NEWS: We just achieved Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) of a full-scale Falcon 9 first stage test vehicle, known as Grasshopper. The rocket is 40m high, so for a sense of perspective we attached a life-sized mannequin to the rocket (also here).
Video from a different view is here. Videos from previous tests are here, here and here.
My speech at the Sevenoaks School Founder's Day (commencement) event is on YouTube here.
I am currently in the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Group at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), where I develop propulsive landing algorithms as part of our reusable launch vehicle program. I lead GNC for the experimental Grasshopper vehicle, which recently completed its first test flight. More photos of Grasshopper are here. For an animation of our reusability plans, see here. You can reach me at lars [dot] blackmore [at] spacex [dot] com.
Previously I was in the Guidance and Control Analysis Group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, part of the California Institute of Technology, where I developed control and estimation algorithms for NASA's future space missions.
On the flight project side, I worked on the SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) mission.
On the technology side, I developed algorithms for precision/pinpoint landing on Mars, and Comet sample return missions.
In 2007 I finished my PhD at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in the Model-based
Embedded and Robotics Systems group, under the supervision of Brian
C. Williams. My thesis was on control and estimation of stochastic
systems, especially hybrid discrete-continuous systems, and I am currently continuing research in this area. I am particularly interested in chance-constrained optimal planning, that is, finding the best plans such that the probability of failure is below a given threshold. I am interested
in applications in autonomous air and space systems. Previous research has been in control and estimation for Formula One
racing. My MEng thesis was with the McLaren
team, and in my first year at MIT I carried out a project with the Jaguar
team (now Red Bull Racing). Past and present members of the MERS lab with whom I have worked closely on
projects include Hui Li, Steve
Block and Stanislav Funiak.