Biography - Bryan Erb
 Dr. Bryan Erb“ From the Arrow to the
Apollo heat shield, lunar
sample quarantine,
remote sensing, Space
Station robotics and
Space Solar Power, it’s
been a great ride!”
While officially retired,
Dr. Erb has continued
to pursue his interests
in the prospects of
alternate energy
sources. He was an
Engineering Aerodynamicist with
A.V. Roe (Avro) Aircraft at Malton
doing thermal analysis on the
Avro Arrow until 1959 when NASA
recruited him for his expertise.
He laid the concepts, as one of
the original 8-person team, for
what became Apollo, the only
manned spacecraft to reach
the moon. He was responsible
for the technical leadership
for several key elements of the
Apollo spacecraft, including
the Command Module heat
shield. He managed the Lunar
Receiving Laboratory during the
early critical missions. Dr. Erb
planned and managed important
remote sensing experiments,
including the first world-scale
inventory of wheat using
satellite data. He was awarded
the NASA Exceptional Service
medal for this accomplishment.
He became Chief of the Earth
Observations Division of NASA’s
Life Sciences Directorate in 1979
and later was the Manager of
the Earth Resources Program
Management Office. Having
maintained both his Canadian
citizenship and broad network
within NASA, Dr. Erb was pleased
to be selected as the Assistant
Director of the Canadian Space
Agency’s Canadian Space
Station Program in 1986. In this
role, he represented Canadian
interests at the Johnson Space
Center and to other partners
on the International Space
Station Program. By 1991, Dr. Erb
had become captivated with
the potential of solar power
from space and served as
the President of the SUNSAT
Energy Council for five years.
He chaired the International
Astronautical Federation’s
Space Power Committee from
1998 through 2001. From 2000
through 2002, he instigated
and managed the Canadian
Space Agency’s Canadian Space
Power Initiative. Dr. Erb took his
B.S. in Civil Engineering at the
University of Alberta, Edmonton,
an M.S. in Aerodynamics from
Cranfield Institute of Technology,
England as an Athlone Fellow,
an M.S. in Fluid Mechanics at the
University of Alberta, Edmonton,
an M.S. in Management at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA as a
Sloan Fellow, and was awarded
an Honorary D.Sc. from the
University of Alberta. Dr. Erb is a
prolific author and speaker with
over 100 technical publications
and major presentations including
invited papers for meetings in
Canada, Brazil, France, Italy, Mali,
Ghana, Australia, and the United
States. He was also a Lecturer at
the International Space University
Summer Sessions in Toronto,
Huntsville, Houston,
and Barcelona. |
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