SPACE Lab

April was out of this world! The month began with the AIAA Southeastern Regional Student Conference, which the Florida Institute of Technology co-hosted with the University of Florida on April 4th and 5th! As branch advisor, our PI worked in tandem with the students to make this event happen. It was the largest Region II Student Conference so far, with over 400 attendees sharing their knowledge at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex! It was an incredibly successful event thanks to our amazing keynote speakers, Joe Bussenger and Scott Henderson, our student leaders, Jaxon Strank and Whitney Reinkoester, the AIAA organizers, Cassy Dellinger and Kurt Polzin, all the amazing student volunteers, and, of course, all the presenters, sponsors, judges, facilitators, and attendees. April was also the month of the first-ever thesis defense by a SPACE Lab student! Congratulations, Master Dylan Barnes, on an exceptional master thesis entitled CAELUS: CubeSat Array for the Exploration of the Uranus System. And thank you very much to professors Eric Swenson and Ryan T. White, PhD for being on the thesis committee and contributing with great comments. Also in April, the AIAA Panther Rocket Team reached new heights: the rocket launch was stellar, with a smooth ascent to 9,258 ft, a top speed of Mach 1.1, and a soft, parachute-assisted landing. Special congratulations to Nathan Tardy and Liceth Daniela Barajas Moreno for their great work as Systems Engineer and Project Manager, respectively. Also thank you for the kind "Exceptional Advisor" award. It was breathtaking to see that rocket fly! Our AIAA student branch hosted the traditional annual dinner in late April, featuring Tim Lawrence as keynote speaker and deservingly awarding the previous faculty advisor, David Fleming, and three student leaders (Jaxon Strank, Nathan Tardy, and Emma Ellestad) for their outstanding work. Also in April, Florida Tech hosted the Engineering & Science Senior Design Showcase, featuring one of the teams advised by our PI. Congratulations to all teams on the great work. Florida Tech's Discovery Day soon followed, where two of our advising clubs, Women In Aerospace Engineering - Florida Tech and AIAA Florida Tech, hosted exciting booths and met with incoming and prospective students. Finally, April ended with our lab presenting at the Interplanetary Small Satellite Conference! It was a great event where we learned a lot and met great people. Dylan Barnes did a great job summarizing the main findings from his thesis on stage. Stay tuned for a journal paper on this topic! May is already a quarter of the way through! And many exciting events have already taken place. More to come! Ad Astra!

In March, we traveled to Arizona and supported the creation of the Women in Aerospace Engineering club here at Florida Tech! The A.S.T.T.R.O (Astronomy Space Telescope Thermal Research and Optimization) project team had a great time at the University of Arizona in mid-March. Together with our PI, Angela Alexy, Riley Wagner, Francesca Afruni, Brendan Smucker, and Wesley Kozan toured the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab and the new Applied Research Building, where they entered a cleanroom, stood by a very large thermal vacuum chamber, and visited an anechoic chamber and mission control room. The team also presented their work, which is currently in progress to decrease the effects of thermal constraints on the optical characteristics of a space mirror with a borosilicate honeycomb structure.?We are collaborating with Prof. Ewan S. Douglas's amazing lab on this project, and are looking forward to publishing our work together soon! Our PI also celebrated the first-ever general meeting of Florida Tech's new Women In Aerospace Engineering - Florida Tech club, of which she is the faculty advisor. Angela Alexy, MK Shultz, and Paula do Vale Pereira created the club to strengthen the department's women's community and make our university more welcoming and inclusive of women who love air and space. Stay tuned for April's update!