Example record

Talia Mensah is a fictional person and everything on this page is invented. It is here to show what the format does, not to describe anyone real.

Source sky survey / public record

Source ofYOU

Primary object / SOY 0001

Talia Mensah

Chief engineer · lunar landing systems

Site Tucson, AZStatus Open to advisory and review-board work
TM

Log entry 0001

Instrument: self

I get spacecraft to the ground in one piece. Two lunar landers, forty-eight meters of landing accuracy, and a career that started on a machine shop floor.

Chart 01

CV-RA

Career constellation

  1. Epoch 2021 - present

    Chief Engineer, Lunar Landing Systems, Ocotillo Space Systems

    Two lunar missions · 48 m dispersion · 38 engineers.

  2. Epoch 2019 - present

    Adjunct Instructor, Sonoran Basin Community College

    Machining to mechatronics, Tuesday nights.

  3. Epoch 2015 - 2021

    Principal Guidance & Navigation Engineer, Verde Instruments

    Flight navigation on three deep-space platforms.

  4. Epoch 2015

    M.S. Aerospace Engineering, University of Arizona

  5. Epoch 2011 - 2015

    Spacecraft Test Engineer, Verde Instruments

    Thermal-vacuum and vibration campaigns.

  6. Epoch 2011

    B.S. Aerospace Engineering, University of Arizona

  7. Epoch 2006

    A.A.S. Precision Machining, Sonoran Basin Community College

  8. Epoch 2004 - 2011

    Manufacturing Technician, then Machinist, Tucson Precision Machine

    Flight and ground-support hardware for instrument primes.

Chart 02

MAG-LG

Magnitude legend

Lead guidance, descent and landing for lunar spacecraft.

Primary stars

  • Landing systems
  • Flight guidance
  • Test campaigns

Objects in focus

  • Descent and landing
  • Flight software
  • Technician pipeline

Chart 03

LOG-LF

Long-form observation

I started on a Tucson machine shop floor in 2004, cutting flight hardware for instrument primes I would later design for. Nights went to a community college machining certificate, then an aerospace degree at the University of Arizona. I spent ten years at Verde Instruments, first testing hardware and then flying the guidance software on deep-space platforms. Since 2021 I have been chief engineer for lunar landing systems at Ocotillo Space Systems, where I own everything between the last engine burn and the moment the legs take the weight. I still teach the Tuesday night machining class I once sat in.

Chart 04

OBS-WK

Observed works

OBS 001

Landing systems

Perigee lander landing system

Terminal guidance, hazard-relative navigation and touchdown logic for a 1,400 kg lunar lander, from preliminary design through flight readiness.

Two lunar missions manifested.

OBS 002

Guidance

Terminal guidance rebuild

Rebuilt the terminal guidance loop and the campaign that proves it, against the real flight computer and the real sensor suite.

210 m to 48 m landing dispersion.

OBS 003

Test

Hardware-in-the-loop landing lab

Built the lab that flies the vehicle's own avionics against synthesized terrain, sensors and faults before anything leaves the ground.

Four full descent campaigns.

OBS 004

Navigation

Star-tracker fusion filter

Navigation filter fusing star-tracker and inertial data for deep-space instrument platforms at Verde Instruments.

Still flying on an asteroid-survey platform.

OBS 005

Teaching

Tuesday night machining course

Evening course at Sonoran Basin Community College for machinists moving into instrumentation, test and flight work.

Chart 05

PHO-ME

Photometric evidence

Measure 01

48 m landing accuracy
Terminal-guidance dispersion, down from 210 m at program start.

Measure 02

2 lunar missions
Landing system of record from preliminary design through flight readiness.

Measure 03

11 readiness gates
Cleared with no landing-system waiver.

Measure 04

38 engineers
Guidance, propulsion, avionics and test under one chief engineer.

Measure 05

Machinist to chief engineer
Twenty-two years in one field, starting on a shop floor in Tucson.

Chart 06

TRG-SV

Observation program

01

Independent review boards

Descent, landing and flight-software readiness review for small and medium spacecraft programs.

02

Test-campaign design

Hardware-in-the-loop campaign structure for teams whose flight software has been reassured but never tested.

Chart 07

FLD-NT

Field notes

A landing is won in the lab

By the time the vehicle is falling, every decision it can make has already been made by people on the ground. What you fly is the argument you rehearsed. The campaign is the product.

The pipeline runs through the shop floor

The people who can already make a thing are the hardest half of the hire. What they usually lack is one person telling them the ceiling they were shown is not the ceiling.

Chart 08

QRY-AR

Query archive

Q01

What does Talia Mensah do?
Talia is chief engineer for lunar landing systems at Ocotillo Space Systems in Tucson. She owns the landing system on two lunar missions, from terminal guidance through touchdown, across a team of 38 engineers.

Q02

What has Talia actually flown?
Navigation software on three deep-space instrument platforms at Verde Instruments, all still returning data, including the star-tracker fusion filter an asteroid-survey platform still runs on. The lunar landing system she leads now has two missions manifested.

Q03

What is Talia known for?
Cutting terminal-guidance dispersion from 210 meters to 48 meters across four hardware-in-the-loop campaigns, and carrying that landing system through 11 flight-readiness gates with no waiver.

Q04

What is Talia's background?
Twenty-two years in one field. She started as a manufacturing technician and machinist at Tucson Precision Machine in 2004, took an A.A.S. in precision machining at Sonoran Basin Community College, then a B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering at the University of Arizona.

Q05

Where is Talia based?
Tucson, Arizona.

Q06

Is Talia available?
She takes independent review-board and advisory work on descent, landing and flight-software readiness.