Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr Lisa Mazzuca (NASA SAR)

Hybrid Event

SmartSat CRC presents Dr Lisa Mazzuca as a Distinguished Speaker.

SmartSat CRC has been collaborating with the NASA Search and Rescue office on the Resilient Emergency and Search and Rescue Communication (RESARC) project since 2020 under a cooperative agreement. This project, led by Safety from Space, researched beacon technologies applicable for Earth and Lunar Search and Rescue (SAR). The RESARC project successfully demonstrated the feasibility of a set of new and alternative communications technology using Medium Earth Orbiting Satellites, including advanced low power digital radio waveforms, secure messaging protocol, signal processing for detection and localisation, and an extremely compact vehicle mounted low profile antenna.

The RESARC project has now moved to a second phase, known as LunaSAR. For Lunar deployment, it is essential that astronauts have reliable and functional emergency communications. Specialists from the project team will consider the LunaSAR requirements and evaluate the potential to adapt the design concepts developed in the RESARC project for the lunar environment.

The NASA collaboration has been led by Dr. Lisa Mazzuca, Mission Manager, NASA Search and Rescue (SAR)

Dr. Lisa Mazzuca is the NASA Search and Rescue (SAR) Mission Manager. In that capacity she represents NASA both nationally and internationally to set policy and standards for the SAR community, as well as supply technological innovation for satellite-aided emergency transmitters. She began her career at NASA in 1991 as a Flight Dynamics software engineer, where she developed and coded mathematical specifications related to spacecraft orbit trajectories. She received a master’s degree in Astrophysics from John’s Hopkins University in 1997 and soon after joined the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Project to become the Operations Instruments Manager. In 2005 Dr. Mazzuca accepted the position of HST Operations Integration and Test Manager for the final Servicing Mission, guiding the operations ground test program for the new and repaired instruments as well as the communications to HST via the Space Shuttle. In 2006, she received a doctorate in Astronomy from the University of Maryland. Outside of NASA, Lisa is the Deputy Chief of the Baltimore County Police Auxiliary Unit and has been a member of the Aviation and Marine units since 1994. Part of her mission in both units is Search and Rescue.