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About

Eric Sunada is a visionary aerospace engineer whose work bridges planetary exploration and advanced robotic systems. His primary research areas include lunar exploration, in-situ resource utilization, and autonomous robotic assembly for space-based observatories. Sunada is perhaps best known as the lead systems engineer for the **Moon Diver** mission concept, a bold proposal to send a rappelling rover into a lunar mare pit to expose and analyze the Moon’s volcanic stratigraphy—directly addressing questions left open since Apollo. This work, which has garnered over 48 combined citations, promises to unlock the history of secondary crusts across the Solar System. Beyond the Moon, Sunada has pioneered concepts for a robotically assembled Earth-observing science station and the **FARSIDE** interferometric radio telescope array, which would deploy 128 antennas across 100 square kilometers of the lunar far side using just four tethered robots. His earlier thermal design work on NASA’s Low Density Supersonic Decelerator project further demonstrates his versatility. Sunada’s contributions are defining a future where autonomous robots build and explore beyond Earth.