Aerospace

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:55:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase admin Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:55

As more satellites launch into space, the satellite industry has sounded the alarm about the danger of collisions in low Earth orbit (LEO). What is less understood is what might happen as more missions head to a more targeted destination: the moon.

According to The Planetary Society, more than 30 missions are slated to launch to the moon between 2024 and 2030, backed by the U.S., China, Japan, India, and various private corporations. That compares to over 40 missions to the moon between 1959 and 1979 and a scant three missions between 1980 and 2000.

A multidisciplinary team at Georgia Tech has found that while collision probabilities in orbits around the moon are very low compared to Earth orbit, spacecraft in lunar orbit will likely need to conduct multiple costly collision avoidance maneuvers each year. The Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets published the Georgia Tech collision-avoidance study in March.

“The number of close approaches in lunar orbit is higher than some might expect, given that there are only tens of satellites, rather than the thousands in low Earth orbit,” says paper co-author Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Borowitz and other researchers attribute these risky approaches in part to spacecraft often choosing a limited number of favorable orbits and the difficulty of monitoring the exact location of spacecraft that are more than 200,000 miles away.

“There is significant uncertainty about the exact location of objects around the moon. This, combined with the high cost associated with lunar missions, means that operators often undertake maneuvers even when the probability is very low — up to one in 10 million,” Borowitz explains.

The Georgia Tech research is the first published study showing short- and long-term collision risks in cislunar orbits. Using a series of Monte Carlo simulations, the researchers modeled the probability of various outcomes in a process that cannot be easily predicted because of random variables.

“Our analysis suggests that satellite operators must perform up to four maneuvers annually for each satellite for a fleet of 50 satellites in low lunar orbit (LLO),” said one of the study’s authors, Brian Gunter, associate professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

He noted that with only 10 satellites in LLO, a satellite might still need a yearly maneuver. This is supported by what current cislunar operators have reported.

Favored Orbits

Most close encounters are expected to occur near the moon’s equator, an intersection point between the orbit planes of commonly used “frozen” and low lunar orbits, which are preferred by many operators. Other possible regions of congestion can occur at the Lagrangian points, or regions where the gravitational forces of Earth and the moon balance out. Stable orbits in these regions have names such as Halo and Lyapunov orbits.

“Lagrangian points are an interesting place to put a satellite because it can maintain its orbit for long periods with very little maneuvering and thrusting. Frozen orbits, too. Anywhere outside these special areas, you have to spend a lot of fuel to maintain an orbit,” he said.

Gunter and other researchers worry that if operators aren’t coordinated about how they plan lunar missions, opportunities for collision will increase in these popular orbits.

“The close approaches were much more common than I would have intuitively anticipated,” says lead study author Stef Crum.

The 2024 graduate of Georgia Tech’s aerospace engineering doctoral program notes that, considering the small number of satellites in lunar orbit, the need for multiple maneuvers was “really surprising.”

Crum, who is also co-founder of Reditus Space, a startup he founded in 2024 to provide reusable orbital re-entry services, adds that the cislunar environment is so challenging because “it’s incredibly vast.”

His research also examines ways to improve object monitoring in cislunar space. Maintaining continuous custody of these objects is difficult because a target’s position must be monitored over the entire duration of its trajectory.

“That wasn’t feasible for translunar orbits, given the vast volume of cislunar orbit, which stretches multiple millions of kilometers in three dimensions,” he says.

By estimating a satellite’s orbit using observed data and constraining the presumed location and direction of the satellite, rather than continuous tracking (a process known as continuous custody), Crum greatly simplified the process.

“You no longer need thousands of satellites or a set of enormous satellites to cover all potential trajectories,” he explains. “Instead, one or a few satellites are required, and operators can lose custody for a time as long as the connection is reacquired later.”

Since the team started their study, there has been a lot of interest in the moon and cislunar activity — both NASA and China’s National Space Administration are planning to send humans to the moon. In the last two years, India, Japan, the U.S., China, Russia, and four private companies have attempted missions to the moon.

Why the Moon

Spacefaring nations’ intense interest in exploring the lunar surface comes as no surprise given that the moon offers a variety of resources, including solar power, water, oxygen, and metals like iron, titanium, and uranium. It also contains Helium-3, a potential fuel for nuclear fusion, and rare earth metals vital for modern technology. With the recent discovery of water ice, it could be a plentiful source for rocket fuel that can be created from liquifying oxygen and hydrogen needed to launch deep space missions to destinations like Mars. In February, Georgia Tech announced that researchers have developed new algorithms to help Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander find water ice on the moon.

