Brian Hinde

Education:
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder

Experience:
Brian is leading a multi-disciplinary team through the design, build, and certification process of the Orion Heatshield for Exploration Mission 1 in 2018. The heatshield will protect the Orion vehicle from Re-Entry temperatures of 5000°F. After the extreme heat of re-entry, the heatshield will cushion the 20,000 lb vehicle during the water-landing.

During the last 9 years, Brian has developed several Orion heatshield architecture designs in order to zero in on the most optimal final design. In the process, the team has combined a new high-temperature carbon fiber material system with the Apollo heritage ablator, Avcoat, into an extremely efficient heatshield architecture. Prior to that, Brian spent 6 years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory working on the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the sub-millimeter telescope Herschel, and the ocean-viewing microwave telescope Aquarius.