astronomy

Kathleen Howell

Kathleen Howell is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kathleen Howell rather than just read about it. In short: Kathleen Connor Howell is an American aerospace engineer known for her contributions to dynamical systems theory applied to spacecraft trajectory design which led to the use of halo orbit in multiple NASA space missions. She is currently the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor at Purdue University in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Key takeaways

Kathleen Howell belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kathleen Howell to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kathleen Howell from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kathleen Connor Howell is an American aerospace engineer known for her contributions to dynamical systems theory applied to spacecraft trajectory design which led to the use of halo orbit in multiple NASA space missions. She is currently the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor at Purdue University in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In acknowledgment of her many achievements, Discover magazine recognized her in 2002 as one of the 50 most important women in science.

Education She obtained her Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University in 1973. Howell then received her MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University in 1977 and 1983, respectively. Her PhD advisor was John Breakwell and her PhD dissertation was entitled "Three-dimensional, periodic halo orbits in the restricted three-body problem".

Career Howell started as an assistant professor at Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1982 and is the School's first female tenured professor. She is best known for her contributions to the three-body problem, the interplanetary superhighway, and artificial satellite theories.

Howell's work on computing the characteristics of the invariant manifolds associated with halo orbits was first applied for design of trajectory for Genesis mission and enabling low-energy sample return from Sun-Earth L1 point. The spacecraft trajectory for Genesis exploiting Howell's manifold method was computed by Howell and her student Brian Barden during a weekend in August 1996 after an urgent request from Jet Propulsion Lab scientist Martin Lo. Howell is currently the Editor-In-Chief Emeritus of the AAS Journal of the Astronautical Sciences; she is also a member of other editorial boards. She is both an AIAA and an AAS Fellow.

Awards and honors Howell is a 1984 winner of the 1984 Presidential Young Investigator Award, presented to her at the White House by Ronald Reagan, and the 2004 recipient of the Dirk Brouwer Award from the American Astronautical Society. In 2007, she delivered the Breakwell Memorial Lecture at the Astrodynamics Symposium at the International Astronautical Congress in Hyderabad, India. In 2017 Kathleen Howell was elected to National Academy of Engineering with a citation "For contributions in dynamical systems theory and invariant manifolds culminating in optimal interplanetary trajectories and the Interplanetary Superhighway". In 2024, the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Small Bodies Nomenclature gave the name Kathleenhowell to a large asteroid in the asteroid belt of the Solar System. The entry honors Howell as “instrumental in advancing dynamical systems theory and invariant manifolds, culminating in trajectory optimization. Her pioneering work on the three-body problem has led to the use of halo orbits in several missions.”

Papers "Three-Dimensional, Periodic, 'Halo' Orbits"

References

External links Purdue Faculty Page for Kathleen Howell Howell's Moving Orbits, web page explaining Howell's doctoral research by Greg Egan

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kathleen Howell

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kathleen Howell claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kathleen Howell before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kathleen Howell ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kathleen Howell

In research: Kathleen Howell appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kathleen Howell in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kathleen Howell is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American aerospace engineers, Iowa State University alumni, Living people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kathleen Howell outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Kathleen Howell” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Kathleen Howell in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kathleen Howell means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kathleen Howell out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kathleen Howell in simple terms?

Why does Kathleen Howell matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kathleen Howell?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kathleen Howell.