Commercial space companies like Axiom Space and Redwire Space, as well as space agencies, are actively building lunar infrastructure, from satellite constellations to orbital platforms to support communication, navigation, scientific research, and eventually space tourism.

A key project involves the Lunar Gateway, a joint venture of NASA and international space agencies like ESA, JAXA, and CSA, as well as commercial partners. Humanity’s first space station around the moon will serve as a central hub for human exploration of the moon and is considered a stepping stone for future deep space missions.

Getting Ahead of a Gold Rush to the Moon

All this activity underscores the urgency to get out in front of potential crowding issues — something that hasn’t occurred in LEO, where near-miss collisions, or conjunctions, are frequent. LEO, which is 100 to 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface, is host to more than 14,000 satellites and 120 million pieces of debris from launches, collisions, and wear and tear, reports Reuters.

“Using the near-Earth environment as an example, the space object population has gone from approximately 6,000 active satellites in the early 2020s to an anticipated 60,000 satellites in the coming decade if the projected number of large satellite constellations currently in the works gets deployed. That poses many challenges in terms of how we can manage that sustainably,” observed Gunter. “If something similar happens in the lunar environment, say if Artemis (NASA’s program to establish the first long-term presence on the moon) is successful and a lunar base is established, and there is discovery of volatiles or water deposits, it could initiate a kind of gold rush effect that might accelerate the number of actors in cislunar space.”

For this reason, Borowitz argues for the need to begin working on coordination, either in the planning of the orbits for future missions or by sharing information about the location of objects operating in lunar orbit. She pointed out that spacecraft outfitted for moon missions are expensive, making a collision highly costly. Also, debris from such a scenario would spread in an unpredictable way, which could be problematic for other objects.

Gunter agreed, noting, “If we’re not careful, we could be putting a lot of things in this same path. We must ensure we build out the cislunar orbital environment in a smart way, where we’re not intentionally putting spacecraft in the same orbital spaces. If we do that, everyone should be able to get what they want and not be in each other’s way.”

Borowitz says some coordination efforts are underway with the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and the creation of an action team on lunar activities; however, international diplomacy is a time-consuming process, and it can be a challenge to keep pace with advancements in technology.

She contends that the Georgia Tech study could provide baseline data that “could be helpful for international coordination efforts, helping to ensure that countries better understand potential future risks.”

Gunter and Borowitz say that follow-on research for the team could involve looking into the Lunar Gateway orbit and other special orbits to see how crowded that space will likely get, and then do an end-to-end simulation of these orbits to determine the most effective way to build them out to avoid collision risks. Ultimately, they intend to develop guidelines to help ensure that future space actors headed to the moon can operate safely.

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Summary

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Dateline

Fri, 07/18/2025 - 12:00

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Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:53

LIGO Detects Most Massive Binary Black Hole to Date

admin — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 18:35:41 +0000

LIGO Detects Most Massive Binary Black Hole to Date admin Wed, 07/16/2025 - 14:35

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO)’s LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration has detected an extremely unusual binary black hole merger — a phenomenon that occurs when two black holes are pulled into each other's orbit and combine. Announced yesterday in a California Institute of Technology press release, the binary black hole merger, GW231123, is the largest ever detected with gravitational waves.

Before merging, both black holes were spinning exceptionally fast, and their masses fell into a range that should be very rare — or impossible.

“Most models don't predict black holes this big can be made by supernovas, and our data indicates that they were spinning at a rate close to the limit of what’s theoretically possible,” says Margaret Millhouse, a research scientist in the School of Physics who played a key role in the research. “Where could they have come from? It raises interesting questions.”

A binary black hole merger absorbs characteristics from both of the contributors, she adds. “As a result, this is not only the most massive binary black hole ever seen but also the fastest-spinning binary black hole confidently detected with gravitational waves.”

“GW231123 is a record-breaking event,” says School of Physics Professor Laura Cadonati, who has been a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2002. “LIGO has been observing the cosmos for 10 years now. This discovery underscores that there is still so much that this instrument can help us learn.”

A Cosmic View

The findings challenge current theories on how smaller black holes form, says School of Physics Assistant Professor and LIGO collaborator Surabhi Sachdev. Smaller black holes are the result of supernovae: dying and collapsing stars. During that collapse, explosions can tear apart or eject part of the star’s mass — limiting the size of the black hole that forms.

