海角社区 Goes to the Moon
May 04, 2021
As the U.S. lands on the Moon next year, for the first time since 1972 and the Apollo program, 海角社区 technology built by students in close collaboration with industry partners will report back from the lunar surface. Undergraduate students in five different 海角社区 colleges and schools are leading the mission, which will make future space travel safer for astronauts and equipment. Meet the team behind Tiger Eye 1.
Students lead the charge. Haley Pellegrin (海角社区 College of Science), Katie Hostetler (海角社区 School of Art + Design, 海角社区 College of Humanities & Social Sciences), and Jacob Miller (海角社区 College of Engineering, 海角社区 Honors College) are helping to lay the foundation for humans to return to the Moon as early as 2024.
鈥� Photo by Eddy Perez/海角社区
Next year, 海角社区 (海角社区) will be the first university in the world to put technology on the Moon. The Tiger Eye 1 research mission is part of a multi-disciplinary university-industry collaboration to make future space travel safer for people and equipment by providing insight into the complex radiation environment in space. 海角社区鈥檚 radiation detection device is now officially on the manifest for the broader IM-1 mission, the first in a series of commercial flights (and the first-ever to land on the Moon) that will bring science and technology to the lunar surface through . This will also be the first time the U.S. lands on the Moon since 1972 and the Apollo program.
Students in five different 海角社区 colleges and schools are leading the charge under the direction of Assistant Professor Jeffery Chancellor in the 海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy, head of its . All are undergraduate seniors from Louisiana:
Haley Pellegrin, from Bourg in Terrebonne Parish, is a LaSpace Undergraduate Research Fellow and member of the SpaRTAN lab where she develops new technologies to make better radiation shielding (海角社区 College of Science). Jacob Miller, from Crowley in Acadia Parish, is an electrical engineering major who builds new devices for medical applications (海角社区 College of Engineering, 海角社区 Honors College). Katie Hostetler, from Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish, is a graphic designer who creates art for 海角社区 Athletics and this spring came up with the winning design for the Tiger Eye 1 mission patch; she鈥檚 double-majoring in religious studies (海角社区 School of Art + Design, 海角社区 College of Humanities & Social Sciences).
鈥淚t鈥檚 been incredible to see and support all of 海角社区 coming together to move this mission forward.鈥�
Samuel J. Bentley, vice president of research and economic development at 海角社区
鈥淲e鈥檙e immensely proud of the 海角社区 students leading this work on the frontier of science, technology, art, and the human imagination,鈥� said Samuel J. Bentley, vice president of research and economic development. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been incredible to see and support all of 海角社区 coming together to move this mission forward. There should be no barriers to expertise, and this university-industry collaboration is a great example of how the caliber of our students and researchers can advance projects of critical importance to our nation.鈥�
鈥淭his student-led, cross-campus collaboration reinforces 海角社区鈥檚 impact on space exploration and planetary science,鈥� added Cynthia Peterson, dean of the 海角社区 College of Science. 鈥淎s we prepare to put people on the Moon again in 2024, we must not only understand what it takes to protect our astronauts, but also what is required to perform science experiments in a space environment and safeguard the technologies needed to conduct the research.鈥�
Test flight. 海角社区 Assistant Professor Jeffery Chancellor, faculty lead for the Tiger Eye 1 mission, holds six NASA grants (including two from LaSpace and two from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, both NASA-funded) and has previously provided the go/no-go recommendation for NASA space missions. By being on the approved sender list, he was able to email Hostetler鈥檚 海角社区 Tiger Eye 1 mission logo design up to the International Space Station and astronaut Shannon Walker who took a picture of it on her iPad last month, mounted in the clear glass cupola with Earth in the background. Click to see a larger imagePhoto by U.S. Astronaut Shannon Walker
鈥� Photo by U.S. Astronaut Shannon Walker
Through its medical and health physics program and the SpaRTAN lab, 海角社区 helps agencies and companies understand background radiation in space, one of the hard limits on how much time people and equipment can spend out there, beyond the Earth鈥檚 protective magnetic field. Understanding the types and amounts of radiation that exist on the Moon will be key to establishing a sustainable human presence on Earth鈥檚 nearest neighbor as well as traveling to Mars. The data brought back by Tiger Eye 1 will further the SpaRTAN lab鈥檚 research on improved radiation shielding in both materials and design.
