Orbital Calibration 2 (OrCa-2)

Project Sponsor : AFRL Start Date : 08/01/2022 Faculty Investigator : Professor Brian Gunter Project Status : To be delivered Summer 2024 OrCa-2 is a continued effort to improve Space Domain Awareness (SDA) in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory. By fully characterizing the reflectance properties on Earth, OrCa-2 can aid the calibration of […]

SETG: Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes

Performance Period : May 2015 to April 2021 Faculty Investigator : Prof. Maria T. Zuber (PI, MIT); Prof. Gary Ruvkun (Co-PI, MGH), Prof. Christopher E. Carr (Science PI, MIT/Georgia Tech) Project Status : Completed Collaborators: Robert Doebler (Clarmont Biosolutions LLC), Michael Finney (self) and numerous other contributors, students, and staff. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes […]

Vacuum Chamber for Testing Thermal Properties of Lunar Regolith for ISRU Applications 

Project Sponsor : NASA/SSERVI Center for Lunar Environment and Volatile Exploration Research (CLEVER) Start Date : 9/2022 Faculty Investigator : Dr. Masatoshi “Toshi” Hirabayashi Project Status : Ongoing The main task is to set up a vacuum chamber that can simulate the pressure and temperature conditions of the moon. We aim to achieve pressure of […]

Metabolism & Aging: Improving health and lifespan on Earth and beyond

Faculty Investigator : Dr. Christopher E. Carr Project Status : Completed Working with colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital and elsewhere, mainly from 2005-2020, we have identified conserved regulators of aging, fat accumulation, metabolism, stress resistance, and reproductive longevity. Our work has identified approaches to improve healthspan and lifespan in aging populations as well as a deeper understanding of the evolutionary […]

Human Performance Extreme Environments & Extravehicular Activity (EVA)

Faculty Investigator : Dr. Christopher E. Carr Project Status : Completed What are the limits of human performance on Earth and in space? How can we augment them? Our work has involved: This work has been focused on, but not limited to, enabling human planetary exploration. Space-suited activity is critical for human spaceflight and is synonymous with human planetary […]

NASA VIPER: Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover

Project Sponsor : NASA Start Date : Launch in late 2024 Faculty Investigator : Dr. Masatoshi “Toshi” Hirabayashi Project Status : Ongoing The NASA/VIPER is a rover mission to be deployed at Mons Mouton, near the lunar south pole for directly investigating water ice and other volatiles hosted on the surface and subsurface of the […]

DART: Double Asteroid Redirection Test  

Project Sponsor : NASA  Start Date : 11/24/2021 Faculty Investigator : Dr. Masatoshi “Toshi” Hirabayashi Project Status : Completed DART was NASA’s first planetary defense mission dedicated to demonstrating asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid’s motion through kinetic impact.   DART spacecraft successfully impacted Dimorphos, the secondary component of the near-Earth binary asteroid system (65803) […]

Emma Hanson

Master’s Student
Atlanta, GA
Advisor: Dr. Lightsey