“Black holes from supernovae can weigh up to about 60 times the mass of our Sun,” she says. “The black holes in this merger were likely the mass of hundreds of suns.”

Because of its size, GW231123 also allowed the team to study the merger in unprecedented detail. “LIGO has observed scores of black hole mergers,” says Cadonati. “Of these, GW231123 has provided us with the clearest view of the ‘grand finale’ of a merger thus far. This adds a new clue to solve the puzzle that are black holes, including their origins and properties.”

“While we saw that our expectations matched the data, the extreme nature of this event pushed our models to their limits,” Millhouse adds. “A massive, highly spinning system like this will be of interest to researchers who study how binary black holes form.”

Decoding a Split-Second Signal

Millhouse and School of Physics Postdoctoral Fellow Prathamesh Joshi used Einstein’s equations for general relativity to confirm LIGO’s detections.

To find black holes, LIGO measures distortions in spacetime — ripples that are created when two black holes collide. These patterns in gravitational waves can be used to find the signature signal of black hole collisions.

“In this case, the signal lasted for just one-tenth of a second, but it was very clear,” says Joshi. "Previously, we designed a special study to detect these interesting signals, which accounted for all the unusual properties of such massive systems — and it paid off!”

“To ensure it wasn’t noise, the Georgia Tech team first reconstructed the signal in a model-agnostic way,” Millhouse adds. “We then compared those reconstructions to a model that uses Einstein's equations of general relativity, and both reconstructions looked very similar, which helped confirm that this highly unusual phenomenon was a genuine detection.”

Sachdev says that seeing the signal at both LIGO Observatories — placed in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana — was also critical. “These short signals are very hard to detect, and this signal is so unlike any of the other binary black holes that we've seen before,” she says. “Without both detectors, we would have missed it.”

A Decade of Discovery

While the team has yet to determine how the original black holes formed, one theory is that they may have resulted from mergers themselves. “This could have been a chain of mergers,” Sachdev explains. “This tells us that they could have existed in a very dense environment like a nuclear star cluster or an active galactic nucleus.” Their spins provide another clue as spinning is a characteristic usually seen in black holes resulting from a merge.

The team adds that GW231123 could provide clues on how larger black holes are formed — including the mysterious supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies.

“Gravitational wave science is almost a decade old, and we're still making fundamental discoveries,” says Millhouse. “It’s exciting that LIGO is continuing to detect new phenomena, and this is at the edge of what we've seen thus far. There's still so much we can learn.”

The team expects to update their catalogue of black holes in August 2025, which will provide another window into how this exceptionally heavy black hole might fit into the universe, and what we can continue to learn from it.

Funding: The LIGO Laboratory is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated jointly by Caltech and MIT.

Summary sentence

Before merging, both black holes were spinning exceptionally fast, and their masses fell into a range that should be very rare — or impossible.

Summary

Before merging, both black holes were spinning exceptionally fast, and their masses fell into a range that should be very rare — or impossible. The result of the merge, GW231123, is the largest binary black hole merger ever detected with gravitational waves.

Dateline

Tue, 07/15/2025 - 12:00

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cos-planetary

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683133

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Wed, 07/16/2025 - 14:35

National Report Urges FAA to Overhaul Air Traffic Controller Hiring and Training

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 13:46:41 +0000

National Report Urges FAA to Overhaul Air Traffic Controller Hiring and Training admin Tue, 07/01/2025 - 09:46

A new congressionally mandated report coauthored by a Georgia Tech professor suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hires more air traffic controllers each year, optimizes scheduling, and offers other steps to address a nationwide shortage of the critical staffers.

Karen Feigh and the 13-person committee found that the FAA hired only about two-thirds of the controllers it projected from 2013 to 2023. Due to attrition during that time — and because hiring didn’t accelerate until 2024 — 19 of the FAA’s largest facilities have 15% fewer people managing airspace than they need.

For example, the report shows the tower at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest, is 17% below full staff.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report provides guidance to the FAA about establishing appropriate staffing levels. It also suggests specific improvements in hiring, training, scheduling, and fatigue management for the FAA’s 313 facilities.

Read a Q&A with Feigh about the report on the College of Engineering website.

Subtitle

Aerospace engineering professor Karen Feigh cowrote a National Academies review of a national shortage that impacts 45,000 daily commercial flights.

Summary sentence

A new report offers other steps to the Federal Aviation Administration to address a nationwide shortage of the critical staffers.

