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About

Heather Hinkel is a NASA researcher whose work sits at the intersection of deep space exploration, autonomous systems, and spacecraft proximity operations. She has made significant contributions to the development and strategic planning of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), a foundational program designed to demonstrate critical technologies for future human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Her research spans rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) strategies, automated rendezvous and docking/capture (AR&D/C) sensor development, and the extensibility of asteroid mission architectures to broader destinations including Mars. Hinkel's most cited work, "Extensibility of Human Asteroid Mission to Mars and Other Destinations" (2014, 11 citations), highlights how technologies validated during ARM — including solar electric propulsion, deep space robotics, and extravehicular activity — can serve as building blocks for humanity's next great exploration milestones. Her parallel work on crewed docking strategies and sensor suite development underscores her expertise in the technical systems needed to make autonomous spacecraft operations safe and reliable. Collectively, her contributions reflect a career dedicated to advancing the practical infrastructure of human deep space exploration, ensuring that demonstration missions lay durable groundwork for the ambitious journeys ahead.