TFAWS 2026 has four panel sessions
- Survive the Lunar Night
Monday 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm - Thermal Technology
Tuesday 9:30 am – 11:00 am - Cryogenic Fluid Management
Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm - Nuclear Propulsion
Thursday 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Survive the Lunar Night
Monday 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
This highly interactive panel invites the audience to steer a conversation focused on how future lunar surface missions can endure the challenges of the long, frigid lunar night. Rather than delivering formal presentations, panelists will respond directly to participant questions, exploring topics such as mission‑specific thermal needs, key performance metrics, gaps in current technologies, and opportunities for new approaches.
Drawing from experience across mission design, technology development, and environmental modeling, panelists will help unpack how NASA evaluates and prioritizes thermal concepts for long‑duration surface operations. Audience engagement will shape the direction of the discussion, providing a space to explore ideas, challenge assumptions, and highlight promising pathways for surviving multiple lunar night cycles—and potentially extending these approaches to other future surface missions.
Moderator:
- Will Birmingham (MSFC)
- Will Birmingham is a thermal engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center supporting Human Lander System, Lunar Terrain Vehicle, Pressurized Rover, Multi-Purpose Habitation, and CLPS lander thermal environments. He is also a core member of NASA’s LUnar and Mars Environments Analysis Team (LUMENATE).
Panelists:
- Dave Bugby (JPL) – Virtual
- Dave Bugby has over 40 years of experience in the thermal engineering discipline. He worked as a staff scientist and thermal technologist at SAIC, ATK Space, and now JPL. With over 16 recent publications on the matter, he has remained an expert in the field and is currently supporting multiple upcoming lunar missions like FSS, SPSS, LEMS, and LuSEE-Night.
- Lisa Erickson (JSC)
- Lisa Erickson has been a thermal engineer at Johnson Space Center for the past 14years. She has performed thermal analysis for various programs including the Lunar Gateway, VIPER, and Human Landing System. She is one of the authors the “Human Landing System Lunar Thermal Analysis Guidebook” and is a core member NASA’s LUnar and Mars Environments Analysis Team.
- Scott Hansen (JSC)
- Scott Hansen was a NASA/JSC co-op from 2006-2010 and has worked full time in the Thermal Systems Branch at JSC since 2012. He has worked on a variety of thermal technology development projects including Phase Change Material Heat Exchangers and Condensing Heat Exchangers. He served as HLS ATCS Deputy System Manager from 2020-2022, Gateway ATCS System Manager from 2022-2026, and is currently serving as Moon Base TCS System Manager. He holds a Bachelors of Finance from the University of South Dakota (2007) and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M (2012).
- Stephanie Mauro (MSFC)
- Stephanie Mauro is a thermal engineer and team lead working in Marshall Space Flight Center’s Space Systems Department, where she has worked on a variety of Lunar surface projects including Lunar CATALYST, MMPACT, several CLPS payloads, and developmental thermal technology aiming to contribute to surviving the lunar night.
- Will Grier (LARC)
- Will Grier is a thermal engineer in the Structural and Thermal Systems Branch (STSB) of the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Engineering Directorate. He supports the Human Landing System (HLS) and Moonbase programs as a member of the LUnar and Mars ENvironment Analysis TEam (LUMENATE) tasked with outlining Lunar surface thermal modeling best practices applicable to many NASA programs and projects.
Thermal Technology
Tuesday 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Managing the thermal environment on the lunar and Martian surfaces is a growing challenge as mission concepts expand and surface systems become more diverse. With changing temperatures, dust, gravity, and operational profiles, no single thermal solution fits every situation. A wide range of heat rejection and heat transport technologies—from two‑phase systems and heat pipes to radiators, thermal storage, and innovative hybrid ideas—are being explored to meet these evolving needs.
In this interactive panel, experts from across the thermal community will take audience questions, share perspectives on emerging approaches, and discuss how environmental and operational factors shape technology choices. The session is designed to help participants understand the broader trade space and gather practical insights that support more robust, adaptable thermal solutions for future lunar and Martian missions.