鈥淲e have models and predictions for human health risk on the Moon, but we don鈥檛 yet have actual measurements of the radiation spectrum on the lunar surface,鈥� Chancellor said. 鈥淣ow that we鈥檒l get real data, we can use it to validate our models, make better predictions, and increase the safety of future space travel.鈥�
The IM in IM-1 stands for , a Houston-based company pioneering humanity鈥檚 next step鈥攔eturning the U.S. to the surface of the Moon. IM holds NASA and commercial payload contracts for two separate lunar landings (IM-1 in the first quarter of 2022 and IM-2 in the fourth quarter) to help pave the way for the Artemis program, which will put the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon as early as 2024. The CLPS flights are all uncrewed and will make use of rovers and robots to conduct science experiments and test technologies in different areas on the lunar surface. Intuitive Machines is providing the vehicle, communication network, and mission operations center for 海角社区鈥檚 device to safely land on the Moon and effectively conduct research. IM鈥檚 will be launched from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The solar battery-driven vehicle will spend two weeks on the surface before succumbing to lunar night, not far from Tranquility Base where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the Moon in July 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.
鈥淭he radiation data we鈥檒l get on IM-1 will change the equation of what鈥檚 possible in space.鈥�
Jack 鈥�2fish鈥� Fischer, astronaut and vice president of strategic programs at Intuitive Machines, on partnering with 海角社区
鈥淭he two main barriers for human spaceflight are propulsion鈥攈ow to get there faster鈥攁nd how to protect humans and equipment from radiation,鈥� said retired Colonel Jack 鈥�2fish鈥� Fischer, astronaut and vice president of strategic programs at Intuitive Machines. 鈥淲ithout the shielding and radiation modeling 海角社区 is helping to develop, the radiation effects on crews and equipment during deep space exploration would be catastrophic.鈥�
鈥淯sing Jeff Chancellor鈥檚 ability to model this stuff and figure out what kind of shielding to use and where to put it, we see a future where it will be much easier and cheaper to go into space because we could open the lunar and space economy to a global supply chain,鈥� Fischer continued. 鈥淲e could put commercial, off-the-shelf technology out there and lessen the dependency on expensive, overdesigned solutions. The radiation data we鈥檒l get on IM-1 will change the equation of what鈥檚 possible in space.鈥�
Device design. One reason for the 鈥淭iger Eye鈥� name: the detectors in the device are configured like a telescope. The radiation enters the aperture, is measured at the first detector, then travels through the material being tested and is measured again at the second detector. This allows the researchers to understand how effective the material is for shielding the cosmic ray environment.
鈥� Illustration by Elsa Hahne/海角社区
海角社区鈥檚 Tiger Eye 1 mission was enabled in partnership with , a New Orleans-based company that provides solutions and talent for the space, defense, and homeland security communities. Geocent chose 海角社区 as a research and development partner to test some of their radiation shielding, which led to an opportunity to share physical space onboard IM-1.
鈥淕eocent and our teammates鈥擯lasma Processes, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville鈥攁re proud to bring Geocent鈥檚 ACCRES Radiation Shielding technology to the partnership with 海角社区 and Dr. Jeff Chancellor, Intuitive Machines, and especially 海角社区 students to work on critical research and technologies that truly advance human spaceflight and exploration,鈥� said Robert A. 鈥淏obby鈥� Savoie, CEO of Geocent and 海角社区 Engineering alumni. 鈥淲e're a national company but Louisiana-born, and it鈥檚 thrilling to see students from several disciplines coming together to make significant contributions to an important mission. Geocent鈥檚 technical strength is in its people, and we can鈥檛 imagine a better way to build talent than challenging students to work together and rise to the occasion to put Tiger Eye 1 and their footprint on the Moon.鈥�
The 海角社区 radiation detection device is currently being customized by Pellegrin and Miller who, as official project manager, also will engage 海角社区 mechanical engineering鈥檚 advanced manufacturing and machining capabilities to etch Hostetler鈥檚 Tiger Eye 1 mission patch onto the physical device casing, which will occupy a space about the size of an iPhone 12.
鈥淭he most challenging thing on missions like these is working within strict limitations on mass, volume, power, bandwidth, and time, as well as communicating with and controlling devices from Earth, which means solving problems no one鈥檚 solved before,鈥� Pellegrin said. 鈥淚鈥檓 super excited to be part of this mission and the knowledge and skills I鈥檝e gained have already kickstarted my career. They helped me land an internship at Geocent, which is a dream come true since I want to work in space and missile systems development.鈥�
鈥淕eocent鈥檚 technical strength is in its people, and we can鈥檛 imagine a better way to build talent than challenging students to work together and rise to the occasion to put Tiger Eye 1 and their footprint on the Moon.鈥�
Robert A. 鈥淏obby鈥� Savoie, Geocent CEO
Pellegrin and Miller are also working with , a company based in the Czech Republic, on adapting radiation detection hardware (similar to a USB flash drive) that it has previously supplied for the International Space Station (ISS). But while you can bring laptops and off-the-shelf equipment to ISS to help integrate and connect such devices, that isn鈥檛 possible on IM-1. Much of Miller鈥檚 work on Tiger Eye 1 lies in software development and coding (and possibly some wiring and soldering) to make sure the data from the sensor 鈥渕akes sense鈥� to the device, which must be able to communicate with the main Intuitive Machines flight computer to receive time stamps, temperature readings, and other critical data. The 海角社区 team is setting up a Tiger Eye 1 ground control center right on the main campus and hopes to be able to receive raw data as well as issue commands to the device while it is traveling through space and on the lunar surface.
鈥淚t鈥檚 sort of an engineering and computer science joke, but the amount of problems we solve by turning a device off and back on again is kind of astounding,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淪o, if we stop being able to communicate with the device or get weird readings, we need to be able to tell the lander to perform a power cycle to reboot our device or change other settings. Rather than just seeing a problem, we need to be able to do something about it without physically touching the device.鈥�
The vehicle. The phone-sized 海角社区 radiation detection device will be mounted on the outside of Intuitive Machines鈥� Nova-C lunar lander with no mass between itself and the surrounding environment after the lander disconnects from the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch rocket.
鈥� Photo montage by Intuitive Machines
Earlier this year, Pellegin walked the Timepix chip the team will be using as a sensor over to the 海角社区 School of Veterinary Medicine鈥檚 linear accelerator (where radiation is used to help treat animals with cancer) for initial testing.
鈥淢ost of our patients are dogs and cats, but we do treat the occasional reptile, rabbit, horse, or other pet,鈥� said Jayme Looper, director of the 海角社区 Small Animal Hospital and its radiation oncology services. 鈥淥ur recent collaboration with the 海角社区 medical physics team to test the radiation detection device prior to its journey to the Moon is an example of a long history of intercollegiate collaboration at 海角社区.鈥�
Chancellor did the initial characterization of the Timepix technology in the 1990s as a master鈥檚 student under advisor Larry Pinsky at the University of Houston, who did the dosimetry for the Apollo mission.
鈥淚t takes a lot of time to sort of gather all of the information about how everything communicates and the protocols everybody鈥檚 following,鈥� Miller added. 鈥淚t gets complicated really fast. But as an engineering student, I like the challenge of doing something that鈥檚 really, truly new in just a few months. It鈥檚 as scary as it鈥檚 appealing, and the result is going to benefit human spaceflight for years to come.鈥�
For Hostetler, the design of the mission patch didn鈥檛 feel as new as it felt familiar. In a recent , she shared how her first opportunity to send art into space actually arrived already in fifth grade.
鈥淚t was a contest to design a flag to go into space and I was really far ahead in the contest but ended up in second place,鈥� Hostetler remembers. 鈥淪o, when my professor, Courtney Barr, came to me with the Tiger Eye 1 opportunity, I was like, 鈥楩ifth-grade me would be proud.鈥� My mom was especially excited.鈥�
鈥淎s an engineering student, I like the challenge of doing something that鈥檚 really, truly new in just a few months. It鈥檚 as scary as it鈥檚 appealing, and the result is going to benefit human spaceflight for years to come.鈥�
Jacob Miller, electrical engineering senior and Tiger Eye 1 project manager
Barr recruited seven undergraduate and graduate art students to come up with 19 different design ideas for the space patch. After careful vetting and input from the other students on his team, Chancellor chose one of Hostetler鈥檚 designs, which features a fierce but protective tiger eye overlooking a spacecraft landing on the Moon鈥攂ecause he appreciated the symbolism, and also because 鈥渋t looked awesome.鈥�
鈥淭he patch is an important symbol because it includes everyone on the team,鈥� Chancellor said. 鈥淔olks like Danielle Cintron, Darya Courville, Greg Trahan, Shemeka Law, and countless others at 海角社区 have worked really hard behind the scenes to make Tiger Eye 1 possible. Space missions do not happen entirely in a vacuum, and the patch itself helps to represent that idea.鈥�
鈥淚 came up with a few different versions, but I鈥檓 so glad he picked this one; it鈥檚 my favorite,鈥� Hostetler said.