Summary

Dateline

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 12:00

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682947

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Tue, 07/01/2025 - 09:46

Georgia Tech Launches Two New Interdisciplinary Research Institutes

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 11:59:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Launches Two New Interdisciplinary Research Institutes admin Tue, 07/01/2025 - 07:59

Georgia Tech has launched two new Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs): The Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS) and the Space Research Institute (SRI).

The new institutes focus on expanding breakthroughs in neuroscience and space, two areas where research and federal funding are anticipated to remain strong. Both fields are poised to influence research in everything from healthcare and ethics to exploration and innovation. This expansion of Georgia Tech’s research enterprise represents the Institute’s commitment to research that will shape the future.

“At Georgia Tech, innovation flourishes where disciplines converge. With the launch of the Space Research Institute and the Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society, we’re uniting experts across fields to take on some of humanity’s most profound questions. Even as we are tightening our belts in anticipation of potential federal R&D budget actions, we also are investing in areas where non-federal funding sources will grow and where big impacts are possible,” said Executive Vice President for Research Tim Lieuwen. "These institutes are about advancing knowledge — and using it to improve lives, inspire future generations, and help shape a better future for us all.”

Both INNS and SRI grew out of faculty-led initiatives shaped by a strategic planning process and campus-wide collaboration. Their evolution into formal institutes underscores the strength and momentum of Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary research enterprise.

Georgia Tech’s 11 IRIs support collaboration between researchers and students across the Institute’s seven colleges, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), national laboratories, and corporate entities to tackle critical topics of strategic significance for the Institute as well as for local, state, national, and international communities.

"IRIs bring together Georgia Tech researchers making them more competitive and successful in solving research challenges, especially across disciplinary boundaries,” said Julia Kubanek, vice president of interdisciplinary research. “We're making these new investments in neuro- and space-related fields to publicly showcase impactful discoveries and developments led by Georgia Tech faculty, attract new partners and collaborators, and pursue alternative funding strategies at a time of federal funding uncertainty."

The Space Research Institute

The Space Research Institute will connect faculty, students, and staff who share a passion for space exploration and discovery. They will investigate a wide variety of space-related topics, exploring how space influences and intersects with the human experience. The SRI fosters a collaborative community including scientific, engineering, cultural, and commercial research that pursues broadly integrated, innovative projects.

SRI is the hub for all things space-related at Georgia Tech. It connects the Institute’s schools, colleges, research institutes, and labs to lead conversations about space in the state of Georgia and the world. Working in partnership with academics, business partners, philanthropists, students, and governments, Georgia Tech is committed to staying at the forefront of space-related innovation.

The SRI will build upon the collaborative work of the Space Research Initiative, the first step in formalizing Georgia Tech’s broad interdisciplinary space research community. The Initiative brought together researchers from across campus and was guided by input from Georgia Tech stakeholders and external partners. It was led by an executive committee including Glenn Lightsey, John W. Young Chair Professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering; Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs; and Jennifer Glass, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Beginning July 1, W. Jud Ready, a principal research engineer in GTRI’s Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory, will serve as the inaugural executive director of the Space Research Institute.

To receive the latest updates on space research and innovation at Georgia Tech, join the SRI mailing list.

The Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society

The Institute for Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Society (INNS) is dedicated to advancing neuroscience and neurotechnology to improve society through discovery, innovation, and engagement. INNS brings together researchers from neuroscience, engineering, computing, ethics, public policy, and the humanities to explore the brain and nervous system while addressing the societal and ethical dimensions of neuro-related research.

INNS builds on a foundation established over a decade ago, which first led to the GT-Neuro Initiative and later evolved into the Neuro Next Initiative. Over the past two years, this effort has culminated in the development of a comprehensive plan for an IRI, guided by an executive committee composed of faculty and staff from across Georgia Tech. The committee included Simon Sponberg, Dunn Family Associate Professor in the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences; Christopher Rozell, Julian T. Hightower Chaired Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Jennifer Singh, associate professor in the School of History and Sociology; and Sarah Peterson, Neuro Next Initiative program manager. Their leadership shaped the vision for a research community both scientifically ambitious and socially responsive.

INNS will serve as a dynamic hub for interdisciplinary collaboration across the full spectrum of brain-related research — from biological foundations to behavior and cognition, and from fundamental research to medical innovations that advance human flourishing. Research areas will encompass the foundations of human intelligence and movement, bio-inspired design and neurotechnology development, and the ethical dimensions of a neuro-connected future.

