Master's Projects

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Master's Projects

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Gravity Science Requirements for Future Icy/Ocean Worlds SmallSats Missions

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-20) Nassif, Mohamed
Gravity Science Requirements for Future Icy/Ocean Worlds SmallSats Missions

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-15) Nassif, Mohamed

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in developing mission concepts designed to explore the icy satellites of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, some of which harbor a subsurface ocean and are geologically active, such as Europa, Enceladus and Titan. While the Galileo and Cassini missions provided data that helped improve our understanding of these bodies, these missions were not dedicated for icy moons exploration and hence many questions were left unanswered. These bodies are complex and less understood than terrestrial planets and have unique features of their own. In addition, the presence of an ocean makes these bodies key destinations in the search for life elsewhere in the Solar System. Measurement of a celestial body’s gravity field provides fundamental information on the body’s internal structure including mass distribution, tectonic process and thermal evolution. Prior gravity science experiments have enabled the development of gravity field models of various bodies such as Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Europa, Saturn, Titan and Enceladus. While gravity science alone cannot constrain the interior models due to its non-uniqueness, gravity data combined with additional measurement data such as altimetry and topography mapping can provide a better understanding of these complex worlds and their interactions with their parent planet. This paper discusses the current knowledge and unknowns of icy moons with a focus on Europa and Enceladus and proposes science objectives needed for a SmallSat icy moons exploration missions and potential measurement techniques for improved gravity science return.
Payload System Design of a CubeSat Distributed Telescope

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-10) Thatavarthi, Rohan

The Virtual Super-Resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms (VISORS) mission is a novel CubeSat formation distributed telescope mission that aims to investigate the underlying energy release mechanisms in the solar corona. VISORS is a mission that was initially conceived in the National Science Foundation (NSF) CubeSat Innovations Ideas Lab workshop held in 2019. The mission will observe the corona in extreme ultra-violet (EUV) at an angular resolution of less than 0.2 arcseconds using two 6U CubeSats that align and fly 40 meters apart to form a distributed telescope. Achieving such a mission requires key technologies in the fields of diffractive optics, inter-satellite communication, CubeSat propulsion, and relative navigation. The development of any single one of these technologies is novel but all of them working in conjunction truly enables the VISORS mission. The consolidation of these technologies into the Cubesat form factor poses a mechanical and systems design challenge. This paper focuses on the preliminary payload design of the VISORS CubeSats, the challenges inherent with combining the key technologies into a 6U form factor, and the key next steps to mature the payload design. Working in conjunction with 10 different universities and a projected launch in late 2023, the VISORS mission will demonstrate the capabilities of CubeSats to perform high precision coronal imagery and will pave the path forward for future CubeSat swarm missions.
The Effect of Gamification Elements on MOOCs

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-07) El-Sawy, Hussien

Gamification is the use of game elements in non-game subjects. MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses, as it became widely used worldwide specially after the covid-19 pandemic, it is still facing some challenges on retaining enrolled students. This study is going to discuss the connection between Gamification elements and MOOCs specifically “Events” which are considered quests that can be done in a specific period of time in exchange for re-ward, and how events can be used to increase student’s engage-ment while participating in MOOCs.
CS-6460 EdTech Final Project

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-06) Hartnell, Edwin Geoffrey

This project develops a set of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) modules called "Case Simulations" for economics and business students. Case Simulations are Case Studies with matching Market Simulations. Together, they provide a comprehensive PBL environment for students to explore economic phenomenon, analyze markets, and generate recommendations. Instructors can adapt the content to supplement textbooks, lectures, and class discussion. Case Simulations suit economic principles, business economics, market strategy, and pricing courses.
Manufacturing, Integration, and Testing of the Green Monopropellant Propulsion System for NASA’s Lunar Flashlight Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Talaski, Ali

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight is a 6U CubeSat that will be investigating the Lunar South Pole for water-ice. Propelling the spacecraft is a 2.5U green monopropellant propulsion system developed by the Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Laboratory in partnership with the NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Lunar Flashlight will be the first interplanetary CubeSat to use green propulsion, and will be the first CubeSat to place itself into orbit around another planetary body. Utilizing a mix of traditional and additive manufacturing techniques to manufacture the propulsion system presented unique challenges for the project. In addition, the integration of precision flight hardware has required rapid design changes to parts to ensure that the system fits together as intended. However, as a pathfinder mission for future small satellite propulsion systems, the Lunar Flashlight Propulsion System will establish flight heritage of various components, including additively manufactured hardware, microfluidic components, custom-designed electronics, and unique cleanliness specifications.
The Impact of Traffic Density on Lane-Changing Frequency

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12) Jiang, Qian

Fluctuations on roadways are widely considered as an effect of lane-changing activity. Lane-changing has been recognized as microscopic behaviors and elements in lane-changing models are considered to be mostly dynamic. But lane-changing decisions can still be influenced by some traffic conditions reflected as macroscopic factors. This paper attempts to correlate microscopic models with macroscopic models by exploring the relationship between lane-changing frequency and density. A descriptive analysis is generalized to explain lane-changing behaviors as a reaction to traffic density. It is observed that the lane-changing frequency increases in the low-density region and reaches a peak around a certain density. Five simple regression models are constructed to fit the NGSIM (Next Generation SIMulation) data. Based on three statistical indicators, the cubic model is selected as the best fit for the relationship between lane-changing frequency and density.
Simulation and Dynamic Modeling of a Thermomechanical Ice Probe

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-01) Daniel, Nathan L.

Ice-penetrating probes are useful tools for research on Earth, particularly for studying liquid water underneath or surrounded by ice. In recent decades, interest has grown in the use of ice probes for exploring the subsurface oceans thought to exist on some of the Solar System’s icy worlds. While much work has been done on the thermal power requirements of such probes, little modeling work has been published on hybrid thermomechanical drilling probes. In this paper, a method is developed for simulating the descent trajectory of a hybrid thermomechanical probe through the ice shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This method com bines independent calculations of the velocity contributions from drilling and melting and a strategy for determining the conditions required for melting. Trajectories and descent time estimates are given for a range of different assumptions. Finally, the problem of melt probe attitude stability is briefly discussed and initial modeling efforts are presented.
Research Search Tool

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-08-03) Hesser, Christopher

A novel website-based tool for exploring research is presented. Inspired by random restart hill climbing, the tool helps users find peaks of interest in research areas by presenting a pseudo-random article from the CORE open access research collection then allowing users to quickly narrow their search space by selecting keywords from works that interest them. The goals of this tool are primarily introspective, helping users discover research areas about personally interesting topics in a timely way and aiming to solve the problems associated with not selecting areas of research due to a lack of inspiration. item_description: An article describing a way to search the space of research and inspiration using a Random Restart Hill Climbing inspired technique.
Optical Satellite Orbit Determination from Geographically Dispersed Sensors

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-08-01) Renegar, Luke W. ; Gunter, Brian C.

Because of their relative simplicity, optical tracking systems are potentially much more cost-effective than radar for tracking resident space objects (RSOs); however, they suffer from a key drawback compared to radar in that they cannot provide range information. One way of overcoming this limitation is by triangulating the RSO’s position using multiple geographically diverse sensors. This paper presents a comparison of using triangulation techniques against using observations from similar ground station arrangements in more traditional sensor fusion techniques, such as Kalman Filtering. The influence of the geographical layout of the sensors on the quality of the orbit solution is discussed, as is the impact of the number of ground stations in the network. Performance comparisons are placed in the context of usefulness to RSO catalog maintenance, and the question of whether the improvements are operationally meaningful is explored.