Timothy Canham

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Timothy Canham

| image = Timothy Canham.png

| birth_date =

| fields = Computer engineering, space science

| workplaces = NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

| education = Marcus Whitman High School, Clarkson University (bachelor's degree, electrical and computer engineering)

| known_for = Software lead and operations lead for Ingenuity helicopter, which made the first extraterrestrial powered, controlled flight on April 19, 2021

| awards = John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration{{Cite web|date=2021-06-09|title=Space Foundation Selects NASA JPL Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Flight Team To Receive 2021 John L. 'Jack' Swigert Jr. Award for Space Exploration|url=https://www.spacefoundation.org/2021/06/09/space-foundation-selects-nasa-jpl-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-flight-team-to-receive-2021-john-l-jack-swigert-jr-award-for-space-exploration/|access-date=2021-06-16|website=Space Foundation|language=en}}
2022 Collier Trophy{{cite web|url=https://naa.aero/awards/awards-and-trophies/collier-trophy/|title=Collier Trophy|publisher=National Aeronautic Association|access-date=2022-05-26}}

| children =

}}

Timothy Canham is an American software engineer. He works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he is the operations lead and former software lead for the Mars helicopter Ingenuity.{{cite web|url=https://mars.nasa.gov/people/profile/index.cfm?id=23038|title=Timothy Canham - Senior Software Engineer|publisher=NASA|access-date=2022-05-26}} He resides in Santa Clarita, California.{{cite web|url=https://signalscv.com/2021/03/plum-canyon-resident-on-leading-the-first-helicopter-to-mars/|title=Plum Canyon resident on leading the first helicopter to Mars|publisher=The Santa Clarita Valley Signal|date=2021-03-19|access-date=2022-05-26}}

Education

Canham attended Marcus Whitman High School in Rushville, New York{{cite web|url=https://www.mpnnow.com/story/news/2021/01/22/4-h-zoom-class-teaches-students-stem-nasa-careers/6656489002/|title=Lessons on the science life from NASA|publisher=Daily Messenger|date=2021-01-22|access-date=2022-05-29}} and Clarkson University, where he graduated in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering.{{cite web|url=https://engage.clarkson.edu/blog/knights-of-note/timothy-canham-91/|title=Timothy Canham '91|date=17 March 2021 |publisher=Clarkson University|access-date=2022-05-26}}

Career

Upon graduating from Clarkson University, Canham applied for a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and has worked there ever since with the exception of one year off in the 1990s. Prior to his work on Ingenuity, Canham developed software that resulted in the successful landing of Curiosity. He is an architect of the Fprime flight software framework, used in many JPL projects including Ingenuity.

Canham started working on the Ingenuity project in the summer of 2015, building a prototype of the helicopter to "test the basics" with a team of up to 20 people. The helicopter was selected to be taken on the Perseverance rover to Mars in 2017. In a February 2021 interview with IEEE, Canham revealed that the helicopter would be using a Linux operating system with open-source code and a Snapdragon 801 processor board and 500-hertz guidance loops.{{cite web|url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars|title=How NASA Designed a Helicopter That Could Fly Autonomously on Mars|publisher=IEEE Spectrum|date=2021-02-17|access-date=2022-05-26}} The Perseverance rover, which carried Ingenuity, landed on Mars on February 18, 2021 as part of the Mars 2020 mission; on April 19 of that year, Ingenuity completed the first ever powered, controlled extraterrestrial flight of an aircraft, which lasted 39.1 seconds.{{cite web | last = AFP Staff Writers | title = Ingenuity helicopter successfully flew on Mars: NASA | work = Mars Daily | publisher = ScienceDaily | date = Apr 19, 2021 | url = https://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Ingenuity_helicopter_successfully_flew_on_Mars_NASA_999.html | access-date = 2022-05-27}}{{Cite news|last=Palca|first=Joe|date=19 April 2021|title=Success! NASA's Ingenuity Makes First Powered Flight On Mars|work=National Public Radio|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/04/19/985588253/success-nasas-ingenuity-makes-first-powered-flight-on-mars|access-date=26 May 2022}} In addition to developing and operating spacecraft, Canham has participated in outreach activities at universities to assist students.

The Ingenuity team, which includes Canham, earned the 2021 John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Award for Space Exploration from the Space Foundation. In 2022, the team was awarded the Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association "for the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet, thereby opening the skies of Mars and other worlds for future scientific discovery and exploration."

Scientific publications

Dan Dvorak, Greg Bollella, Timothy Canham, et al. [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6979145 Project Golden Gate: towards real-time Java in space missions]. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. May 24, 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
David Henriquez, Timothy Canham, Johnny Chang, and Elihu McMahon. [https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2008-6550 Workstation-Based Avionics Simulator to Support Mars Science Laboratory Flight Software Development]. June 15, 2012. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
Garth Watney, Leonard J. Reder, and Timothy Canham. [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6979145 Modeling for Partitioned and Multi-core Flight Software Systems: (Instrument Software Framework)]. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. December 11, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
Bob Balaram, Timothy Canham, Courtney Duncan, Håvard F. Grip, Wayne Johnson, Justin Maki, Amelia Quon, Ryan Stern and David Zhu. [https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2018-0023 Mars Helicopter Technology Demonstrator]. Aerospace Research Central. January 7, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
Robert Bocchino, Timothy Canham, Garth Watney, Leonard Reder, and Jeffrey Levison. [https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/328/ F Prime: An Open-Source Framework for Small-Scale Flight Software Systems]. Utah State University. July 19, 2018. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
Canham, Timothy. [https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/handle/2014/51998/CL%2319-7128.pdf Mars Helicopter: Leveraging Commercial Hardware and Open Source Software]. 2019. Retrieved May 27, 2022.

Lectures

Farah Alibay and Timothy Canham. [https://video.ibm.com/recorded/129550626 Helicopters in Space (live public talk)]. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. March 11, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2022.