ISUW 2022 Speaker

Dr. Anita Sengupta is an aerospace engineer, rocket scientist, aerospace executive, and instrument rated pilot who has developed technologies that have enabled the exploration of Mars, asteroids, and deep space for 22 years. Her career began with launch vehicles and communication satellites at Boeing Space and Communications. She then worked for NASA for 16 years where her engineering projects included her PhD research on developing the electric propulsion system for the Dawn Mission (to the main asteroid belt), the supersonic parachute that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012, and the Cold Atom Laboratory an atomic physics facility on board the International Space Station.       She left NASA to lead the development of the Hyperloop as Senior Vice President of systems engineering at Virgin Hyperloop, an all electric transport system that can enable ground-based travel in excess of airline speed. She next spent a few years in the battery powered aircraft sector, which is severely range and payload limited. She felt the need for a more evolutionary approach to carbon emission free aviation with hydrogen fuel cell technology. In 2020 she founded Hydroplane Ltd. using her passion as a pilot, skills as an industry executive, training as a NASA technologist, and presence as transport thought leader to kickstart truly sustainable aviation.       Her full time job is as CEO of Hydroplane, but she is also a Research Professor of Astronautics and Space Technology at the University of Southern California where she teaches Spacecraft and Entry System design. In her spare time she is an instrument rated pilot with over 500 hours in single engine aircraft and is working on her commercial rating. She is also a Captain in the USAF Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol Squadron 35 with emergency service roles of mission observer and mission scanner.