Moriba Jah

Moriba Jah
Born
Moriba Kemessia Jah

(1971-03-23) March 23, 1971 (age 53)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
EducationEmbry–Riddle Aeronautical University (BS)
University of Colorado, Boulder (MS, PhD)
Known forSpace Situational Awareness Programme, space surveillance and tracking, space traffic management,
Spouses
Maria Renee Washington
​
​
(m. 1991; div. 1999)​
Cassaundra Renea Shafer
​
​
(m. 2002; div. 2024)​
Children3
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsUniversity of Texas at Austin
University of Arizona
Air Force Research Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
ThesisMars aerobraking spacecraft state estimation by processing inertial measurement unit data (2005)
Doctoral advisorGeorge Born
Other academic advisorsRonald Madler, Penina Axelrad
Websiteutexas.academia.edu/MoribaJah

Moriba Kemessia Jah CorrFRSE (born 1971) is an American space scientist and aerospace engineer who describes himself as a "space environmentalist".[1] He specializes in orbit determination and prediction, especially as related to space situational awareness and space traffic monitoring. He is currently a full professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, a position he attained in 2024, and a National Geographic Explorer. Jah has co-founded Privateer Space x Orbital Insight, GaiaVerse, and Moriba Jah Universal. His work now broadly focuses on decision intelligence to improve the stewardship of the planet and beyond.

In 2024, Privateer Space acquired Orbital Insight, a satellite imagery analytics company, following Series A Funding. Jah has authored a number of academic papers, including Entropy-based approach for uncertainty propagation of nonlinear dynamical systems.[2] Jah previously worked as a spacecraft navigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was involved in navigation for the Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Exploration Rover, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society, the Air Force Research Laboratory,[3] the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, and the Royal Astronomical Society. Jah was selected for the 10th anniversary class of TED Fellows and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2022.[4] He also was selected for the AIAA class of Fellows and Honorary Fellows in the year of the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11.[5][6][7][8] Jah's work has been featured in Nature,[9] Popular Science,[10] and National Geographic.[11]

  1. ^ Wood, Danielle (7 April 2021). "Media Lab Perspectives: Space Environmentalism with Moriba Jah – MIT Media Lab". MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  2. ^ DeMars, Kyle J.; Bishop, Robert H.; Jah, Moriba K. (July 2013). "Entropy-Based Approach for Uncertainty Propagation of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems". Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics. 36 (4): 1047–1057. doi:10.2514/1.58987. ISSN 0731-5090.
  3. ^ "AFRL inducts 2015 Fellows". 28 October 2015.
  4. ^ "Moriba Jah". MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  5. ^ "Meet the 2019 TED Fellows and Senior Fellows". TED Blog. 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  6. ^ "Moriba Jah (‘99)". alumni.erau.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-25.
  7. ^ "2019 Class of TED Fellows Includes Three AAS Members | American Astronomical Society".
  8. ^ "AIAA Announces Its Class of 2019 Fellows and Honorary Fellows". aiaa.org. 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
  9. ^ Witze, Alexandra (2018). "The Quest to Conquer Earth's Space Junk Problem". Nature. 561 (7721): 24–26. Bibcode:2018Natur.561...24W. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-06170-1. PMID 30185967. S2CID 52160253.
  10. ^ "There's an empty trash bag circling our planet". February 2019.
  11. ^ "Tiangong-1 Space Station to Fall This Week". 27 March 2018. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018.