NASA Deep Space Exploration: Jeffrey Rusick at TEDx ElonUniversity

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

Jeff Rusick currently works at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland Ohio for the NASA Radioisotope Power System program that provides advanced power generators for deep space science missions, including the Mars Science Laboratory, which landed the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. The Curiosity rover is powered by a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), which provides approximately 110 Watts of power to the rover day and night, using heat from the natural decay of (Plutonium) Pu- 238. Jeff is working on an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), which will be 4 times more efficient than the current rover RTG for future NASA missions. He is also the NASA Product Assurance lead for the ASRG project. Jeff graduated from Miami University in 1974 with a BS in Physics and went on to Ohio State to receive his MS in Nuclear Engineering.