Jesus Pelaez

Technical University of Madrid (UPM) • Professor of Aerospace Engineering

Jesus Pelaez is Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) where he has been teaching Astrodynamics for more than 40 years. He began his research career developing his Ph.D. on premixed flames under the direction of Professor Amable Liñan Martinez, Prince of Asturias Research Award in 1993. Simultaneously, he began his contact with space tethers guided by one of the pioneers of the European Space Agencies: Ignacio DaRiva de la Cavada, professor of Aerodynamics at the UPM. He has been fortunate to have the support of Professor Juan R. Sanmartin, the father of the concept of bare electrodynamic tether. His primary expertise is the dynamic and stability analysis of space tethers. He has discovered some essential instabilities that affect electrodynamic tethers and has introduced the concept of self-balanced tether as a way of stabilizing their dynamics. He is responsible for the SDG-UPM (Space Dynamics Group), within which multiple lines of research related to orbit propagation have been developed. Orbit propagation is another field in which he has been working successfully since the beginning of this century. He has developed the DROMO propagator, which uses the ideal reference concept, introduced by Hansen. DROMO uses Euler parameters forming part of a set of redundant variables. It provides useful analytical or semi-analytical solutions to some typical problems of Astrodynamics. For five years he was director of the Master in Space Technology, a prestigious university degree of the UPM, highly valued in the industrial sector.

Events

International Astronautical Congress 2022

18-22 September 2022

Paris, France

Participation: