Trevor Sorensen

Executive team

Trevor Sorensen

Project Manager, Specialist

About

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.

Papers

  1. M. Nunes, R. Wright, P. Lucey, L. Flynn, T. Sorensen, E. Pilger, S. Ginoza, M. Wood, L. Yoneshige, G. Guerrero, Y. Onodera, L. Anderson, C. Swenson, S. Babu (2026). "HyTI-2: A Cryogenically Stabilized LWIR Hyperspectral CubeSat for High-Duty-Cycle Space Domain Awareness," Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, #26423. https://doi.org/10.64861/GMQY8641
  2. M. Nunes, R. Wright, P. Lucey, L. Flynn, T. Sorensen, E. Pilger, S. Ginoza, M. Wood, L. Yoneshige, G. Guerrero, Y. Onodera, L. Anderson, C. Swenson, S. Babu (2026). "HyTI-2: Advancing Hyperspectral Thermal Imaging into the Era of Space-Based Edge Processing," 40th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, SSC26-VII-01. https://doi.org/10.26077/2s6z-xn69
  3. M. Nunes, P. Kline, W. Edmonson, P. Casau, T. Sorensen, E. Pilger (2026). "Conceptual MBSE Architecture for Autonomous and Cooperative CubeSat Swarms," Small Satellites Systems and Services Symposium (4S 2026), Paper 243.
  4. Nunes, M. A., Sorensen, T. C., & Pilger, E. J. (2015). On the development of a 6DoF GNC framework for docking multiple small satellites. AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, AIAA Science and Technology Forum, 1–14. doi:10.2514/6.2015-0868
  5. Nunes, M. A., Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Garbeil, H. M., Lewis, J. R., Azimov, D. M., & Wood, M. (2014). Expanding the Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System (COSMOS) for Integrated Guidance, Navigation and Control of Multiple Small Satellites. In 13th International Conference on Space Operations 2014 (p. 1). doi:10.2514/6.2014-1835
  6. Sorensen, T. C., Nunes, M. A., Chan, J. K., Pilger, E. J., & Yoneshige, L. K. (2014). New Gateway to Space for Small Satellites by the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory. In Small Satellites Systems and Services Symposium, The 4s Symposium, 26-30 May 2014 in Porto Petro, Majorca, Spain.
  7. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., & Nunes, M. A. (2014). Implementing the Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System (COSMOS) to Operate Multiple CubeSats. In 11th Annual CubeSat Developers’ Workshop, April 23-25, 2014, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA.
  8. Nunes, M. A., Sorensen, T. C., & Pilger, E. J. (2014). Cooperative Control of Multiple Small Satellites using the Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System. In 9th International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems, 2 to 6 June 2014, Oporto, Portugal.
  9. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., Nunes, M. A., & Yoneshige, L. K. (2013). Mission design and operations of a constellation of small satellites for remote sensing. In K. D. Pham, J. L. Cox, R. T. Howard, & G. Chen (Eds.), SPIE 8739, Sensors and Systems for Space Applications VI, 873906 (May 21, 2013) (p. 873906). doi:10.1117/12.2016745
  10. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., & Nunes, M. A. (2012). A University-developed Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System (COSMOS) to Operate Multiple Space Vehicles. In SpaceOps 2012 Conference. Cleared for public release by NASA Ames (p. 1)
  11. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., Nunes, M. A., Garbeil, H. M., Wessel, E. K., & Jamroz, W. (2012). Adapting an Open-architecture mission Operations System for a Lunar Rover Mission. In 63rd International Astronautical Congress. Naples, Italy.
  12. Sorensen, T., Pilger, E., Yost, B., Nunes, M., & Differding, J. (2012). "Plug and Play Mission Operations," 2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference, 1–13. doi:10.1109/AERO.2012.6187394
  13. Sorensen, T., Pilger, E., Wood, M., and Nunes, M. (2011). "Development of a Comprehensive Mission Operations System Designed to Operate Multiple Small Satellites," 25th Annual AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites, August 8-11, 2011, Logan, UT. [PDF]
  14. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., and Nunes, M. A. (2011). "Comprehensive Open-architecture Space Mission Operations System (COSMOS)." American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Plug-n-Play Mission Operations Workshop, May 16-17, 2011, San Jose, CA. [Link]
  15. Sorensen, T., French, L., Doi, W., Chan, J., Gregory, E., Kobyashi, M., … Yoneshige, L. (2010). "Hawai’iSat-1: Development Of A University Microsatellite For Testing a Thermal Hyperspectral Imager," In AIAA SPACE 2010 Conference & Exposition (p. 1). Reston, Virigina: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi:10.2514/6.2010-8922
  16. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., Gregory, E. D., and Nunes, M. A. (2010). "Development of the Mission Operations Support Tool (MOST)," American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SpaceOps 2010 Conference, April 25-30, 2010, Huntsville, AL. Paper #2010-2230. [PDF]
  17. Wolfe, C. J., Taylor, G. J., and Sorensen, T. C. (2010). "Cost-Effective Geophysical Exploration of the Moon Using Instrumented Micro-Landers," Ground-Based Geophysics on the Moon 2010 Conference, January 21-22. 2010, Tempe, AZ. Abstract #3033. [PDF]
  18. Sorensen, T. C., Pilger, E. J., Wood, M. S., Gregory, E. D., and Nunes, M. A. (2010). "Development of the Mission Operations Support Tool (MOST)," American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SpaceOps 2010 Conference, April 25-30, 2010, Huntsville, AL. [Link]
  19. Sorensen, T. C., Lappas, V. J., Mouginis-Mark, P. J., Lucey, P. G., Taylor, G. J., Nunes, M. A., & Gregory, E. D. (2010). "Design of a Scientific Lunar Micro-Lander Mission," In International Space Conference of Pacific-basin Societies AAS 10-C.4.8.
  20. Sorensen, T. C., Hude, C. V., Kobayashi, M. H., Pilger, E. J., Sanyal, A. K., and Yoneshige, L. K. (2009). "LEO-1: Development of a University Microsatellite for Flight Testing New Technologies," American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2009 Conference and Exposition, Paper #2009-6812. [PDF]

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