Joseph E. Riedel
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Papers
4
Total Citations
43
H-Index
3
About
Joseph E. Riedel is a pioneering aerospace engineer whose career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been defined by advancing autonomous navigation and sequencing for deep-space exploration. His primary research areas include optical navigation (OpNav), autonomous spacecraft sequencing, and guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) for planetary missions. Riedel’s most significant contribution is the development of the Virtual Machine Language (VML), an award-winning advanced procedural sequencing language that has been operational on NASA deep-space missions since 1997. VML played a critical role in the successful entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars, a landmark achievement in autonomous operations. His work on optical navigation strategies—detailed in his most-cited paper (24 citations)—has informed plans for crewed lunar landers like Altair and future robotic explorers. Riedel has also contributed to NASA’s technology assessments for planetary science, aligning with the National Research Council’s decadal survey. His research on the effects of coronal mass ejections on S-band signals further supports human exploration beyond Earth. With decades of impact, Riedel’s innovations remain foundational to autonomous spaceflight.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4