Moderator:
- Tommy Chen (JSC)
- Tommy is the ECLSS Analysis Lead at Johnson Space Center’s Crew and Thermal Systems Division. Some projects that he supports with his expertise in life support and active thermal control include Orion as the ECLSS & ATCS Analysis Lead, Moonbase ECLSS Analysis, as well as technology development projects with RTMD.
Panelists:
- Dave Bugby (JPL) – Virtual
- Dave Bugby has over 40 years of experience in the thermal engineering discipline. He worked as a staff scientist and thermal technologist at SAIC, ATK Space, and now JPL. With over 16 recent publications on the matter, he has remained an expert in the field and is currently supporting multiple upcoming lunar missions like FSS, SPSS, LEMS, and LuSEE-Night.
- Sergey Semenov (GSFC)
- Dr. Semenov is the Resident Expert in Two-Phase Thermal Systems at Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on advanced spacecraft thermal control systems that employ heat pipes, loop heat pipes, and other two-phase devices.
- Tom Leimkuehler (JSC)
- Tom Leimkuehler is the Active Thermal Technical Discipline Lead at the Johnson Space Center, and he also serves as the Thermal Control Subteam Lead for the NESC Thermal Control and Protection TDT. Tom is currently serving a detail as the Thermal Principal Technologist with the RTMD Advanced Research and Technology Division (formerly STMD).
- Will Sixel (GRC)
- William Sixel has worked at NASA’s Glenn Research Center since 2019 as an Aerospace Engineer in the areas of heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamic system analysis. Recent and current work includes thermal management systems, cryocoolers, heat pipes, high efficiency cryogenic heat exchanger design, and radiators for space power systems.
Cryogenic Fluid Management
Wednesday 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Cryogenic fluid management remains one of NASA’s most technically demanding challenges, driven by the need to store, transfer, and utilize extremely low‑temperature propellants in environments that impose severe thermal loads. In this interactive panel, experts across spacecraft thermal control, cryogenic systems, and mission architecture will engage directly with audience questions, encouraging participants to help shape the discussion around the thermal constraints that govern system performance and reliability.
Attendees will gain insight into current thermal limitations, emerging technologies for cryogenic thermal management, and the design trades necessary to balance thermal robustness with mass, power, and operational flexibility. Through active audience participation, the session will provide a dynamic forum for exploring how these thermal constraints influence future mission design, subsystem development, and foundational research—offering a deeper collective understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Moderator:
- Travis Belcher (MSFC)
- Travis Belcher is a Project Manager and COR supporting the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project in Marshall Spaceflight Center’s (MSFC) Science and Technology Office. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University (2015) and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Texas at El Paso (2017); his work at NASA has been in support of Cryogenics, Thermal Control Systems, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion, and Additive Manufacturing.
Panelists:
- Dylan Foster (MSFC)
- Dylan Foster has a background in cryogenic boiling & two-phase flow and is currently a Liquid Propulsion Systems Analyst within MSFC’s Spacecraft and Vehicle Propulsion Systems branch.
- Evan Racine (GRC)
- Evan M. Racine is an aerospace engineer and project leader at NASA’s Glenn Research Center with more than 15 years of engineering experience spanning thermal systems, nuclear propulsion, cryogenic technologies, and project management. He holds a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Dayton and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University.
Racine held a significant leadership role during a two-year assignment with NASA’s Cryogenics Fluid Management Portfolio Project Office (CFMPP), where he managed multiple projects supporting the development of technologies critical to future space exploration missions.
- Evan M. Racine is an aerospace engineer and project leader at NASA’s Glenn Research Center with more than 15 years of engineering experience spanning thermal systems, nuclear propulsion, cryogenic technologies, and project management. He holds a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Dayton and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University.
