Prof. Brian Gunter was recently appointed to next class of Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellows. The three-year term will provide Dr. Gunter an opportunity to advise the Institute on “opportunities related to sustainability research, education, service, and campus development.”
https://research.gatech.edu/sustainability/fellows
From October 28-30, 2022, the Wireless Energy from Beamed Signals (WEBS) cubesat team hosted representatives from the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) and AFRL for a combination of a major design review, as well as a Satellite Fabrication workshop. We shared our latest design for the WEBS satellite with experts from AFRL and USSF, and the SatFab workshop provided valuable hands-on training on the best-practices for most of the key fabrication methods used in small-satellite assembly, ranging from soldering techniques to harnessing to coating/staking. It was a long three days, but we learned a lot of great information! Below are some images of the SatFab workshop that took place in the BGRG lab space in the ESM building.
At 13:40:01 UTC (08:40:01a ET) today, TARGIT was successfully deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) into orbit. Thanks to the 100+ students, NASA’s USIP and CSLI programs, and NanoRacks for helping to get the satellite in space! Mission operations are next!
The TARGIT spacecraft was successfully launched as part of the 24th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-24) mission at 5:07am on Dec 21, 2021. The satellite will test a number of satellite technologies, to include a lidar system, active tether and inflation systems, 3D-printed components, computer vision tracking systems, horizon sensors using low-resolution thermal imagers, and a set of nanocarbon-based solar cells. This milestone represents the work of over 100 students over 4+ years. The satellite will first go to the International Space Station (ISS) and then be deployed into orbit in January. Congratulations to the entire TARGIT team! See below for links to a video of the launch, as well as various related news articles and images.
Congratulations to Byron Davis for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis on 12/2/21, and graduating this fall with his doctorate! His thesis was entitled “The Improvement of Multi-Satellite Orbit Determination through the Incorporation of Intersatellite Ranging Observations.” Byron earned his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton and Masters of Engineering in Aerospace from GT-AE in 2013 prior to starting his PhD work in 2014. He served as the flight system engineer and student lead for the RANGE cubesat mission, which was the first satellite mission from Georgia Tech to reach orbit in 2018, and was instrumental in the design and fabrication of the OrCa1 mission that launched in early 2020. His dissertation research led him to internships at the Aerospace Corporation and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where we was able to work extensively with JPL’s MONTE mission analaysis software. He is also the recipient of a prestigious NASA Earth System Science graduate fellowship. In the Spring, Byron will join Aerospace Corporation at the Chantilly, Va, location.
Danny Nguyen and Christopher Murphy both finished up their masters degree this fall. Congratulations! Danny’s special problem research was entitled “Simulating Magnetohydrodynamically-Controlled Aerocapture and Comparing to its Atmospherically Controlled Counterpart” and was the product of several internships at NASA Langley under the guidance of Dr. Suomo Dutta (a GT-AE alum!) and Dr. Robert Moses. Danny will continue his graduate studies at CU-Boulder as he pursues his Ph.D. on the topic of MHD aerocapture under Dr. Hisham Ali (another SSDL alum!). Chris’ research focused on deep space communication architectures, with his report entitled “An Investigation into Inner Solar System Communications Infrastructures.” Chris will be working at Ball Aerospace after graduation.
After successfully delivering TARGIT in September, the mission is now scheduled to launch on the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Service 24 (SpX-24) mission on December 21, 2021. The Falcon-9 will take-off from Cape Canaveral at 5:06a and will deliver the satellite to the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts will later deploy the satellite in January to begin mission operations. For those not able to see the launch in person, look to the following sites for live-streamed and recorded coverage of the launch:
SpaceX https://www.youtube.com/c/SpaceX
NASATV https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg
NASASpaceflight https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/
On Veterans Day (Nov 11), we were happy to provide the US Space Force’s Lt. General Nina Armagno a tour and summary of the space related activities we have ongoing here at SSDL. The Lt. Gen. was visiting campus for the formal signing of a new research partnership between Georgia Tech and the U.S. Space Force. More details of the partnership and pictures from her visit can be found here:
https://ae.gatech.edu/news/2021/11/us-space-force-recognizes-georgia-tech-new-strategic-partner
On Sept 20, 2021, the TARGIT small satellite was successfully delivered an integrated into its deployer at the NanoRacks facility in Webster, TX. Congratulations to the whole TARGIT team on this great milestone! Launch is set for December 21!!
Prof. Brian Gunter has been selected to join the third cohort of the Provost Teaching and Learning Fellows (PTLF) program, a two-year development program dedicated to strengthening evidence-based teaching and learning at Georgia Tech. As part of his involvement in the program, Dr. Gunter will collaborate with other GT faculty on the promotion of faculty pedagogical success in fully online courses.