Sandy Antunes
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Pennsylvania State University
George Mason University
Sandy Antunes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alexander Antunes April 7, 1967 |
| Alma mater | Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Pennsylvania State University George Mason University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
Alexander "Sandy" Antunes, (born 4 April 1967 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a Maryland-area astronomer, author, and role playing game designer. He graduated from Boston University in 1989 with a dual major in astronomy and physics, received a master's degree in astronomy from Penn State in 1992, and received his PhD in computational astrophysics from George Mason University in 2005. He is an associate professor of Astronautical Engineering at Capitol Technology University.
Antunes has been published in numerous journal articles, including Science.[1] In his work for NASA, he designed the mission-scheduling software used for XTE, Astro-E2, and Swift missions. He was the science scheduler for the NASA/ISAS ASCA mission from 1992 to 1994.
Antunes is currently working on Project Calliope,[2] a pico-satellite designed to convert space sensor data to music.[3] Additionally, he has authored four books for O'Reilly Media: DIY Satellite Platforms,[4] Surviving Orbit the DIY Way.[5] DIY Instruments for Amateur Space[6] and has recently completed the fourth book in the series: DIY Comms and Control for Amateur Space.[7] He was featured on Episode 10, "Space Invaders," of "The Big Picture with Kal Penn"[8] in May 2015, launching a high-altitude balloon with his students and explaining what it takes to get into space.