By integrating technical innovation with human-centered inquiry, INNS is committed to ensuring that advances in neuroscience and neurotechnology are developed and applied ethically and responsibly. Through fostering innovation, cultivating interdisciplinary expertise, and engaging with the public, the institute seeks to shape a future where advancements in neuroscience and neurotechnology serve the greater good. INNS also aims to deepen Georgia Tech’s collaborations with clinical, academic, and industry partners, creating new pathways for translational research and real-world impact.

An internal search for INNS’s inaugural executive director is in the final stages, with an announcement expected soon.

Join our mailing list to receive the latest updates on everything neuro at Georgia Tech.

Summary sentence

By uniting experts across disciplines, Georgia Tech is positioning itself at the forefront of neuroscience and space research.

Summary

By uniting experts across disciplines, Georgia Tech is positioning itself at the forefront of neuroscience and space research.

Dateline

Tue, 07/01/2025 - 12:00

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Mercury ID

682962

Source updated

Tue, 07/01/2025 - 07:58

Ready Named Inaugural Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Space Research Institute

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:43:41 +0000

Ready Named Inaugural Executive Director of the Georgia Tech Space Research Institute admin Mon, 06/30/2025 - 10:43

Effective July 1, W. Jud Ready will serve as the inaugural executive director of Georgia Tech’s new Space Research Institute (SRI), which will officially launch on the same date.

The SRI builds upon Georgia Tech’s long and distinguished history in space research and exploration. By uniting experts across disciplines — from aerospace engineering to planetary science, astrophysics, robotics, policy, the arts, and origin of life explorations — the SRI aims to create a resilient ecosystem for space research that can adapt and thrive, even in an era of fiscal uncertainty. It is composed of faculty, staff, and students whose collaborative research spans a broad spectrum of space-related topics, all deeply connected to advancing our understanding of space and its impact on the human experience.

“The launch of the SRI comes at a pivotal moment for the scientific community,” said Vice President of Interdisciplinary Research Julia Kubanek. “As the federal government proposes major cuts to funding agencies, our interdisciplinary research institutes are striving to support faculty and make them more competitive across disciplinary boundaries. This institute will publicly showcase impactful research led by Georgia Tech faculty, attract new collaborators, and pursue alternative funding strategies via philanthropic and industry partners.”

The Space Research Institute will consist of an interdisciplinary community of faculty across Georgia Tech’s schools, colleges, and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

“It is an honor to be appointed executive director of the Space Research Institute,” said Ready. “My plan is to provide internal and external space researchers with access to Georgia Tech’s world class facilities and turbocharge the space activities already underway. We’re committed to empowering our existing community while forging new partnerships that will expand our reach and impact across the global space ecosystem.”

Ready, a principal research engineer in GTRI’s Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory, is the first GTRI faculty member to serve in a long-term capacity as an IRI executive director. Prior to his appointment, he served as associate director of external engagement for the Georgia Tech Institute for Matter and Systems and director of the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research (CSTAR). He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Before joining the Georgia Tech faculty, Ready worked for General Dynamics and MicroCoating Technologies. Throughout his career, he has served as PI or co-PI for grants totaling more than $25M awarded by the Army, Navy, Air Force, DARPA, NASA, NSF, NIST, DOE, other federal sponsors, industry, charitable foundations, private citizens, and the States of Georgia and Florida. His current research focuses primarily on energy capture, storage, and delivery enabled by nanomaterial design. His research has been included on three missions to the International Space Station, two others to low earth orbit, and one perpetually in heliocentric orbit (Lunar Flashlight). His future space missions include MISSE-21 to the International Space Station and SSTEF-1 to the Lunar surface. A half dozen solar cells from his past missions to the International Space Station will be included in the permanent At Home in Space exhibit opening on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's 50th Anniversary.

Ready has received numerous awards and honors for his work. His most recent awards include the Class of 1934 Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology award in 2025 and the Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development award in 2023, both from Georgia Tech. He also received the One GTRI Collaboration Award in 2022, which he was awarded during GTRI’s annual Distinguished Performance Awards celebration.

Additional articles of interest:

10 Questions with Jud Ready
Space Station Testing Will Evaluate Photovoltaic Materials

Subtitle

Effective July 1, Ready will serve as the inaugural executive director of Georgia Tech’s new Space Research Institute, which will officially launch on the same date.

Summary sentence

Effective July 1, Ready will serve as the inaugural executive director of Georgia Tech’s new Space Research Institute, which will officially launch on the same date.

