When George Born joined the CU aerospace faculty in 1985, he was tasked with nothing less than helping to make it a “first-class research institution.” Founding the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR), Dr. Born set into motion a program that has ballooned to include 112 active contracts and grants and 160 personnel including 14 tenure track and 5 research faculty, 16 research associates, 99 graduate students and 26 undergraduates.
Dr. Born traced his interest in aerospace to 1957, with the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union. Growing up in rural Texas, Born’s choice to study aerospace represented a significant shift in lifestyle: “it was quite a transition for me to go from picking cotton to flying satellites.”
During the early 1960’s, Born worked on mission design for NASA. He explained, “it was a primitive time for NASA, lots of explosions on the launch pad, faulty systems. On the bright side, there was absolutely no space debris!”
During graduate school at UT-Austin, Born delved into astrodynamics, knowledge he applied to determine trajectories for lunar satellites as a member of the Apollo Program at Houston Johnson Space Center (JSC - then the Manned Spacecraft Center, MSC). He was, in fact, at JSC for the Apollo 11 launch. Through all the “stress, nail-biting, and what-ifing,” Born once said he would “never forget Walter Cronkite breaking into tears during the lunar landing.”
After NASA, Born moved to JPL, where he worked for the next 13 years. Contributing to both interplanetary (Mariner 9, Viking) and Earth ocean observing missions (SeaSat, TOPEX/Poseidon), Born gained a deep expertise in navigation and orbital determination. Though finding the JPL work fulfilling, Born wished to return to academia to work with students.
This desire fueled Born’s acceptance of the position of Founder and Director of CCAR at CU. CCAR not only helped attract first-class faculty from around the country to CU, but it formed a strong platform for collaborations between CU and industry leaders, such as NASA and JPL.
Retiring from Director in 2013, Born was still firmly involved with CCAR research. Born and his CCAR collaborators looked into using high-definition television towers to track satellites in geostationary orbit. With each passing year, the GEO-belt grows more and more crowded. Unfortunately, existing tracking techniques are insufficient for accurately tracking GEO satellites, increasing the risk of in-orbit collisions. Born’s research concerned whether HD signals, which are extremely powerful, may offer a solution. By placing HD signal receivers on satellites in GEO-belt orbits, CCAR researchers plan to convert these signals into range and range-rate tracking data that can be used to more accurately determine the position of geostationary satellites.
Receiving funding from the Department of Defense, Born hoped to have the HD receiver installed for testing in a high-altitude balloon and airplane by the end of 2015. Within two years, he expected to have the HD receiver implemented in a GEO-belt orbit satellite.
-Written By: Ari Sandberg, Intern