Transiting Exploplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) (George Ricker)
Using an array of telescopes, TESS would perform an all-sky survey to discover transiting exoplanets, ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, in orbit around the nearest and brightest stars in the sky. The mission’s primary goal would be to identify terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars.
George R. Ricker is currently director of the CCD Laboratory in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. He obtained a BS in physics from MIT in 1966, an MS in astronomy in 1967 from Yale University, and a PhD in physics in 1971 from MIT. Since 1971, he has been a member of the staff and research faculty at MIT, where he presently serves as senior research scientist.
Dr. Ricker was the principal investigator (PI) for the international High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) mission—a small satellite incorporating instruments from France, Japan, and the United States that flew successfully from 2000 to 2006. HETE was the first satellite mission entirely devoted to the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).
To learn more, please visit:
http://appel.nasa.gov/knowledge-sharing/pi-team-masters-forums/
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