Mission patch. 海角社区 Art + Design senior Katie Hostetler approached the design challenge of creating an iconic patch for the 海角社区 Tiger Eye 1 mission the way she鈥檇 previously designed logos, but with more detail. She also researched the history of space patches, which tend to be bold, literal depictions of missions, often with hidden 鈥渋nsider鈥� symbolism that resonates with the core team. She explored various eye shapes before settling on the final design, configured in something close to a yin-yang pattern (balance between the eye and the moon).
鈥� Art by Katie Hostetler/海角社区
With an eye on IM-2, Chancellor expects to call on Hostetler and the 海角社区 Art + Design team again soon. Intuitive Machines will bring an ice drill and use a small drone ship to explore hard-to-reach areas on the Moon and test the Nokia 4G LTE network, while 海角社区 is considering sending up a larger and more robust radiation detector, based on lessons to be learned on IM-1. When it comes to shielding materials and design, the vast spectrum of radiation in space doesn鈥檛 lend itself to easy or particularly intuitive solutions. You can鈥檛 just add more shielding or encase everything in lead. Not only would this add too much mass and cost; shielding in the wrong place could also slow down the radiation particles to the extent they鈥檇 get 鈥渢rapped鈥� inside the space vehicle or the human body, causing devastating damage to astronauts and equipment. Sometimes minimal shielding is the safest option, and the 海角社区 SpaRTAN lab鈥檚 research will continue to help the aerospace industry find out exactly where and when and how to effectively use it.
The upcoming missions reflect the importance and impact of 海角社区鈥檚 Space Grant status, supporting critical space research across a range of topics. 海角社区 manages the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM), a partnership between the university, NASA, the State of Louisiana, the University of New Orleans (UNO), and the UNO Research and Technology Foundation focused on applying advanced manufacturing technologies in support of NASA space programs. NCAM is located at NASA鈥檚 Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where critical hardware components for exploration vehicles鈥攕uch as core Space Launch System (SLS) rocket components for NASA鈥檚 Artemis mission to the Moon鈥攁re engineered, manufactured, and tested. Beyond state-of-the-art research, NCAM has a strong educational and talent development mission, working with aerospace companies to build the next generation of scientists and engineers.
鈥淲e鈥檙e especially excited about the tremendous opportunity Tiger Eye 1 is for 海角社区 students to be involved in forefront space-science research.鈥�
Jeffrey Blackmon, chair of the 海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy
鈥淲ith NASA鈥檚 Johnson, Stennis, Michoud, and Marshall Space Centers all within arm鈥檚 reach, 海角社区 is helping to develop the workforce needed for the next step in space exploration鈥攍ong-term, crewed space missions and a return to the lunar surface,鈥� said Jeffrey Blackmon, chair of the 海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy. 鈥淭he Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE) and the High-Altitude Student Platform (HASP) have played major roles, but we鈥檙e especially excited about the tremendous opportunity Tiger Eye 1 is for 海角社区 students to be involved in forefront space-science research.鈥�
As the Tiger Eye 1 team works to get everything ready for launch, something else just came up鈥攖he 海角社区 SpaRTAN lab will be flying yet another radiation detector on SpaceX鈥檚 mission using their Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft this September, in collaboration with Pinsky. It will launch from NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center in Florida and be the world鈥檚 first all-commercial, all-civilian mission to space. It will circle the Earth before making a soft water landing off the Florida coast. This will be another opportunity for 海角社区 students to form a team in support of a space mission. The team will include Jared Taylor, graduate student in medical physics who will integrate the related research into his Ph.D. project, and Duncan Wilkie, undergraduate student in physics. At least one additional student will be announced soon.
Shirts, hats, etc. bearing the 海角社区 student-designed Tiger Eye 1 mission logo are now available through the online store. Proceeds will support future student involvement in space research.