Jacob Sullivan

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Jacob Sullivan is a pioneering aerospace engineer at NASA Johnson Space Center whose work bridges autonomous spacecraft navigation and precision landing technologies. His research focuses on developing cost-effective, highly automated systems for in-space inspection and planetary landing. Sullivan is best known as the lead engineer behind the **Seeker Free-Flying Inspector**, an ultra-low-cost, autonomous vehicle designed for extravehicular inspection of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft. This innovative system, detailed in his most-cited paper (2019, 10 citations), represents a paradigm shift in spacecraft health monitoring by enabling rapid, safe, and affordable external surveys without requiring astronaut extravehicular activity. Sullivan also made critical contributions to the **Morpheus/ALHAT Project**, where he helped develop and test autonomous precision landing with hazard relative navigation. His 2016 paper (7 citations) documents terrestrial campaign results demonstrating how integrated LOX/LCH4 propulsion and real-time hazard detection can enable safe, pinpoint landings on challenging planetary surfaces. Through his work, Sullivan has advanced NASA's capabilities in both in-space inspection and autonomous landing, directly supporting future human exploration missions to the Moon and Mars.