Dr. Luke Flynn is the Director of the Hawaii Space Flight Lab (HSFL) and Director of the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium (HSGC). Luke is a Tenured Specialist Faculty at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and he co-founded HSFL in 2007. Luke works on the management and development of small satellites and the Super Strypi rocket, which was first launched in 2015 from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai. He received his B.A in Physics from Cornell University and his PhD in Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii.

Frances Zhu earned her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca in 2014 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at Cornell in 2019. Dr. Zhu was a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow. Since 2020, she has been an assistant research professor with the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology at University of Hawaii, specializing in machine learning, dynamics, systems, and controls engineering. She is also the deputy director for the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium and graduate cooperating faculty with the following departments: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, and earth science.

Miguel Nunes is an Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and Deputy Director of the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL). Miguel received his Aerospace Engineering Degree from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Miguel has worked as an engineer for HSFL since 2009 on small satellite mission development with applications to science instrumentation, such as the NASA HyTI mission, where he currently serves as the Systems Engineer and Deputy PI. For his Ph.D. research, Miguel developed a Multi-Agent Robotic System (MARS) for distributed space missions. He is the main lead for the research and development of the Satellite Testing Facility and a co-inventor of the the Comprehensive Open-architecture Solution for Mission Operations System (COSMOS, https://github.com/hsfl/cosmos).

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineer, Ph.D.
Assistant Researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
Deputy Director of HSFL

Born in Brisbane, Australia, Dr. Sorensen received his BS. (1973), M.S. (1976) and Doctor of Engineering (1979) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas (KU). 

He did his doctoral project on Pioneer Venus at NASA Ames Research Center. He then was a Space Shuttle guidance and control engineer, worked in Mission Control as assistant Flight Director, and finally was a software engineering manager supporting Shuttle missions. In 1990, Dr. Sorensen was the Observations Manager for the SDIO LACE satellite. In 1994, he was the Lunar Mission Manager for the DoD/NASA Clementine lunar mission for which he received the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He was then the Program Manager for the Space R&D contract at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) under which the USAF MSTI-3 satellite was operated, and in 1997 the technical lead for Honeywell’s commercial satellite ground network, DataLynx. From 2000-2007 he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kansas. In 2007 he joined the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as a specialist professor and project manager in the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL). He became tenured faculty in 2012. In December, 2014 Dr. Sorensen and two colleagues (Miguel Nunes and Eric Pilger)  started a technology spin-off company from the University of Hawaiʻi called Interstel Technologies, Inc. This company is developing and marketing a program for comprehensive mission operations called COSMOS that was developed at HSFL under a NASA contract. 

Dr. Sorensen is the chief designer of the COSMOS architecture and is the PI of the NASA STTR contract to develop iCOSMOS-Swarm™. He is a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society (AAS), a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and was on the AIAA Board of Directors as the Director of the Space and Missiles Group, which consisted of 14 technical committees. In 2021 Dr. Sorensen was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the International Space Operations Organization.

Eric received his B.A. in Astrophysics from Williams College in 1982. He then received an M.S. in Astronomy from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1985, after which he went to work for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility as a Systems Programmer. He transferred to the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in 1997, where he has worked since as a Software Engineer. In 2007 he joined in collaborating with the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory, where he is now their Lead Software Engineer.

Lance Yoneshige joined the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory in 2008 after receiving his Bachelors and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His work with HSFL has spanned spacecraft design, fabrication, integration and testing with the HiakaSat and NEUTRON-1 Missions to launcher operations and support for the ORS-4 Launch. He continues to work with spacecraft development on HyTI as well as provide mechanical engineering support for other ongoing projects.

Yosef is an Affiliate Faculty at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and serves as the Operations Manager at HSFL. He grew up on Maui, and earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) in 2017. During his undergraduate studies, Yosef collaborated with HSFL on his Senior Design Capstone Project, which led to his recruitment as a mechanical engineer. In this role, he supported the integration and testing of the Neutron-1 3U CubeSat. As his career progressed, Yosef took on project management responsibilities for various projects and served as the project engineer for the HyTI 6U CubeSat mission. In 2022, he completed an Executive MBA from the Shidler College of Business at UHM. Following this, Yosef transitioned into his current role as Operations Manager and a member of the HSFL Executive Committee, helping guide the lab’s strategic direction.

Affiliate Faculty, HIGP

Operations Manager, HSFL

Amber Imai-Hong has been working for the Hawai`i Space Flight Laboratory as an Avionics Engineer and Outreach Specialist since 2012, and was a student assistant since 2008. While earning her Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Amber was involved with a student-based SmallSat group for 3.5 years doing research and development with microprocessors and power distribution, as well as the team’s Assistant Project Manager for the NanoSat-6 Project Hoʻoponopono. She has participated in over 15 orbital and suborbital projects, as well as mentored high powered rocketry and other senior design teams. Amber’s roles include electronic design, environmental testing, project management, and STEM Outreach.

Scott Ginoza graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and joined the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory in 2021. He has worked with a variety of technology stacks – embedded computing, distributed processing, full-stack web, etc. He is currently involved in developing flight software for CubeSats.

Mars is the assistant to the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) Director, Dr. Luke Flynn, who helps to administer financial, personnel and procurement activities for HSFL.  Her original work is through the Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium (HSGC) but has been involved with HSFL since its inception in 2007, due to the organization’s association as one of the workforce development programs for HSGC.  One of Mars’ main priorities for HSFL, other than coordinating programs for HSGC which is funded by NASA: Office of Education, are to provide her expertise as a manager and administrative officer by maintaining and upkeep of personnel files, processing payroll and employment compensations and other various administrative duties for HSFL.

Gabriel Guerrero joined the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory in 2022. His previous work experience includes working on airborne electronics at local company North Star Scientific Corporation and working on aerospace assembly/integration at Space Exploration Technologies.

Piper received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2022. She began volunteering with the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory during her senior year of college and was hired as an engineer after graduation. Since being hired, she has contributed to the Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem and Mission Operations for the 6U CubeSat HyTI. Piper is currently pursuing her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with her research focus on implementing Model-Based Systems Engineering for CubeSats.