Students Present at 2022 IEEE Aerospace

ASTRO Lab Students Present Research at IEEE Aerospace Conference in Montana

Two ASTRO Lab undergraduate students, Ben Almstrom and Kevin Alvarado, recently attended the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference held in Big Sky, Montana during March 6-11.

Kevin Alvarado (left) and Ben Almstrom (right) at the 2022 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

This conference was touted as the most attended Aerospace conference ever. After slight travel issues, Ben Almstrom was able to present the paper he authored with Dr. Hakima and Dr. Bazzocchi, namely, “Analysis of Satellite Drag Coefficients Based on Physical and Orbital Specifications.” In his presentation, he analyzed documented satellites and their drag coefficients. Based on the shape of the satellite, he categorized and calculated many characteristics of the subset (i.e. average, minimum and maximum, and standard deviation of satellite drag coefficients). The presentation provided a summary of the results obtained through a detailed analysis of satellite drag coefficients based on their geometrical properties and their B-star parameters reported as part of the two-line element data.

Kevin presented his work on “Quantification Method for Assessment of Asteroid Resource Accessibility.” His work included studying 326 meteorites of three different classifications and the time of flight and delta-v required to access them all. The idea is to find the minimum transfer energy to access each of the 326 asteroids when starting the launch from Earth. Kevin used a genetic algorithm to determine the minimum energy for transfer with varying flight durations and launch dates. The physical properties and spectral classifications of known asteroids were used to estimate the quantity and chemical composition of accessible resources. A notable attendee of Kevin’s presentation was Dr. Paul Chodas, the Manager of the NASA NEO Program Office at JPL.

Overall, Kevin and Ben described as the conference experience as “extremely rewarding”. In addition to presenting their own research, the pair attended many notable talks on topics such as the James Webb Space Telescope, 3D printing CubeSat components, and using space to storm chase. In the downtime Ben had, he was able to go skiing on the Lone Peak mountain.

Ben skiing with Lone Peak in the background.