Category: News

Georgia Tech plays a starring role in NASA’s STARI mission to determine if telescope technology that studies exoplanets can be implemented in briefcase-sized spacecraft. 

A new NASA-funded project will have Georgia Tech aerospace engineers developing new technology to one day study planets outside our solar system. 

It’s a $10 million joint mission led by the University of Michigan called STARI — STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry. Georgia Tech’s engineers will build the propulsion systems for a pair of briefcase-sized CubeSats that will fly in orbit a few hundred yards away from one another, bouncing starlight back and forth. 

The technology could be used someday to better understand if any known exoplanets are capable of supporting life as we know it.

Interferometry is already used to study stars, gas clouds, and galaxies. Instead of using one large telescope, several smaller telescopes work as a team. The machines swap starlight to create higher resolution images than are possible from a single telescope. 

Scientists and engineers have recently proposed using interferometry to locate exoplanets. 

STARI will determine if the same type of coordination and light transmission can be done using less expensive CubeSats. Although STARI won’t peer at exoplanets, it will test the ability of small satellites to gather light into a hair-like optical fiber, then beam that light to a partner up to 100 meters away.

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AE Lecturer Kelly Griendling, AE 2006, M.S. AE 2008, Ph.D. AE 2011, is the first recipient of the C. Virgil Smith Faculty Teaching Award and will receive $3,800 for her classroom. The award supports AE faculty who primarily teach at the undergraduate level and have shown extraordinary encouragement and support to students. It will be given annually at the discretion of the AE Chair. 

“Kelly exemplifies the spirit of this award through her expertise, unwavering dedication, and innovative teaching style,” AE Chair Mitchell Walker shared. “Her commitment inspires and transforms her students, making her a great example of the type of faculty in AE.”

Griendling, who has been teaching since 2013, has received numerous teaching awards. In 2021, she received the Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching: Class of 1934 CIOS Honor Roll. The next year, she was honored with the College of Engineering Women in Engineering Faculty Teaching Award, and in 2023, she received the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace.

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The Space Research Institute (SRI) at Georgia Tech has initiated an internal search for its inaugural executive director. This new Interdisciplinary Research Institute (IRI) will build upon the foundation laid by the Space Research Initiative.

The SRI is dedicated to advancing cutting-edge research in space-related fields, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, and establishing strong partnerships with industry, government, academic, and international organizations. As leader of the newly established IRI, the executive director will lead the Institute’s strategic vision, nurture a culture of innovation, and champion initiatives that position Georgia Tech, via the SRI, as a global leader in space research and exploration.

The SRI is composed of faculty and staff across campus who have a common interest in space exploration and discovery. Collectively, SRI will research a wide range of topics on space and how it relates to human perspective and be an ultimate hub of all things space related at Georgia Tech. It will connect all the research institutes, labs, facilities, and colleges to pioneer the conversation about space in the state of Georgia. By working hand-in-hand with academics, business partners, and students we are committed to staying at the cutting edge of innovation. 

Click here to learn more about this position and how to apply.

News Contact: For any further details, please contact Rob Kadel at Rob Kadel.

Original story published here.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with its Crew Dragon capsule launches from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in January 2024. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Why does a rocket have to go 25,000 mph (about 40,000 kilometers per hour) to escape Earth? – Bo H., age 10, Durham, New Hampshire

There’s a reason why a rocket has to go so fast to escape Earth. It’s about gravity – something all of us experience every moment of every day.

Gravity is the force that pulls you toward the ground. And that’s a good thing. Gravity keeps you on Earth; otherwise, you would float away into space.

But gravity also makes it difficult to leave Earth if you’re a rocket heading for space. Escaping our planet’s gravitational pull is hard – not only is gravity strong, but it also extends far away from Earth.

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Professor Álvaro Romero-Calvo and a team of Georgia Tech engineers have been selected by NASA for a TechFlights award — an effort managed by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which demonstrates technologies through suborbital and hosted orbital testing with industry flight providers. 

In the Low-Gravity Science and Technology (LGST) Laboratory, led by Romero-Calvo, Georgia Tech engineers develop novel multiphase fluid management technologies for spacecraft by using electromagnetic and acoustic actuation mechanisms; and in this case, heat. 

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When it comes to finding solutions to climate change, there’s no shortage of technologies vying for attention, from renewable energy to electric vehicles to nuclear energy. One such contender, solar geoengineering, is favored by proponents who say it could quickly cool the planet and give the world time to fully implement efforts to limit emissions and remove carbon from the atmosphere.  

But that promise comes with risks, which include potentially poorer air quality or depleted atmospheric ozone – both of which can cause serious health issues of their own. 

A new Georgia Tech School of Public Policy-led study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that while those risks deserve further consideration, solar geoengineering could save as many as 400,000 lives a year through a reduction in temperature-related deaths attributable to climate change.

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James Shin, an electrical engineering major from Hoschton, Georgia, has received a 2025 Marshall Scholarship. He will study physics at the University of Cambridge and public policy at the University of Oxford to advance engineering in space.

Shin has coupled his academic program, first, with research in the Space Systems Design Laboratory and the Dynamics and Control System Laboratory at Georgia Tech. He then became interested in extreme environment electronics through his research in Dr. Cressler’s Silicon-Germanium Devices Lab. His expertise in resilient technology earned him coveted internships at Blue Origin and SpaceX, where he was a 2024 Matthew Isakowitz Fellow.

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From deserts in Arizona to salty lakes in Canada, these environments give scientists an idea of what Mars and Jupiter’s moons might be like.

The surface is covered with fine ash. The lava fields stretch for miles, punctuated only by basalt mountains. But life could be found here if you look hard enough.

This barren land isn’t Mars or Pluto, but volcanic deserts in Iceland. The environment is so comparable to Mars’ arid landscape that researchers can use it as an analog. From Earth, they can extrapolate how planets in our galaxy and beyond could sustain life and what tools humans might need to make homes on these planets.

Georgia Tech researchers explore everywhere from Oregon’s mountaintops to Arizona’s deserts to better understand space — and life on this planet.

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Graduate student Lillian Tso, ME 2023, was selected as an analog astronaut for the Asclepios IV mission, a training exercise that simulated a space crew deployed to the moon.

The Asclepios project is a program of analog missions designed by students for students under the mentorship of trained professionals, which began in 2019.

The two-week exercise occurred earlier this year at the Sasso San Gottardo Museum in Switzerland, a decommissioned war fortress near the Gotthard Pass, where the crew remained underground for the entire exercise simulating life at the lunar South Pole.

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Team All Hands on Dec is on a mission to uncover the mysteries of the moon. The team won $1,000 and the top honors for Best Aerospace Engineering (AE) project at Georgia Tech’s Fall 2024 Capstone Design Expo held in the McCamish Pavilion on December 2.

Altogether, 107 student-led teams from nine schools and three colleges showcased their design projects to 120 judges and crowds of onlookers. 

All Hands on Dec team members Lauren Forcey, Frank Frazier, Daniel Gilliland, Bryce Laderoute, Schuyler McCaa, and Sayed Tabatabaei were among eight aerospace teams vying for the best AE project.

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