Associate aerospace engineering professor Cesar Ocampo doesn't take "no" for an answer.
Whether it's from the school board that put him in remedial math in elementary school or from NASA after being rejected from the astronaut program, Ocampo has always found a way to overcome obstacles to become successful in the aerospace industry.
The energetic professor from Colombia has used his expertise in astrodynamics, the study of the way things move in space, to make a splash in the space industry over the past few years. For starters, he led a team while working at Hughes Space and Communications Company on a satellite recovery mission using a moon fly-by trajectory - essentially saving a satellite by using the moon's gravity.
After rejecting Ocampo from the NASA astronaut program early in his career, NASA commissioned him to develop Copernicus in 2001, a first-of-its-kind software program combining flight trajectories and orbits of all different types, including the moon and Mars. Perhaps one of the most exciting projects he has worked on in the past few years is as a facilitator for university students in Colombia building their first satellite, which is set to launch in January. This is part of his continued efforts to help developing countries learn new technology and get involved in the space program.
Ocampo was born in 1967 to a poor family in Colombia - like most of the citizens of Colombia at the time.
"Neither of my parents made it past the eighth grade," Ocampo said. "So in 1969, they borrowed money from a friend, and we immigrated to New York City."
Ocampo said adjusting to life in the United States was difficult at first.
"I was at a real disadvantage, because my parents didn't speak any English, so the schools assumed that since I was put in remedial English, I also should be put in remedial math," Ocampo said. "My third-grade teacher figured out, 'Hey you're good at math, so in fourth grade we're going to put you in the advanced math.' I had to fight and convince them to put me in pre-algebra."
It was 1972 when Ocampo first knew he wanted to work in the space industry.
"When I was 5 years old, I saw the launch of Apollo 17, the last U.S.-manned launch to the moon," Ocampo said. "I knew then that I wanted to be involved with space craft, aircraft, rockets - anything that flies"
The first in his extended family to go to college, he began at the University of Michigan, but he transferred to the University of Kansas, where he received his undergraduate degree. He then earned his doctoral degree from the University of Colorado.
At the start of his career, Ocampo worked in the private sector of the aerospace industry, where he led the mission to save the stranded satellite using the moon's gravity.
It was after this that Ocampo received a phone call from UT asking him to apply to be a professor.
"If you're wanting to work in orbital mechanics or spacecraft dynamics, this university is probably top in its field with the largest department for it," Ocampo said.
His primary teaching technique is to encourage his students to believe in science rather than ideas that cannot be proven, he said.
"I mean that's a controversial statement, but I'm very concerned, I don't know what kind of world my daughters will be living in because of religious fanaticism around the world and in our country," he said.
Along with teaching spacecraft dynamics to his undergraduate students, Ocampo has been a part of the Latin American Initiative at UT.
Through this initiative, students at a private university in Bogota, Colombia were able to build a cube set - a satellite - for educational purposes. This is the first artificial satellite from Colombia without any support from the government. According to Ocampo, the entire point is to motivate other universities in the region, including Colombia, to encourage satellite development.
"There are many problems that have plagued Colombia over the last 40 years, such as political groups there, insurgency groups fighting for social justice, and then there are also the drug wars. So stuff like this makes students and kids believe that they can do something," Ocampo said. "And other Third World countries can do things that are advanced and good - hopefully it will motivate them to pursue careers in science."
His part in the process was motivating and encouraging the students and showing them the available information so they could build the satellite themselves.
"I don't know how to build a satellite, I'm only a facilitator, a connection for them to learn how to do that," Ocampo said.
Being from the Andean region of South America, the most neglected region in the area, Ocampa said the success of this mission is very important to him personally.
"There are other countries we'd like to get started on this, like Bolivia and other South American countries," Ocampo said.
The idea behind the Latin American Initiative is to allow both university and high school students to participate and learn how to develop low-budget satellite hardware with a fast development process, Ocampo said.
"It's like what the Web page says, you know, 'what starts here changes the world,'" Ocampo said. "We want to live up to that. We want to go to the most remote areas of the world, where people still live in huts, and motivate them."
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