Aeronautical and astronautical engineering

TSP Smart Spaces, a home automation company founded by Michael Oh '95 has been named to Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston Home 2025 list, reports Jaci Conry, Cheryl Fention, Marni Elyse Katz, Angela Athena Mats, and Stefanie Schwalb for Boston Magazine. TSP Smart Spaces uses “the ideal technology solutions while simultaneously making the user experience simple, comprehensive, and value-driven ensures even the most tech-hesitant homeowner feels automatically savvy,” they write. 

Postdoctoral associate Stewart Isaacs SM ’19 PhD ’24 speaks with Physics Today reporter Toni Feder about his passion for the sport of jump roping, research into solar-powered egg incubators for use in West Africa, and his work at MIT focused on addressing climate change and social inequities through the development of clean energy systems. “In jump rope, you have the basic building blocks of tricks. You need to combine them in ways that look interesting and are creative and fun to do. In engineering, you have the basic building blocks of physics. When you need to solve a problem, you need to come up with a creative solution to get there,” says Isaacs of the intersection between jump roping and scientific research. “And jump rope is hard. To be really good at it takes a lot of effort. The habits of working hard and problem-solving are also very useful in engineering.”

Researchers at MIT have developed “Clio,” a new technique that “enables robots to make intuitive, task-relevant decisions,” reports Jennifer Kite-Powell for Forbes. The team’s new approach allows “a robot to quickly map a scene and identify the items they need to complete a given set of tasks,” writes Kite-Powell. 

Researchers at MIT have developed a “set of wearable robotic limbs to help astronauts recover from falls,” reports Amy Gunia for CNN. “The so-called ‘SuperLimbs’ are designed to extend from a backpack containing the astronauts’ life support system,” explains Gunia. “When the wearer falls over, an extra pair of limbs can extend out to provide leverage to help them stand, conserving energy for other tasks.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method that “enables robots to intuitively identify relevant areas of a scene based on specific tasks,” reports Baba Tamim for Interesting Engineering. “The tech adopts a distinctive strategy to make robots effective and efficient at sorting a cluttered environment, such as finding a specific brand of mustard on a messy kitchen counter,” explains Tamim. 

Researchers at MIT have developed “AstroAnts,” autonomous, magnetic, robotic rovers roughly the size of a Hot Wheels toy car designed to monitor space vehicles and other hard-to-reach machinery, reports Jesus Diaz for Fast Company. “The idea is that, by constantly watching over the temperature and structural integrity of their cosmic rides, spaceships will be more resilient to the extreme conditions of space and astronauts will be safer,” explains Diaz.

IEEE Spectrum reporter Willie D. Jones spotlights Prof. Wesley Harris, who has “not only advanced the field of aerospace engineering but has also paved the way for future generations to soar.” Jones notes Harris’ commitment to “fostering the next generation of engineers, particularly students of color.” Harris explains: “I’ve always wanted to be like my high school teacher—a physicist who not only had deep knowledge of the scientific fundamentals but also compassion and love for Black folks.” 

In the Wall Street Journal, Cady Coleman '83, a former NASA astronaut and U.S. Air Force colonel, recalls how a talk by astronaut Sally Ride at MIT  inspired her to shoot for the stars. “In her quiet way, Sally Ride shattered assumptions I didn’t know I had,” Coleman writes. “It is extraordinary what a difference it can make to see someone like you doing things you might never have considered doing.”

Prof. Olivier de Weck speaks with Boston 25’s Daniel Coates about the two NASA astronauts on the International Space Station awaiting news on when they will return to Earth due to concerns surrounding the capsule they traveled in. De Weck notes that during their wait, the astronauts are “being put to good work, they’re helping with experiments, they’re helping with the station, they’re in contact with their families, because there is fairly good internet connection on ISS."

Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Washington Post reporter Lizette Ortega about Apophis – an asteroid estimated to fly past Earth in April 2029. “Nature is performing this once-per-several-thousand-years experiment for us,” says Binzel. “We have to figure out how to watch.”

Prof. Richard Binzel talks with Meghan Bartels of Scientific American about the importance of studying Asteroid Apophis – a sizeable space rock that will near Earth within “one tenth of the Earth-moon distance” in 2029. “It’s an incredibly rare event that an asteroid like Apophis would hit the Earth, but it’s better to be knowledgeable than to [be] caught unaware,” says Binzel, a planetary scientist Bartels notes has “spent years raising awareness about the scientific opportunities of the 2029 flyby.” 

Prof. Richard Binzel organized a centennial celebration for the Johnstown meteorite, which was seen crashing into Earth on July 6, 1924 in Weld County, Colorado, and later “became a link to understanding a whole class of meteorites,” reports Elizabeth Gamillo for Astronomy. “Binzel describes the Johnstown rock not as the meteorite that launched a thousand ships, but one that instead launched one major mission to the asteroid belt,” writes Gamillo. 

Prof. Richard Binzel speaks with Popular Science reporter Briley Lewis about how frequently asteroids come close to Earth. "I would be worried if we weren’t taking the asteroid survey challenge seriously,” says Binzel. "NASA and its funding sources are stepping up to the adult responsibility of doing the necessary searching to make sure our asteroid future is secure.” 

Prof. Sara Seager, Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Nancy Kanwisher have been awarded the 2024 Kavli Prize for their work in the three award categories: astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience, respectively, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. According to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, this award honors scientists with outstanding research “that has broadened our understanding of the big, the small and the complex,” writes Nietzel. 

MIT researchers have developed a wearable backpack with spider-like limbs to help astronauts maintain stability in space, reports Jess Thomson for Newsweek. The new technology, called Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SuperLimbs), “could be crucial in future missions to the moon, where gravity is only a sixth of that on Earth and astronauts may struggle to clamber up again after a fall due to their unwieldy space suits,” explains Thomson.