AeroAstro at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress

Aeroastro researchers from multiple labs joined the global space community at the 2024 International Astronautical Conference (IAC) in Milan in October. The IAC is the largest international space conference in the world, featuring symposia covering various topics in space sector research including science, applications, policy, education and societal impacts.

Aerospace Plasma Group
Graduate student Lanie McKinney was selected and sponsored by NASA’s office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) through the International Space Exploration Board (ISEB) program for fully funded travel for the submission of two papers to the International Astronautical Conference (IAC). She presented on:

• “Plasma Chemical Conversion and Resource Generation Beyond Low-Earth Orbit,” an Interactive Presentation discussing a collaboration with the Applied Chemistry Lab at NASA, covering the advantages of using different plasma-based chemical conversion technologies in space and providing the experimental results of a preliminary CO2 conversion case study.
  
• “MARTEMIS: Mars Architecture Research using Taguchi Experiments on the Moon with International Solidarity,” a full oral presentation discussing MIT’s work in the 2024 NASA RASC-AL Challenge (Revolutionary AeroSpace Concepts Academic Linkage), representing the student-run Space Resources Workshop.

Engineering Systems Lab
Graduate student Courtney Kirkpatrick was featured for her work on “Policy Considerations and Recommendations for Space Traffic Management of Low Lunar Orbit.”

Model-based Embedded Robotic Systems (MERS)
Graduate student Allegra Farrar presented preliminary results of her Ph.D. work validating the use of statistical graphical models to perform real-time assessment of environmental data. She aims to use this work to support edge computing capabilities for real-time targeting of dynamic climate events using remote sensing satellites.

Space Enabled
Several students in the Space Enabled Research Group, along with Prof. Danielle Wood, led presentations and were featured for their work. These include:

• Yiyun Zhang presented gave a presentation on “The Zero Robotics Program Using Astrobee Free Flyers with Hand Gesture Recognition Functions on the International Space Station,” as well as an interactive presentation: “Applying the Intersectional Antiracism Technology Framework to an Education Outreach Program in Aerospace.”
• Prof Danielle Wood served as rapporteur for the 25th Workshop on Small Satellite Programmes at the Service of Developing Countries.
• Ufuoma Ovienmhada presented her work on “A Geospatial Platform for Observing environmental injustice in U.S. prison landscapes using satellite-derived data”
• Frederick Ajisafe presented his work on “Estimating methane emissions from metropolitan areas using high resolution satellite imagery to complement the IPCC and Global Protocol for Community-Scale (GPC) estimations.”

Other AeroAstro participants including graduate students Rashmi Ravishankar, Clara Ma, Maya Harris, PhD candidates Christopher Tommila, Mennatallah Hussein, Hannah Tomio, Saba Shaik, and postdoctoral associates Giovanni Lavezzi, George Lordos, and Johannes Norheim.