Space Control
Dr. Grant H. Stokes - Biography
Dr. Grant H. Stokes is Head of the Aerospace Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He is responsible for the Laboratory’s programs in space control and electro-optical systems and technology. He supervised the transition of the first space-based space-surveillance system to Air Force dedicated sensor operations at the completion of an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program and initiated programs with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop next-generation technology for establishing space situational awareness. These DARPA programs include the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST), which will complete a 3.5-meter aperture prototype ground-based space-surveillance search system, and a program jointly funded by the Air Force to upgrade the Haystack Radar to W-band operations. The upgraded Haystack Radar will provide high-resolution radar images of satellites as distant as the geosynchronous belt.
Dr. Stokes is currently a member of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). In that capacity, he was the Chairman of the 2006 SAB Summer Study on Space Survivability. In addition, he chaired the 2006 Science and Technology Review of the Space Vehicles Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory and the 2007 review of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
Dr. Stokes directs the development and operations of the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program, which, as part of the NASA/Space Command partnership, has become the world’s premiere asteroid search capability, finding ~50% of the near-Earth asteroids discovered since 1998.
Dr. Stokes holds a PhD degree in physics from Princeton University and is a member of the International Astronomical Union.
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