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Eric Stromswold
Eric Stromswold, President and Chief Engineer

Eric is President and Chief Engineer of Cayuga Astronautics. He founded the company in 2013 to fill the void left in the market by the closure of Ithaco Space Systems. The company has so far delivered 54 Magnetic Torquer Bars and is now developing a series of high-performance reaction wheels. Eric has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials Science. Eric has 20 years of experience developing attitude control system for spacecraft including:1) the very powerful, extremely low jitter, 2 Nm reaction wheels currently controlling a number of large satellites including the GeoEye 1 spacecraft which when launched was the highest resolution earth imaging commercial satellite every to fly; 2) the very small .006 Nm reaction wheels used to control a number of small spacecraft including the two Grail spacecraft which recently complete an ultra precise gravity map of the moon; 3) the tiny 0.31 Nms CMG used to control the attitude of the extremely agile Violet Spacecraft; 4) the huge 2300 Nms Next Generation Control Moment Gyro for Naval Research Labs.

Jim KrebsJim Krebs, Senior Electrical Engineer, Quality Manager

Jim is an electrical engineer with over 30 years of experience designing Space Flight Hardware. Hundreds of MTBs that Jim designed have flown in space. Jim has a B.S. and M.S. in physics and has also worked as an Electrical Engineer on Magnetometers, Reaction Wheels, and Conical Earth Sensors.

Steve Fox
Steve Fox, Business Development

Steve has been an aerospace systems engineer for over 40 years, and has extensive experience designing, testing, and providing operational support for space satellite Attitude Determination and Control Systems and related hardware. He played a key role in the development of space satellite hardware and systems for RCA Astro Electronics (Hightstown, NJ), INMARSAT (London, England), ITHACO Space Systems (Ithaca, NY), Teledesic (Kirkland, WA), OSC Space Systems (Dulles, VA), ITT Space Systems (Rochester, NY), Goodrich ISR Systems (Ithaca, NY, and Danbury, CT), among others. While at ITHACO, Steve was also responsible for business development, and was the primary contact for all domestic and international space related marketing issues, from casual customer telecons through the submittal of formal proposals. Steve has also authored / co-authored numerous formal publications in journals and conference proceedings in the areas of spacecraft attitude determination and control systems, attitude determination and control hardware, and satellite pointing and control performance.

Earl Hotchkin
Earl Hotchkin, Assembler

Earl has over 20 years experience building Space Flight Hardware, and has wound hundreds of MTBs that have flown in space.

Andy IrwinAndy Irwin, Senior Mechanical and Systems Engineer

Andy earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked in a University Highway Research Lab and done nano-particle research. He played a key role in the design of ultra precision extreme pressure pumps, special material processing furnaces, thermal vacuum test chambers, reaction wheels for spacecraft attitude control, pressure vessels, industrial automation equipment, and even a special commercial cooking appliance. He brings to the table a remarkable breadth and depth of knowledge in Mechanical Engineering Specialties, Test Engineering, and Mathematics. His vast experience in a range of different industries and his commitment to keeping up with all of the latest engineering technology and manufacturing methods make him an invaluable contributor to any project and a great project lead.

Peter
Peter Carruthers, Senior Electrical Engineer


Peter is a senior electrical engineer with over 40 years of design experience. He has a B.S. in Circuit Design and an M.S. in Solid Mechanics from Cornell. Peter spent much of his career designing motor drivers, starting with Stepper Motor Drivers for Smith Corona, then four quadrant brushless DC motor drivers for Ithaco Space Systems, and now very large motor drives for electric and hybrid ground-based mass transit vehicles for BAE Systems Controls. Peter joined Cayuga Astronautics as a part-time consultant in 2019.

Peter holds a number of patents in hybrid vehicle design. He did the original design work for Ithaco’s A, B, and E sized Reaction Wheels. To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a motor driver issue with any of the hundreds of Ithaco Spaces Systems Reaction Wheels that are flying, or that have flown, in Space. Peter is now helping Cayuga Astronautics develop its new line of Reaction Wheels that promise to provide unprecedent combinations of large reaction torques and high angular momentum.

Terry Clark
Terry Clark, Quality Consultant

Terry has over 40 years of experience building Space Flight Hardware. Terry worked on some of the very first low residual moment MTBs to fly in space, including the huge 3000Am2 MTBs currently provided attitude control to the Hubble Space Telescope.