A native of the Central American country of Costa Rica, Mr. Gómez carried out his undergraduate studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, receiving dual degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering. He placed third in the Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition 2011 of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for his thesis focusing on the design of an orbital debris removal mission. After graduation, he worked at the Ad Astra Rocket Company performing thermal studies on the VASIMR engine, the world´s most powerful spacecraft electric propulsion system. In 2012, Mr. Gómez started the Master´s program in aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology. This program included an internship at the Swiss Space Center of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where he optimized spacecraft trajectories using low-thrust propulsion systems for an orbital debris removal mission. His graduate thesis was awarded the best technical student paper prize at the International Astronautical Congress 2015, by the British Interplanetary Society. He is currently employed at the Costa Rican Institute of Technology as project manager for the DSpace mission, which aims to place the first satellite of the Central American region in orbit by 2017.

Contact: marco.gomez(at)acae-ca.org