Summary

Effective July 1, Ready will serve as the inaugural executive director of Georgia Tech’s new Space Research Institute, which will officially launch on the same date.

Dateline

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Laurie Haigh
Research Communications

Keywords

go-researchnews

News room topics

Campus and Community

Categories

Aerospace

Research

Mercury ID

682938

Source updated

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 10:42

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

Summary

Dateline

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez
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Keywords

Mars mission

White House space policy

2026 Mars landing

Georgia Tech

Christos Athanasiou

James Wray

Lincoln Hines

NASA

Artemis program

space exploration

international cooperation

Outer Space Treaty

space diplomacy

space security

lunar vs. Mars priorities

U.S.–China space relations

environmental impact on Mars

human spaceflight

Mars geology

Space Policy

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Mercury ID

682882

Source updated

Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

Turning to CubeSats in the Search for Life Thousands of Light-Years from Earth

admin — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:30:33 +0000

Turning to CubeSats in the Search for Life Thousands of Light-Years from Earth admin Tue, 05/20/2025 - 12:30

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.

Read the entire story on the College of Engineering website.

Subtitle

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.

Summary sentence

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

Summary

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

Dateline

Thu, 02/13/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Jason Maderer
College of Engineering
maderer@gatech.edu

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Thu, 02/13/2025 - 15:42

Tim Lieuwen Honored by Royal Academy of Engineering

admin — Tue, 20 May 2025 16:08:48 +0000

Tim Lieuwen Honored by Royal Academy of Engineering admin Tue, 05/20/2025 - 12:08

Professor Tim Lieuwen has been elected to the status of International Fellow by the U.K.’s Royal Academy of Engineering. He is one of three other US engineers to receive this prestigious fellowship, which emphasizes enhancing the role of engineering in society and developing an inclusive future through research, education initiatives, and industry collaborations.

Lieuwen is a Regents’ Professor, the David S. Lewis, Jr. Chair in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE), a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, among several others. For 12 years, he served as executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute; he is currently serving as Georgia Tech’s interim executive vice president for Research.

“Tim Lieuwen’s groundbreaking research and leadership have been instrumental in advancing the AE School’s mission,” said Mitchell Walker, AE chair. “His work in combustion dynamics, propulsion, and clean energy systems not only enhances our academic reputation but also drives significant, real-world impact, as recognized by the Academy.”

Lieuwen’s research focuses on developing clean combustion technologies for power generation and propulsion. He works closely with industry and government professionals to address energy concerns and set the standard for clean tech manufacturing. The Georgia Tech alumnus will formally be admitted to the Academy at a special ceremony in London on November 27, 2024.

The 2024 class includes 60 Fellows, six International Fellows, and five Honorary Fellows, each of whom has made exceptional contributions to their own field, pioneering new innovations, leading progress in business or academia, providing high-level advice to government, or promoting wider understanding of engineering and technology.

Summary sentence

The former interim chair for the AE School has been elected an International Fellow for his contributions to the aerospace and energy professions.

Summary

The former interim chair for the AE School has been elected an International Fellow for his contributions to the aerospace and energy professions.

Dateline

Wed, 09/18/2024 - 12:00

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Wed, 09/18/2024 - 10:35

APS Graduation Ceremonies Bring Increased Traffic to Campus

admin — Mon, 19 May 2025 12:32:41 +0000

APS Graduation Ceremonies Bring Increased Traffic to Campus admin Mon, 05/19/2025 - 08:32

McCamish Pavilion will host Atlanta Public Schools (APS) graduation ceremonies throughout the week, bringing additional traffic to the Georgia Tech campus.

From Tuesday, May 20, to Friday, May 23, the Georgia Tech Police Department will close Fowler Street between Sixth and 10th streets daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to accommodate graduates and guests. Drivers are encouraged to seek alternate routes through campus during the road closures. Additional congestion is likely to occur around designated parking decks.

ADA parking will be available for attendees on Fowler Street and W23: North Deck at 939 State St. NW. VIP parking will be available at E65: McCamish Pavilion and on Eighth Street.

All other guest parking for the graduation ceremonies is available at five campus locations:

E40: Klaus Deck

E52: Peters Deck

ER66: Family Housing

W22: Dalney Deck

W23: North Deck

For a map of parking locations, click here. Attendees must have a ticket to enter each graduation ceremony, and guests must adhere to McCamish Pavilion’s clear bag policy. For additional information and a full schedule of events, click here.

