Robert A. Woodruff (born September 1943) is an American
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
who is known principally for having designed and worked on a wide variety of instruments for space telescopes. These include
Skylab
Skylab was the first United States space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three separate three-astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4. Major operations in ...
(1967–1970),
Apollo–Soyuz (1970s), ''Galileo'' (~1980),
SIRTF and MIPS (1970s-1990s), and
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...
instruments
977–present(GHRS, STIS,
COSTAR
CoStar Group, Inc. is a Washington, DC-based provider of information, analytics and marketing services to the commercial property industry in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain. Founded in 1987 by Andrew C. ...
, ACS, COS, WFC3);
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...
(1995–2000),
Kepler space telescope
The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...
(mid-1990s),
TPF TPF may refer to:
* Tibial plateau fracture
* Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants
* Transaction Processing Facility, an operating system by IBM
* Terrestrial Planet Finder, a proposed system of telescopes to detect extrasola ...
(2001 to present), and
Destiny (2003–present).
He has had one or more instruments flying continuously in space since the early 1970s.
Woodruff has over 45 years experience designing optical systems for United States space program missions.
[ He has made significant contributions to projects ranging from Skylab, Nimbus, Apollo–Soyuz, Galileo, SIRTF/Spitzer, microgravity science, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), Beyond Einstein, Exo-planet detection, Kepler, as well as others. He has wide and varied experience in the definition of optical space-borne telescopes and instruments. His technical specialties are optical physic, optics design, and optical system engineering. He has served in various technical roles in optical design, system engineering, system test, and system calibration in the development of more than 20 flight hardware instruments, so one or more of his designs have been operational in space continuously for nearly 40 years. Among his accomplishments, two activities standout: 1) He helped fix the Hubble Space Telescope spherical aberration flaw and 2) He conceived and generated the optical concept and design for the Kepler mission. He is the author or co-author of well over 25 published or presented papers. He is also an Associate of Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) of the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. He retired from Lockheed Martin as a Technical Fellow and Chief Scientist for Optical Systems.][
In 2012, Woodruff was the Ernest Fox Nichols Distinguished Lecturer at ]Kansas State University
Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...
, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1964. He also has a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
.
Works
*R. Woodruff, B. Woodgate, C. Ludtke. "Optical Design of the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a Third Generation HST axial science instrument", Proc. SPIE, Vol. 3356, p. 249, Kona, (1998).
References
Living people
1943 births
People from Manhattan, Kansas
21st-century American physicists
Kansas State University alumni
Grainger College of Engineering alumni
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