Published: Dec. 12, 2018

Daniel Scheeres is a University of Colorado Distinguished Professor, the A. Richard Seebass Chair of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research spans astrodynamics and spacecraft navigation to planetary science and celestial mechanics. A primary focus of Scheeres’ work is studying mechanics of small bodies (such as moons and asteroids) with applications to planetary and asteroid missions.

A separate focus of Scheeres' research is in the field of Space Situational Awareness, where his lab studies the dynamics and estimation of orbital debris and active satellites. Scheeres is currently serving as the Radio Science Lead and Co-Investigator for NASA’s OSIRIS REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission. Asteroid 8887 is named “Scheeres” in recognition of his contributions to the scientific understanding of the dynamical environments of asteroids.