Summary sentence

Road closures will occur from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Summary

Road closures will occur from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

Dateline

Mon, 05/19/2025 - 12:00

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682447

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Mon, 05/19/2025 - 08:32

Propelling Georgia Tech to the Final Frontier

admin — Fri, 02 May 2025 12:19:41 +0000

Propelling Georgia Tech to the Final Frontier admin Fri, 05/02/2025 - 08:19

Early on, Georgia Tech graduate students William Trenton Gantt and Hugh (Ka Yui) Chen imagined working in the space industry.

“When I was 14, I dreamed about being in space one day,” recalls Chen, 22, a native of Hong Kong and a Ph.D. student in aerospace engineering. “I think the industry has been making space more accessible to everyone. Commercialization is a big part of enabling this.”

Gantt, an engineer and former U.S. Army veteran graduating with an MBA from the Scheller College of Business this spring, remembered seeing the space shuttle retire and companies begin privatizing space as he entered young adulthood.

“I’ve always been interested in space, and a lot of it comes from the challenge of going to space,” he observes. “Seeing how hard it is to get to space and seeing it become achievable — that to me was the most attractive thing about it.”

For Gantt, the feeling always brings to mind John F. Kennedy’s famous line that spelled out America’s space ambitions: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Recognizing Georgia Tech’s aerospace strengths, Gantt didn’t waste time building bridges within Scheller and in other parts of Georgia Tech. He founded the Scheller MBA Space Club, a first at the College, to track the industry as it grows and develops.

“I came from a military background, so I had my eye on the defense industry going into the MBA program. Georgia Tech, being the No. 2 aerospace engineering undergraduate school in the nation, I knew they already had strong industry connections. Making connections was a big goal coming into this program.”

Assessing Early-Stage Space Tech

He took part in the Entrepreneurship Assistants Program (EAP), which pairs a Scheller MBA student with a faculty or student inventor to evaluate early-stage technology for potential commercialization. He evaluated two space-related technologies, one with Chen’s support.

“The EAs conduct technology commercialization assessments and develop a business model canvas. By applying an entrepreneurial strategy compass, they predict potential go-to-market strategies for new technology,” says Paul Joseph, principal in the Office of Commercialization’s Quadrant-i unit, who created the EAP.

(See sidebar to read more about the EAP and the specific technologies assessed.)

Tapping Into a Nearly $2T Industry

According to McKinsey & Co., the space technology market, fueled by advancements in satellite technology, commercial space travel, and 5G networks, is projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035.

“We're seeing an industry shifting from a multibillion-dollar market cap to a multitrillion-dollar market cap in less than a decade. If you look at this from a business perspective, this is a massive addressable market for entrepreneurs," says Gantt.

From its Center for Space Technology and Research to the new Center for Space Policy and International Relations and labs like the Space Systems Design Lab, which focuses on areas such as CubeSat propulsion, lunar research, and hypersonic flight, Georgia Tech excels in space research across disciplines. In July, Georgia Tech will launch the Space Research Institute (SRI), one of its newest Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRI), to foster additional collaboration in this growing field.

“At Georgia Tech, there are competencies across every single College that will help to augment our understanding of space,” says Alex Oettl, professor of strategy and innovation in Scheller College, whose interest in the new space economy spans the last 20 years. “When you look at the technologies coming from Georgia Tech, they can impact this future trillion-dollar industry.”

An economist by training, Oettl led Georgia Tech’s involvement in the Creative Destruction Lab-Atlanta, a multi-university program that helped commercialize early-stage scientific technologies.

Leveraging Affordable Launch

The emergence of affordable launch, spurred by SpaceX’s introduction of the Falcon 9 rocket using reusable rocket technology, has made space much more accessible, from biomedical companies to academic institutions.

“Because there has been a drop in the cost of accessing space, it allows experimentation to flourish,” says Oettl.

He recalls Mark Costello, former chair of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, explaining how he could launch a CubeSat into Low Earth Orbit out of his research budget, whereas before it would have been cost-prohibitive.

Today, Georgia Tech students and researchers are poised to capitalize on the new space economy stack — from new launch capabilities to new development in propellants and in-space operations and maintenance to more powerful sensors on Earth-observation satellites.

“I’ve seen firsthand the traction occurring on the commercial side. There are a lot of social scientists waking up to the opportunity that exists and thinking about business dynamics that will emerge as a result of this great opportunity,” he says.

