Dr. Friedman is the Executive Director of The Planetary Society - the largest space interest organization in the world and it’s built on grass-root public support.
In 1980, Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Dr. Friedman founded The Planetary Society to encourage exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life.
Dr. Friedman received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin in 1961, an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics at Cornell University in 1963, and a Ph.D. from the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at M.I.T. in 1971.
His Ph.D. thesis was on Extracting Scientific Information from Spacecraft Tracking Data.
Dr. Friedman worked on both civilian and military space programs at the AVCO Space Systems Division from 1963-1968.
From 1970 to 1980 he worked on deep space missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
Dr. Friedman was involved in planning future space missions for many years and was the leader of mission design studies for the Venus Orbital Imaging Radar, Halley Comet Rendezvous-Solar Sail, and the Mars Program.
In 1978-79, Dr. Friedman was the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Congressional Fellow where he worked on Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation considering Space Policy, Operational Remote Sensing legislation, NASA program oversight and technology innovation on the railroads.
Before becoming Executive Director of The Planetary Society in 1980, Dr. Friedman was leader of the International Halley Watch at JPL.
His present interest is the human exploration of Mars.
He has also been part of the technical team working on the Mars Balloon, served on a number of space program advisory groups and recently has been asked to participate in both Congressional and Administration reviews concerning American and Russian space exploration missions.
Dr. Friedman is the author of more than 20 papers on Navigation, Mission Analysis and Design, and Mission Planning.
He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Astronautical Society, the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society and Sigma Xi.
Dr. Friedman is the author of “Starsailing: Solar Sails and Interstellar Travel” and frequently lectures about planetary missions and space exploration program.
