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Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University

 

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Mason A. Peck
Assistant Professor 
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Group Web Page: Dynamics, Systems and Controls Research Group
Address:    212 Upson Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Phone: 
Fax:    
E-mail:
(607) 255-4023
(607) 255-1222
mp336@cornell.edu 

Research Interests
  • Space Systems
    • Systems Engineering
    • Attitude Control, Determination and Kinetics
    • Mission Design and Operations
    • Space Technology
    • Payload Line-of-Sight Engineering
  • Dynamical Systems
    • Design of Robust Dynamical Systems
    • Coupled Dynamics of Rigid, Flexible, and Fluid Systems
    • System Identification and Parameter Estimation
  • Embedded Control of Robotic Systems

 

Biography

After leaving the Ph.D. program in English at the University of Chicago, Peck earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, where he also taught technical writing part time.  He worked at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas from 1993 to 1994 on structural dynamics for the BellAgusta Tiltrotor.  From 1994 to 2001 he was an attitude dynamics specialist and systems engineer at Hughes Space and Communications (now known as Boeing Satellite Systems) in El Segundo, California.  At Hughes he led the attitude dynamics development for the 702 spacecraft product line and worked on the GOES, ICO, TDRS, and Thuraya spacecraft in various capacities.  While at Hughes/Boeing he conducted applied research in attitude control, multibody dynamics, fluid/structure interaction, launch-vehicle integration, and gyrostat dynamics.  He has also contributed to classified spacecraft efforts and currently holds several U.S. government clearances.  During his years at Boeing he served as attitude dynamics lead in the Boeing mission control center, participating in real-time spacecraft operations and helping to resolve spacecraft performance anomalies.  He earned his M.S. and his Ph.D. at UCLA as a Howard Hughes Fellow from 1998 to 2001.  In 2001 he joined Honeywell Defense and Space Systems in Phoenix, Arizona, and in 2003 was named Principal Fellow.  In that capacity, Peck led several research efforts, including the development of the momentum-control and line-of-sight testbed, a full-scale spacecraft dynamics and control simulator for agile spacecraft actuated by control-moment gyroscopes.  He also led or contributed to efforts in areas such as gyroelastic structures, launch-vehicle stabilization, precision inertial-reference development, and the Space Tracking and Surveillance System payload dynamics and control.  He as been issued several patents based on his work at Boeing and Honeywell.  In July of 2004 he joined the faculty at Cornell University, where he teaches courses in dynamics and control and in the systems engineering program.

Education
Ph.D. 2001  -  UCLA
M.S.  1999  -  UCLA
B.S.  1993  -  University of Texas at Austin
M.A.  1990  -  University of Chicago
B.A.  1989  - University of Texas at Austin

         

        Current Projects

         

        Selected Journal Publications

        M. Carpenter and M. Peck
        "Dynamics of a High-Agility, Low-Power Imaging Payload," IEEE Transactions on Robotics (to appear)

        B. Streetman and M. Peck
        "New Synchronous Orbits Using the Geomagnetic Lorentz Force," AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics Nov-Dec 2007, pp. 1677-1690

        M. Peck, B. Streetman, C. Saaj and V. Lappas
        "Spacecraft formation flying using Lorentz Forces," Journal of British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 60, No. 7, pp. 263-267, July 2007

        Peck, M.
        "Uncertainty Models for Realizable Inertia Dyadics," Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 54, No. 1, January-March 2007, pp. 1-16

        Schwartz, J., Peck, M., Hall, C.D.
        "Historical Review of Spacecraft Simulators," AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics vol. 26, n.4 513-522, July-August 2003.

        Selected Patents

        U.S. Patent 7,185,855
        March 6, 2007: Method and System for Steering a Momentum Control System

        U.S. Patent 7,152,495
        December 26, 2006: System and Method for Adaptive Cancellation of Disturbances

        U.S. Patent 7,090,171
        August 15, 2006: Momentum Stabilized Launch Vehicle Upper Stage

        U.S. Patent 7,014,150
        March 21, 2006: Method and System for Optimizing Torque in a CMG Array

        U.S. Patent 6,987,257
        January 17, 2006: Attitude Determination System and Method

        U.S. Patent 6,456,371
        Sept. 24, 2002: Attitude Determination with Horizon-Crossing Indicators and Relative-Attitude Propagation.