Dr. Roedolph (Rudy) Opperman is a lead systems engineer working at Momentus Inc., a young in-space transportation company based out of San Jose, CA. Prior to joining the Momentus team in May of 2021, Rudy worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a fault protection engineer on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover, Psyche and the Mars Insight lander missions. Prior to JPL, Rudy worked for Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, where he designed, built, tested and supported deployment of several small satellite payloads that are operated in Low Earth Orbit inside the International Space Station. Rudy’s research and career focus spans human spaceflight physiology, space hardware design, sensor fusion and control, orbital debris mitigation, space policy, and most recently robotic space exploration and rendezvous. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, and advanced degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).