- Jonathan Stephens (MSFC)
- Jonathan Stephens currently serves in the Propulsion Systems Department at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. He holds both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and has worked with NASA for 27 years. Throughout his career, he has worked in Cryogenic Liquid Propulsion. His work experience includes performance analysis and testing of the Space Shuttle Main Engine, Main Propulsion Systems for the Constellation Program, and Cryogenic Fluid Management activities under multiple NASA projects including Cryogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer, Evolvable Cryogenics, and the Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio Project Office. His current activities include investigating alternate approaches to conducting tank-to-tank transfers of cryogenic propellant, cryocooler development, and an approach to demonstrating the long duration storage of liquid hydrogen utilizing active cooling.
- Juan Valenzuela (MSFC)
- Juan Valenzuela received his B.S and M.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. He has been an aerospace engineer for NASA since 2012. During his 13 years at NASA, he has served as vacuum chamber test engineer, cryogenic fluids analyst and cryogenic fluid management product lead, responsible for the technology development of in-space cryogenic hardware. He currently serves as the Human Landing Systems (HLS) deputy propulsion discipline lead, responsible for overseeing insight on all propulsion systems of the Blue Origin Lunar Lander
- Justin Pesich (GRC)
- Justin Pesich has been at NASA Glenn Research Center for over 7 years working in the Fluid and Cryogenic Systems Branch performing multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis for cryogenic fluid management applications for 1-g and low-g environments.
- Monica Guzik (GRC)
Nuclear Propulsion
Thursday 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Nuclear propulsion systems show dramatic improvements in deep‑space mission capability, but they also introduce significant thermal constraints that shape every aspect of their design and operation. This panel gathers specialists across NASA centers to examine how reactor heat generation, waste‑heat rejection, structural temperature limits, and transient thermal environments influence both nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) and nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) architectures.
This session will be highly interactive, with panelists responding directly to audience questions to explore topics such as, the thermal bottlenecks that drive nuclear propulsion systems and emerging technologies and analysis techniques to enable future crewed and robotic missions that depend on high-performance nuclear propulsion.
Moderator:
- Valerie Lawdensky (MSFC)
- Dr. Lawdensky is a nuclear and thermal analyst who has aspired to go to space and build the best rockets for her future missions: nuclear rockets. She’s worked at Bigelow Aerospace, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, and now Marshall Space Flight Center, spending time working on nuclear modeling for reactors, high-temperature thermal transport modeling especially heat pipes, enabling thermal technologies for all space missions, system-level nuclear rocket analysis, and even serving as a SME for the NEP program, JETSON.
Panelists
- Ishita Trivedi (INL) – Virtual
- Dr. Ishita Trivedi is a Computational Scientist at Idaho National Laboratory, where she leads several NASA-funded space nuclear propulsion projects and has expertise in multiphysics modeling, analysis, and validation for advanced reactor designs spanning space nuclear propulsion, gas-cooled, and liquid metal-cooled systems. Dr. Trivedi also manages cross-institutional stakeholder engagement — from facility specification to funding strategy — for next-generation reactor concepts supporting space propulsion, while mentoring Ph.D. students at the intersection of nuclear engineering and space exploration.
- Jarvis Caffrey (MSFC)
- Jarvis Caffrey is a Nuclear Engineer and Subject Matter Expert with a focus on radiation effects, shielding, and instrumentation in Nuclear Propulsion systems – a set of problems that are often tightly coupled to thermal management.
- Jared Berg (GRC)
- Jared Berg is an engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center currently serving as the thermal discipline lead for the SR-1 Freedom Nuclear Power Module. He has previously worked on thermal control for the Gateway Power and Propulsion Element, Mars atmospheric in-situ resource utilization, and CubeSat thermal management.
- Konor Frick (INL) – Virtual
- Dr. Konor Frick is the Senior Manager of the Reactor Systems and Heat Transport Department at Idaho National Laboratory and serves as the SR-1 Nuclear Power Module Analysis Lead. His work focuses on thermal-fluid modeling, reactor safety analysis, and the development of advanced nuclear power systems
- Monica Guzik (GRC)