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About the author
Masatoshi Hirabayashi is an assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University in the United States. He graduated from the undergraduate school of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nagoya University in 2007 and obtained an M.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2010. After moving to the U.S., he received an M.S. degree in 2012 and a Ph.D. degree in 2014 from Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. After establishing a scientific research experience in the Planetary Sciences group at Purdue University, he joined Auburn in 2017. Over his career, he has been involved in international space exploration missions. During participating in the graduate school at the University of Tokyo, he was involved in system engineering development as an engineering team member of IKAROS led by JAXA, the first Japanese Solar Sail mission, to contribute to its success at ISAS/JAXA in Sagamihara, Japan. Currently, he is a Co-I of the Optical Navigation Camera team in the Hayabusa2 mission and has played a critical role in science investigations and international communications. He is also a member of the investigation team of NASA/DART. Furthermore, he is serving as a Co-I of the BepiColombo mission led by ESA/JAXA and a collaborator of the OSIRIS-REx mission led by NASA. Through these small-body mission experiences, he has accumulated experience in space mission design, development, and operations, as well as scientific investigations. The experience in these missions allows him to lead the development of this book.
