The Future of Space Exploration: Earth-based, Deep Space-based, Robotic and Human

Amanda Hendrix
Senior Scientist, Planetary Science Institute
Boulder, Colorado, USA

Dr. Amanda Hendrix is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, based in Boulder, CO. Her research, which focuses on UV-visible spectroscopy of solar system surfaces, includes moon and asteroid composition, space weathering effects and radiation products. She has been a co-investigator on NASA’s Cassini, Galileo and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions, is a Principal Investigator on Hubble Space Telescope observing programs and is the Principal Investigator of NASA’s Toolbox for Research and Exploration. Amanda also worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 12 years studying asteroids and icy moons, and was the Deputy Project Scientist for the Cassini Mission at Saturn. She is co-chair of the National Academies Committee on Planetary Protection and served as chair of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences. She holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University and a Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is co-author of Beyond Earth, Our Path to a New Home in the Planets, a discussion of the technological, medical and social hurdles to be overcome in considering establishing a human space settlement in the outer solar system, published in 2016 by Penguin Random House. In 2000, she was a NASA astronaut candidate finalist, and she is the namesake of asteroid 6813 Amandahendrix.