Faculty Members Selected for Summer Program at JPL

Four Georgia Tech faculty members will spend part of their summer working alongside researchers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, collaborating on projects that include icy moon science and deep-space systems. This is the first summer program since Georgia Tech was recognized by JPL as one of its strategic university research partners. The Institute’s Center for Space Technology and Research (C-STAR) selected the participants and is sponsoring the program to build collaborative research opportunities between JPL and Georgia Tech personnel.

“These competitively awarded research grants build on the strengths of both JPL and Georgia Tech,” said Georgia Tech Professor and C-STAR Director Robert Braun. “They are designed to foster future research collaborations between these two institutions, and are well aligned with our nation’s future needs in space science and space technology.”

The four faculty members and their projects are:

• Brian Gunter (Assistant Professor, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering)

Utilizing nano-satellite technology for improved monitoring of Earth’s time-variable gravity

• David Spencer (Professor of the Practice, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering)

Developing Mars technology demonstration missions in lower Earth orbit and deep space micro-spacecraft

• Panagiotis Tsiotras (Professor, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering)

Autonomous energy-projecting systems for robotic exploration of extreme environments

• James Wray (Assistant Professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences)
  Icy satellite surface compositions from infrared spectroscopy
  
  

Each faculty member will partner with relevant JPL researchers during the summer.

"The C-STAR summer faculty program provides an excellent opportunity to connect leading Georgia Tech faculty with researchers at JPL,” said JPL Chief Scientist Daniel McCleese. “The exciting projects chosen this year will open up new collaborations, and enhance both JPL and Georgia Tech's space science efforts.”

JPL will also fund a summer experience for Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering graduate student Peter Ngo to study low-cost, higher-risk flight projects.

C-STAR is an interdisciplinary research center that serves to organize, integrate and facilitate the impact of Georgia Tech's space science and space technology research activities. C-STAR brings together a wide range of Georgia Tech faculty, active in space science and space technology research, and functions as the Georgia Tech focal point for growth of the space industry in the state of Georgia. Braun serves as the director.  Professor Thomas Orlando is the associate director.

In 2012, Georgia Tech and JPL, a division of Caltech, formally entered into a strategic partnership designed to promote and encourage collaboration between the institutions, with a focus on research collaborations and personnel exchanges in science and engineering fields of mutual interest. C-STAR serves as the Georgia Tech focal point for this newly established partnership with JPL.
Written by Meghan Feeney, Institute Communications Student Assistant