Interests: Guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C), trajectory design, flight dynamics, orbit determination, software, project formulation, public policy, space exploration, entrepreneurship. Specialties: Mission operations, project management, flight dynamics modeling, orbit determination, astrodynamics, requirements development, simulation development.

Navigation and Mission Design Systems Engineer @ Member of the Navigation and Mission Design Engineering Staff. Capabilities include statistical modeling of uncertainties in spacecraft flight environments, spacecraft engine performance, and sensor data, filtering of sensor data to estimate flight dynamics, and calculation of engine maneuvers to re-target the future flight path. Mission Manager for the OPALS project, intended to demonstrate a laser communications link between the International Space Station and a ground station in California. OPALS will launch in April 2014 on the SpaceX CRS-3 mission and installed on Express Logistics Carrier-1 (ELC-1) on the International Space Station. Responsibilities include development of the operations concept and requirements, development of the interfaces with Marshall Space Flight Center for real-time payload operations, development of the command, telemetry, and file product interfaces with the Flight Software, execution of mission scenario tests and operations readiness tests, and generation of orbit predictions for bi-directional tracking between the ISS and ground telescope. End-to-End Simulation Engineer for the Primitive Body Navigation project, investigating navigation strategies for approaching, landing, and escaping small asteroids and comets. Orbit Determination Engineer for the EPOXI mission at Hartley 2 (2010), the Stardust-NExT mission at Tempel 1 (2011), the Juno launch to Jupiter and initial calibration phase (2011), and the Dawn mission at Vesta (2011-2012). Analysis and configuration of the autonomous navigation (AutoNav) system for the EPOXI spacecraft flyby of the Hartley 2 comet in November 2010. Analysis of radiometric and tracking architectures to support Orion test flights beyond low Earth orbit. From August 2008 to Present (7 years 5 months) Draper Fellow @ Performed graduate-level research as part of the Master of Science program in the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Areas of research included guidance, navigation, control, and optimization algorithms. Research culminated in a thesis titled: "Boost-Through-Reentry Trajectory Planning For Maneuvering Reentry Vehicles." From June 2006 to June 2008 (2 years 1 month) Requirements Engineer @ Requirements Engineer, Advanced Programs Group. Developed, maintained, and refined requirements for the NASA Concept, Exploration, and Refinement (CE&R) Study, which examined potential architectures for a safe and sustained human presence on the Moon. Attended and presented requirements updates at weekly department meetings. Assisted in draft of final report to NASA. From June 2005 to August 2005 (3 months) Simulation Specialist @ Simulation Specialist, Mission Engineering Department. Developed an algorithm to simulate the kill vehicle stage of an interceptor missile for use in simulation tool. From June 2004 to August 2004 (3 months)

S.M., Aeronautics and Astronautics @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology From 2006 to 2008 S.B., Aerospace Engineering With Information Technology @ Massachusetts Institute of Technology From 2002 to 2006 Matthew Abrahamson is skilled in: Orbital Mechanics, Navigation, Spacecraft, Requirements Analysis, Systems Engineering, Mission Operations, Orbit Determination, Kalman filtering, Python, Matlab, Statistical Modeling, Aerospace Engineering, Testing, Requirements Management, Engineering Management, Aerospace, Engineering, Sensors, Algorithms