Aeronautical and astronautical engineering

For Jasmin Moghbeli ’05, who is serving as mission commander for the SpaceX Crew-7 journey to the International Space Station, the mission is about “determination, exploration and inspiration, especially to the next generation of girls like her twin daughters," reports Mark Strassmann for CBS News. Moghbeli notes that when her daughters see “the diverse crews that are going up there, they realize they can be part of this, whether it's becoming an astronaut or something else. They realize they can do it as well."

Writing for The Washington Post, graduate student Thomas Roberts underscores the importance of investing in new technologies to mitigate the risks posed by space debris. “Space operators can control how some large objects return to Earth. But this requires extra fuel reserves and adaptive control technologies, which translate into higher costs,” writes Roberts. 

Nature reporter Abdullahi Tsanni spotlights Nicole McGaa, a fourth-year student at MIT, and her work leading MIT’s all-Indigenous rocket team to the 2023 First Nations Launch National Rocket Competition. “Our project and others like it will set a precedent at MIT that will help Indigenous students to bridge their identity with their engineering aspirations and career goals,” says McGaa. “I encourage other Indigenous students to be brave, approach your projects with courage and try incorporating your identity and values into your work.”

Prof. Lonnie Petersen speaks with Boston Globe reporter Kay Lazar about the need to prepare doctors to provide medical care in space. “As we have more commercial space flight, we will have a different composition of crew members, we will see more preexisting conditions, the age range will expand, and obviously the way we do medicine is evolving,” Petersen said.

MIT has been selected as the world’s best university in the 2024 QS World University Rankings, reports Cecilia Rodriguez for Forbes. MIT has secured “the top position for the 12^th consecutive year,” writes Rodriguez.

MIT researchers have developed a new compact, lightweight design for a 1-megawatt electrical motor that “could open the door to electrifying much larger aircraft,” reports Ed Gent for IEEE Spectrum. “The majority of CO₂ is produced by twin and single-aisle aircraft which require large amounts of power and onboard energy, thus megawatt-class electrical machines are needed to power commercial airliners,” says Prof. Zoltán Spakovszky. “Realizing such machines at 1 MW is a key stepping stone to larger machines and power levels.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a new artificial intelligence system aimed at helping autopilot avoid obstacles while maintaining a desirable flight path, reports Kyle Wiggers for TechCrunch. “Any old algorithm can propose wild changes to direction in order to not crash, but doing so while maintaining stability and not pulping anything inside is harder,” writes Wiggers.

Alumni Billy Thalheimer and Michael Klinker co-founded Regent, a company that has developed and manufactured an all-electric sea glider, reports WCVB. “A sea glider is a class of vehicle known as a wing in ground (WIG),” says Thalheimer. “So, it flies within a wingspan of the surface at all times, dock to doc, exclusively over water.”

Darby Dunn ’08 speaks with CNBC reporter Catherine Clifford about her journey from building rockets for SpaceX to working on making fusion energy a reality at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS). “For me, it really came down to wanting to use my energy to clean up the planet instead of get off it,” says Dunn. “So that was the huge shift for me to come to CFS.” 

Researchers from Lincoln Lab and NASA are working on the TROPICS research mission, an effort to collect meteorological data on tropical storms from mini satellites, reports Daniel Cusick for Scientific American. "Scientists will observe temperature profiles in space that would be favorable to storm formation at the Earth’s surface, then use a weather prediction model and radiometric imagery to better predict how such storms would behave," Cusick writes. 

SpaceX Crew-6 Mission Commander Stephen Bowen MS ’93 recently answered questions from Cohasset Public School students live from the International Space Station, reports WBZ. "The Earth is always amazing to look at," Bowen told the students of his experience in space.

Researchers at MIT are developing a new way to use electric thrusters, reports Freethink. “Electric propulsion actually has the benefit of maximizing the amount of room that you have on a spacecraft so you can use it for this useful payload as opposed to just propellant,” says Prof. Paulo Lozano.

Lt. Col. Jasmin Moghbeli ‘05 will be commanding the SpaceX Crew 7 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), reports Jennifer McLogan. Moghbeli returned to her elementary school to share her journey with students.

Prof. Danielle Wood speaks with NPR Shortwave co-host Aaron Scott about the future of space sustainability. “I hope that humans pause and note that the actions we're taking now and in the next 10 years really are going to be decisive in the relationship between humans and our planet, and humans and other locations, like the Moon,” says Wood.

As part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, researchers at MIT are developing “nearly silent electroaerodynamic thrusters that would be used for vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, for both passengers and cargo,” reports Passant Rabie for Gizmodo.