THE 2023 HUMANS TO MARS SUMMIT
an Explore Mars Event
May 16-18, 2023
The National Academy of Sciences Building
Washington D.C.
Dr. F. McNeil (Neil) Cheatwood
NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) | Senior Technologist for Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing
Dr. Neil Cheatwood has played key roles in NASA's planetary atmospheric flight efforts for the past 30 years and is currently the Agency’s Senior Technologist for Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL). In this role, Neil leads NASA’s efforts to develop Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) technology and has overseen and directed the technology development as the Principal Investigator (PI) for multiple projects including the Program to Advance Inflatable Decelerators for Atmospheric Entry, the HIAD Project, the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) flight tests, and the Low earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID). Neil was also the PI for the Mars Science Laboratory EDL Instrumentation (MEDLI) project, with a Mars entry in 2012. Earlier, Neil served as the EDL PI for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, and prior to that he was the Hypersonics Project Scientist for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate where he defined an investment portfolio including the inflatable aerodynamic decelerator, supersonic retro-propulsion, and advanced ablative thermal protection system technologies
