Current Projects

• Student lead: Polina Verkhovodova, Euihyeon Choi
• Goal: The main objective of this research effort is to conduct basic and applied research to provide new capabilities in the areas of Space Logistics and Mobility by innovating logistics modeling, space robotics, and spacecraft health management. Ho’s group focuses on the task of Network-Based Space Logistics Chain Modeling by integrating both vehicle routing and the full logistics supply chain of fuel/spares/tools/materials coupled with nontraditional orbital design.
• Sponsor: The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
• More info: https://sites.gatech.edu/spacelogisticsmobility

• Our lab contributes to NASA/Lucy, the planetary science mission exploring Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, considered one of the most ancient objects in the solar system, possibly recording the early stage of the formation and evolution of planets. Supported by NASA, our team offers scientific insights into the interiors of these asteroids and supports Lucy’s spaceflight operations. Using sophisticated structural and dynamical characterization techniques and data processing approaches that can account for detailed flight geometries, we will play a key role in quantifying the interiors of Jupiter’s Trojans.  
• Sponsor: NASA PSP (Participating Scientist Program)
• More info: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/lucy/

• Student lead: Ryota Nakano, Ketan Kamat
• Goal: Our lab contributes to ESA’s HERA mission, which aims to assess the outcome of NASA’s DART impact on Dimorphos, the secondary component of the Didymos binary asteroid system. Leveraging our experience with DART, our team provides scientific insights into the structural and dynamical properties of Didymos and Dimorphos, supporting the evaluation of asteroid deflection techniques. We will employ advanced modeling methods and data processing approaches to characterize the impact crater, internal structure, and orbital period changes of Dimorphos.
• Sponsor: NASA PSP (Participating Scientist Program)
• More info: https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera

• Student lead: Ziyu Huang
• Goal: Our research explores the formation, evolution, and dynamics of volatiles on the Moon using a combination of molecular dynamics simulations, plasma modeling, and spacecraft data analysis. We investigate the effects of solar wind irradiation, micrometeoroid impacts, and thermal processes on volatile trapping and release, focusing on water and other key species in lunar regolith. Our work revisits Apollo sample data and integrates new insights from remote sensing observations. We also study how artificial permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) from human exploration may influence volatile stability. By combining computational chemistry, plasma physics, and machine learning, we aim to refine models of volatile behavior on airless bodies, enhancing our understanding of lunar resources for future exploration. Our research contributes to planetary science, resource utilization, and mission planning for Artemis and beyond.
• Sponsor: NASA CLEVER
• More info: https://clever.research.gatech.edu

Lunar Exploration with Autonomous Drones (LEAD)

• Student lead: Dario Tscholl
• Promising locations for a future lunar base camp or valuable science features are often located in inaccessible or hazardous areas on the moon such as confined spaces (lunar lava tubes) or steep terrain (craters). To safely and efficiently explore those areas, this project seeks to develop compact, autonomous surveying drones, which can be carried and deployed by astronauts. These drones will be able to autonomously navigate confined spaces and ensure a return to the launch point even with intermittent communication.
• Aside from being able to cover distances of hundreds of meters in minutes, the drones will enable astronauts to make decisions in real-time, in the field, without the need to return to the base camp for data analysis. By deploying multiple drones simultaneously, exploration efficiency will be increased through a heterogeneous approach to data collection and analysis (different drones with different sensors capabilities such as mapping/reconstruction, water detection, etc). After each flight, the drones can be quickly recharged on-site and reflown, with a minimal downtime of a few minutes. This new capability would dramatically improve the ability of future astronauts (or rovers and landers) to explore the lunar surface.
• Sponsor: NASA JPL

Virtual Environment for Space Traffic Analysis (VESTA)

