About the Author

Dr. Gim Der is a Chinese-American Astrodynamicist who was born in China and grew up in Hong Kong. Currently he resides in Texas. He has over 30 years of experience working in astrodynamics and is currently an active consultant for space catalog building.

He received his BSc in aeronautical engineering from London University in 1974. He started his MIT Masters and Ph.D. theses in astrodynamics under scientist Ted Edelbaum in 1975. He finished his Ph.D. under Professor Dick Battin in 1978. At MIT Gim Der was also mentored by Professor Wallace VanderVelde in applied optimal control and Professor John Vinti in analytic astrodynamics during the 1970s golden age of astrodynamics.

Gim Der's Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS) papers [1], [2] respectively highlight his innovative multi-revolution Lambert and Angles-only algorithms for radar and optical initial orbit determination. These analytical radar and optical algorithms, together with his analytical batch and real-time sequential differential correction (DC) algorithms are the keys to Rapid Space Catalog Building.

[1] Gim J. Der, “The Superior Lambert Algorithm,” AMOS 2011 (Maui, Hawaii USA).

[2] Gim J. Der, “New Angles-only Algorithms for Initial Orbit Determination,” AMOS 2012 (Maui, Hawaii USA).