Events – Space Research Initiative

Considering Responsible Space Exploration in the New Era of Space Exploration

October 30, 2024 from 3pm to 4:30pm.

Please join us for The George H. and Fay C. Sparks Forum on Ethics and Engineering

Considering Responsible Space Exploration in the New Era of Space Exploration

Dr. Zachary Pirtle

Senior Policy Analyst

NASA

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

3:00-4:30pm

Scholars Event Theater

Price Gilbert 1280

Join us after the talk for pizza and conversation.

Over his fourteen years at NASA, Dr. Pirtle has supported major initiatives including the Space Launch System, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), which recently led to the first U.S. landing on the moon in over fifty years. His talk will reflect on the challenges and opportunities for changing engineering culture at a boundary organization such as NASA Headquarters, which operates at the interface of policymaking and technical expertise. In particular, Dr. Pirtle will discuss recent NASA efforts to explore responsible use of the Moon to Mars architecture

Bio:

Dr. Pirtle is a researcher, engineer, and science policy practitioner. He is Program Executive, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and has supported both lunar science and human space exploration. As part of NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, he led the creation of the report “Artemis, Ethics and Society”. Dr. Pirtle has also served as an adjunct professor of Systems Engineering for George Washington University and regularly publishes research touching on engineering ethics, policy and innovation studies.

This event is supported by the Sparks Memorial Fund and organized by the School of Public Policy in conjunction with ETHICx.

Astronomy on Tap Atlanta – Limerick Junction Dec. 5

December 5, 2024 at 6:30 pm: Each Astronomy on Tap event features accessible, engaging presentations on space and science topics ranging from planets to black holes to galaxies to the beginning of the Universe, along with trivia, games, prizes, music, and other surprises!

Limerick Junction Pub @ 822 North Highland Avenue Northeast Atlanta

On November 7, 2024 and December 5, 2024 at 6:30 pm

Planetary Science Astrobiology Seminar Nov 22

November 22, 2024 at11am: Format: Hybrid, In person at ES&T L1175 and Virtual via Zoom (synchronous) at 11am

Virtual meeting information
Link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/99025161765?pwd=2BpUpWZkyazaaZIvEnTTcECpvy1E5D.1
Meeting ID: 990 2516 1765
Passcode: 564312
Phone: +1 669 444 9171 US

Aug. 23 Dr. Frances Rivera-Hernández & Dr. Christopher Carr (Welcome,
Astrobiology updates, and announcements)
Aug. 30 Dr. Yubo Su, Princeton
Sept. 6 Dr. James Wray, Georgia Tech
Sept. 13 Dr. Xinting Yu, UT San Antonio
Sept. 20 Dr. Ziyu Huang, Georgia Tech
Sept. 27 Dr. Indujaa Ganesh, GT (ExplOrigins Event) – Diferent Zoom link!!!
Oct. 4 Dr. Margaret Kosal, Georgia Tech
Oct. 11 Dr. Hubbard James, Agnes Scott
Oct. 18 TBD
Oct. 25 Dr. Alka Rani, NASA MSFC
Nov. 1 TBD
Nov. 15 Dr. Olga Harrington Pinto Auburn University (may move to Nov. 1st.)
Nov. 22 TBD

New Space IRI Executive Director Town Hall

November 19, 2024 from 12pm to 1pm.

Join the Space IRI Executive Director Search Town Hall: Share your Input!

We invite you to join us for a hybrid town hall on Tuesday, November 19, from noon to 1:00 p.m., to discuss the search for the executive director of the new Space Research Institute (SRI). This event will be hosted both in-person at the atrium in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) main building (755 Ferst Dr, NW Atlanta, GA 30332) and virtually on Microsoft Teams. All Georgia Tech personnel and affiliated faculty are welcome!

Our goal is to keep the community informed about the search process, answer your questions, and gather your feedback on what qualities and priorities you believe are essential for the future executive director. Julia Kubanek, Georgia Tech’s vice president for interdisciplinary research, will kick off this important discussion. Your input is crucial as we shape the future leadership of the SRI, so we hope to see you there!

If you are unable to attend the town hall, we encourage you to fill out a brief survey to share your thoughts.

For more information visit the event page here.

Planetary Science Astrobiology Seminar Nov 15

November 15, 2024 at 11am: Format: Hybrid, In person at ES&T L1175 and Virtual via Zoom (synchronous) at 11am

Virtual meeting information
Link: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/99025161765?pwd=2BpUpWZkyazaaZIvEnTTcECpvy1E5D.1
Meeting ID: 990 2516 1765
Passcode: 564312
Phone: +1 669 444 9171 US

Seminar Experimenting on Commercial Sub-orbital Rockets

November 14 at 3:30 to 4:30 pm at the College of Computing, room 102

Experimenting on Commercial Sub-orbital Rockets – you can still be an early adopter

Steven Collicott
Laboratory time for the study of two-phase fluids topic in weightlessness has always been scarce. In
contrast, colleagues with Earthly two-phase fluids topics are able to work all day long, every day, in a
laboratory, continually improving their experiments. The International Space Station (ISS) is the most
amazing and the largest orbiting vehicle ever, and yet it is woefully small from the point of view of
laboratory space for all the science and technology maturation that NASA needs for future space
exploration goals.
Right now, in the early years of the New Space Age, several reusable commercial sub-orbital rockets are
operational and deliver three minutes of very high-quality weightlessness for automated or human-
tended experiments in a very wide range of topics. Fluids experiments related to basic capillary fluid
physics, in-space propellant control and gauging, and the separation of blood from air in future
spaceflight medical tools are discusses. Impacts of vehicle capabilities, integration requirements, flight
safety, ground operations, and similar, on experiment design are then considered. Lessons learned from
fluids experiments flying in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity, and Exos’s
BLK3 rockets are shared. The major contributions of undergraduate aerospace engineering students to
these experiments, made during the students’ time in the author’s “Zero-gravity Flight Experiment”
design-build-test class are included throughout.
Interested researchers can get involved and still be early adopters, as the field appears poised to boom
in the next three years.

Bio
Steven Collicott is a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the College of
Engineering at Purdue University. His preferred research and teaching is in the topic of low-gravity fluid
dynamics. To date he has designed a highly successful space station capillary fluids experiment, flown
forty-five parabolic aircraft flight experiments, launched eight experiments in Blue Origin’s New Shepard
crew capsule, one in Virgin Galactic VSS Unity, seven in Exos Aerospace (was Armadillo) rocket test
flights, and built two drop towers. In late 2021 he was chosen to fly a capillary fluids experiment for
NASA Flight Opportunity Program on a Virgin Galactic sub-orbital mission. He has served on National
Academy and CASIS committees related to fluids in space, chaired the Sub-orbital Applications Users
Group of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and served a three-year executive rotation in the
American Society for Gravitational and Space Research.

Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement Workshop Nov 8

November 6-8, 2024 at 9am: Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement Workshop – November 6-8, 2024, times between 9am-6:30pm
Applications Due: October 4, 2024 | 5:00 p.m. EST
Bradley Observatory at Agnes Scott College

Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement Workshop Nov 7

Astronomy on Tap Atlanta – Limerick Junction Nov. 7

November 7, 2024 at 6:30pm: Each Astronomy on Tap event features accessible, engaging presentations on space and science topics ranging from planets to black holes to galaxies to the beginning of the Universe, along with trivia, games, prizes, music, and other surprises!