Robert Scheid
Adjunct Professor
Astronautical EngineeringRobert (Bob) Scheid is an Adjunct Faculty member with Capitol Technology University for the Astronautical and Space Engineering program. Bob’s interest in aerospace started in elementary school, watching movies like Apollo 13 and going to air shows with his family. This led to an interest in being an astronaut or test pilot, until a friend introduced him to the idea of helping fly the space shuttle and ISS from NASA Mission Control in Houston. Since graduating from ERAU in 2008, Bob has worked as a contractor for NASA and the USGS. He has experienced a broad swath of what the civilian and scientific space programs can offer, including working with astronauts on Space Shuttle flights, launching and commissioning the Landsat 8 observatory, operating the GEDI space laser aboard the ISS, maintaining and upgrading spacecraft simulators, and diagnosing and correcting a number of spacecraft anomalies. He has not, however, grown out of the “I want to be an astronaut” phase of childhood.
Areas of Expertise:
- Spaceflight real-time operations
- Telerobotics
- Flight software, command and data handling, and RF communications systems
- Spacecraft and observatory simulators
- Ground system automation
Biography:
Education
- MS in Aerospace Engineering (Dynamics and Control track) – Virginia Tech, 2018
- BS in Aerospace Engineering (Astronautics track) – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, 2008
Research and Publications:
- Ancillary Scientific Instrument Attachment (ASIA): A Distributed Hitchhiker Payload Carrier (master’s thesis) - https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/items/52ddb99b-e7ea-4656-9391-7bfebc35d593
- Applications for General Purpose Command Buffers: The Emergency Conjunction Avoidance Maneuver (AIAA SpaceOps Conference 2016, peer-reviewed) - https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2016-2416
Organizations and Affiliations:
- American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – lifetime member
Volunteer/Service experience:
Public outreach for NASA, including guest speaking at continuing education classes, high schools, and extracurricular science clubs; works on a lot of really fascinating missions with important goals, and loves communicating that excitement to others; also a Robot Inspector for FIRST Robotics from 2011 to 2020, working with high school students to field robots they designed and built to perform tasks in a cooperative environment.
Portfolio/Personal Website