracking and communications in 2003, working on the operations and maintenance contract for the Deep Space Network doing critical events planning and operations engineering. Kris joined JPL in 2014 as a software systems engineer, focusing on ground data systems and provisioning CCSDS Space Link Extension services. He also worked as a systems engineer for NASA's Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC) for Tools and Services to make NASA's ocean and climate data accessible and meaningful. These days, he's sharpening his project management skills and enjoys applying agile software development practices to his work supporting a portfolio of missions that include both flagships like Europa Clipper, and cubesats like Lunar Flashlight.
Ali Guarneros Luna
Ali Guarneros Luna is a Senior Space Architect at Lockheed Martin (LM). Before joining LM, she worked at NASA Ames Research Center in the Programs and Projects Management Division, specifically within the STMD Small Satellite Technology Program, where she managed the Tipping Points and ACOs, among other program initiatives. At NASA, she also contributed to the Office of System Safety & Mission Assurance (SS&MA) and the Office of Engineering Directorate, serving as a technical authority for small satellite development and payloads bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
In the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) National Lab, Ali worked as a system and safety engineer. As part of the Edison Program, she played a key role in systems engineering, mission and ground operations, and launch vehicle services for multiple CubeSat projects, including the Technological and Educational Nanosatellite (TechEdSat). She also served as Deputy Project Manager, ISS expert, and launch vehicle interface for the Small Spacecraft Technology (SST) program’s NODES project. Additionally, in the Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry EXperiments (SOAREX) Series, Ali took on multiple engineering roles, including design, building, and testing.
Since 2019, Ali has been working as a part-time professor at San Jose State University.
