Angel Abbud-Madrid

Director, Space Resources Program
Professor of Practice, Mechanical Engineering

Angel Abbud-MadridAngel Abbud-Madrid is the Director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines, where he leads a research program focused on the human and robotic exploration of space and the utilization of its resources.  He is also the Director of the Space Resources Graduate Program, aimed at educating scientists, engineers, economists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers in the field of extraterrestrial resources. He has more than 30 years of experience conducting experiments in NASA’s low-gravity facilities, such as drop towers, parabolic-flight aircraft, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station and received the NASA Astronauts’ Personal Achievement Award for his contributions to the success of human space flight.

He is currently the President of the Space Resources Roundtable, an international organization focused on lunar, asteroidal, and planetary resources studies and Observer and Technical Panel member of The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group.  He is also a member of the Committee on Planetary Protection of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

At the undergraduate level, he is the Director of the Space and Planetary Science and Engineering Area of Special Interest and CSM Affiliate Director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, as well as faculty advisor of the CSM AIAA student chapter, Astronomy Club, and Rocket Club.

Contact

General Research Lab 234C
1310 Maple St.
303-384-2300
aabbudma@mines.edu

Research Centers and Programs

Education

  • B.S.E. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), Monterrey, México, 1983
  • M.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1990
  • Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 1996

Research Areas

  • Space Resources
  • Microgravity Science
  • Aerospace Technology
  • Combustion Phenomena
  • Planetary Science

Recent Courses

  • Introduction to Space Exploration (MEGN 408)
  • Space Resources Seminar (SPRS 503)

Recent Publications

  • Christensen, I., Lange, I., Sowers, G., Abbud-Madrid, A., and Bazilian, M., “New Policies Needed to Advance Space Mining,” Issues in Science and Technology, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, p.26, Vol. XXXV, No. 2, Winter 2019

  • Abbud-Madrid, A., “Space and Planetary Resources,” chapter of book entitled Planetary Geology, Rossi, A. P. and Van Gasselt, S., Editors, Springer, 2018.

  • Bernardini, F., Putzig, N., Petersen, E., Abbud-Madrid, A., and Giacinti, V., Implications for Resource Utilization on Mars: Recent Discoveries and Hypotheses, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 71, 186–189, 2018.

  • Dreyer, C. B., Abbud-Madrid, A., Atkinson, J., Lampe, A., Markley, T., Williams, H., McDonough, K., Canney, T., and Haines, J., “A New Experimental Capability for the Study of Regolith Surface Physical Properties to Support Science, Space Exploration, and In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU),” Review of Scientific Instruments 89, 064502, 2018.

  • Bernardini, F., Sidney, W. P., Abbud-Madrid, A., Putzig, N. E., Clark, R. N., Perry, M. R., and Smith, I. B., Mars Prospector: Leading the Way to In-Situ Resource Utilization on the Red Planet, 69th International Astronautical Congress, Paper IAC-18, D3, 3, x47522, 6 pp., 2018.

  • Gertsch, L., Abbud-Madrid, A., Dreyer, C., Jedicke, R., Krot, A., Linne, D., Mantovani, J., Schlesinger, M., Sercel, J., and Unobe, E., “Producing Volatiles from Asteroid Simulants: Preliminary Results”, Paper AIAA-2017-0652, 10th Symposium on Space Resource Utilization, AIAA SciTech Forum, 2017.

  • Sercel, J., Dreyer, C.B., Abbud-Madrid, A., Britt, D., Jedicke, R., Gertsch, L.S., and Love, S.G., “A Coordinated Research Program to Develop the Technology to Optically Mine Asteroids,” ASCE Earth and Space, 2016.

Recent Outreach Presentations