• Student leads: Clifford Stueck, John Jozsa
• Our team’s research aims to improve future space sustainability through the development of optimized maneuver strategies and metrics. The analysis is conducted using a sophisticated Space Domain Awareness environment (VESTA – Virtual Environment for Space Traffic Analysis) designed to track the extensive catalog of space objects (both a current and predicted future catalog of objects) and simulate their conjunctions, maneuvers, and delta-v costs over a chosen timeframe (typically one year).
• Current research aims to enhance this environment by assessing right of way rules, maneuver type guidelines, informed metrics, and covariance realism for spacecraft operations. Additionally, we are integrating debris modeling and fragmentation scenarios to reflect the evolving landscape of space traffic. This research drives a series of studies focused on establishing global right-of-way rules and maneuvering guidelines that utilize specific metrics (dV cost, mass, size, priority, etc.). This enables policy makers and operators to make informed decisions and hopefully prepare a little better for the future environment of low-Earth orbit.
• Sponsors: NASA CARA & Aerospace Corporation

• Student leads: Janoah Dietrich, Filippo Di Benedetto
• The Low-Gravity Science and Technology Lab is working with Honeywell Aerospace and Soter Technology to design a self-assembling liquid mirror telescope with off-axis tilting and slewing capabilities. The effort, supported by the DARPA Zenith Program, explores the use of Halbach arrays, a particular arrangement of permanent magnets that produces one-sided magnetic fields, to manipulate ferrofluids to the desired optical shape. The ferrofluid, in combination with immiscible ionic liquids containing reflective nanoparticles, is forced to create a pristine liquid mirror surface. Such innovation has potential for both terrestrial and orbital deployment, alongside the advantage of off-axis observation in contrast to traditional liquid mirror telescopes.
• Our team at Georgia Tech is in charge of the modeling, simulation, and optimization of the magnetic system, alongside the prototyping of a 0.1 m diameter liquid mirror telescope. By means of numerical and analytical approaches, an optimized design utilizing the concept of a Halbach array will be developed and manufactured. The Halbach array generates equipotential lines parallel to its surface, overcoming the force of gravity for a ground-based liquid mirror telescope through the adjustment of internal magnetic configurations. Ultimately, it produces a mirror surface with the desired optical shape, all while maintaining an acceptable wavefront error.
• Sponsor: DARPA
• More info: https://lowgravitylab.ae.gatech.edu/1066-2/

• Student lead: Luca Scifoni
• Lunar dust poses a major operational hazard to human operations on the surface of the Moon, and to the support systems, equipment, and instrumentation needed to sustain long-term lunar missions. Natural dust lofting and anthropogenic activities can cause dust to intrude into fabrics, bearings, and moving parts where the sharp and irregular grains cause abrasion, wear, and accelerated failure.
• Among the next-generation active dust removal strategies, Electrodynamic Dust Shields (EDS) have gained significant attention thanks to their low power consumption and applicability to a variety of substrates. The movement of dust by electrostatic-based technologies on the Lunar surface is determined by a complex dynamic balance between electrophoretic (Coulombic), dielectrophoretic, gravitational, drag, image charge, adhesion, and surface tension forces. Understanding these interactions and developing appropriate M&S tools is hence expected to result in safer operational configurations that succeed in the performance goals of reducing the required potential differences, preventing arcing, and maximizing dust removal.
• Sponsor: NASA SSERVI
• More info: https://lowgravitylab.ae.gatech.edu/lunar-dust-mitigation/

• Student lead: Theo St. Francis
• Human space exploration is presented with multiple challenges, such as the near absence of buoyancy in orbit or the reliable long-term operation of life support systems. The production and management of oxygen and hydrogen are of key importance for long-term space travel and, in particular, for human missions to Mars. However, existing technical solutions fail to meet the reliability and efficiency requirements for such scenarios.
• As an alternative, our NASA NIAC Phase I & II project “Magnetohydrodynamic Drive for Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Mars Transfer” proposes an efficient water-splitting architecture that combines multiple functionalities into a minimum number of subsystems, hence increasing the overall reliability of the mission. This new approach employs a magnetohydrodynamic electrolytic cell that extracts and separates oxygen and hydrogen gas without moving parts in microgravity, thereby removing the need for a forced water recirculation loop and associated ancillary equipment such as pumps or centrifuges. Preliminary estimations indicate that the integration of functionalities leads to up to 30% mass reductions with respect to the Oxygen Generation Assembly architecture for a 99% reliability level. These values apply to a standard four-crewmember Mars transfer with 3.36 kg oxygen consumption per day.
• Sponsor: NASA NIAC