Georgia Tech, an interdisciplinary, tech-focused university, brings significant capabilities across its Colleges to drive new and emerging technologies that have implications for space.

“Space hits on all the strengths that exist at the various Colleges,” Oettl explains. “Faculty at Georgia Tech are pushing the boundary and showing our students innovations that will emerge in the space economy that are not immediately obvious — such as in adjacent industries.”

Oettl calls these first-order and spillover impacts of new technology. By first-order impacts, he means businesses can take advantage of these opportunities and create new products on top of the original innovation. By spillovers, he cites as an example an Earth-observation satellite enabling other industries to take advantage of data from the ground. For instance, insurance companies are one of the largest users of space technology by way of satellite imagery.

Bringing Capabilities Together Through New Space IRI

The SRI will bring together the best in engineering, computer science, policy, and business research across Georgia Tech. Along the way, it could help engineers and computer scientists think with a more business-minded approach to pitch their innovations to the commercial space sector.

“You don’t see a lot of engineers having that inherent ability,” notes Gantt. “The Space IRI can shine by fostering collaboration between business students and engineers, enabling them to develop innovative go-to-market strategies and clearly define the unique value propositions these technologies offer to end users. You can bring these people together and create some forward momentum in the space industry.”

Summary sentence

New space IRI and commercialization activities showcase space as an exciting destination for students and faculty.

Summary

New space IRI and commercialization activities showcase space as an exciting destination for students and faculty.

Dateline

Thu, 05/01/2025 - 12:00

Contact

News Contact: Laurie Haigh

Writer: Anne Wainscott-Sargent

Sidebar

Accelerating the Commercialization of Space Innovations

Gantt and Chen’s mutual passion for space came together through their participation in Georgia Tech’s Entrepreneurship Assistants Program (EAP). The program pairs a Scheller MBA student with a student or faculty researcher behind an invention to assess its market potential.

Gantt assessed the commercialization potential for two space-related technologies: an in-flight drone charging system offering both in-air and on-ground charging capabilities in a global drone technology market projected to reach $61.2 billion by the end of 2029. Each analysis took three to four months.

Gantt says the charging system for drones would provide real-time in-air refueling similar to what is done today on C-17 tankers.

“The drone market is very heavily regulated by the FAA, and the commercial aspects of drone usage are still in prototype development, says Gantt, who recommended that Georgia Tech license the technology rather than develop it through a startup.

The second project involved a CubeSat co-gas propellant system for spacecraft.

“With in-orbit propulsion systems, you want to make sure you’re maximizing the thrust. Our technology works with a two-phase propellant. Using a secondary tank allows us to maximize efficiency while ensuring only gas is expelled,” explains Chen, who was a researcher on the project.

To determine the device’s market appeal, Gantt conducted customer discovery interviews with smallsat manufacturers and a radar detection company.

“CubeSat customers are using hybrid propulsion systems, both gas and electric, to maximize the lifespan of their CubeSat assets and create as much value from them as possible,” says Gantt, noting that it’s much more attractive to take on less equipment. “Having a reduction in mass and complexity while delivering the same capabilities as cold-gas propulsion systems like this technology is attempting to do is something that's a big market need right now.”

Gantt’s market analysis led to a recommendation to license the technology rather than manufacture it. Chen and Gantt consulted with a U.S. Space Force CubeSat Acquisitions Officer about how to shape and structure technology proposals.

Chen will continue to advance the technology in the Low Gravity Science and Technology Lab, led by Álvaro Romero-Calvo, assistant professor in the Guggenheim School. The goal is for the technology to reach a Technology Readiness Level 8 or 9 so they can submit a proposal to integrate their cold-gas thrusters as a subsystem for a future Space Force mission.

“New missions now use swarm architectures or formation flying. This technology could potentially infer what it’s like to do in-orbit refueling,” says Chen on the system’s long-term value.

Both Gantt and Chen see immense value in the EAP to fuel their interest in space-based technologies and what’s driving the space industry.

“It opens your eyes to the industry as a whole,” says Gantt.

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Fri, 05/02/2025 - 08:17

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Turning to CubeSats in the Search for Life Thousands of Light-Years from Earth

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APS Graduation Ceremonies Bring Increased Traffic to Campus

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Propelling Georgia Tech to the Final Frontier

Assessing Early-Stage Space Tech

Tapping Into a Nearly $2T Industry

Leveraging Affordable Launch

Bringing Capabilities Together Through New Space IRI

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