Planetary Magnetospheres Laboratory
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Fred Minetto
Planetary Magnetospheres Laboratory
NASA/GSFC, Code 695 Greenbelt, MD 20771 Phone: (301) 286-5929 Email: Fred Minetto |
Current Position
- Computer Scientist/Engineer, Planetary Magnetospheres Lab
Education
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1991 - MS Computer Engineering, The John's Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
1983 - BS Computer Science, minors in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Professional Societies and Selected Awards
- Goddard Achievement award for Mentoring
- 11 Service awards
- 7 Appreciation Awards
- Letter of Commendation for work on the MAGSAT program
Professional Experience
1990 to Present: Lunar dust mitigation experiments using custom made instrumentation at facilities involving Goddard Space Flight Center and Kennedy Space Center. Coordinated manufacturing and assembly efforts of two Tetrahedral (Tet) walker robotic generations. Currently working with APL on the current generation of the Tet walker robotic system. Assigned to magnetometer development team for eight years designing software drivers and hardware interfaces for DMSP class magnetometers. Involved with Stereo and Messenger magnetometer calibrations and magnetometer interfacing development. Involved with several sounding rocket magnetometer calibrations at Wallops. Calibrated and tested a model airplane magnetometer system used on an expedition to South America. Four years as FCAS instrument engineer, coordinating software improvements and mechanical improvements to an infrared 64K array InSb infrared telescope camera system that went on several campaigns that included Hale Bopp and Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact of Jupiter. Four years on ISTP key parameter software development for Polar and Wind spacecraft. Consulted on flight software integration and testing of Wind spacecraft CMDH instrument interfacing. Adapted ground based solutions to flight related de-spin software problems on the Polar Spacecraft after launch.
1988 to 1990 Computer I&T engineer working several flight projects including SHOOT and COBE. Developed 8088 assembly patch code for several instrument controllers. Designed an array of Harris R2000 RISC controllers to act as a generic CMDH using FORTH as a command structure language.
1976 to 1988 Goddard contractor working as a software/hardware technician for various projects such as the pre-calibration of NACE and WATS; MAGSAT telemetry processing and a lengthy list of nifty laboratory projects that kept me busy while actively perusing an Undergraduate Degree at the University of Maryland, and a Master's degree at John's Hopkins.
Interests
- Chess
- Bridge
- Ham Radio (current president of WA3NAN Goddard Radio Club)
- Photography
