NASA Administrator Visits the AE School | Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

Bill Nelson toured three signature aerospace labs before addressing the Class of 2023.

Kelsey Gulledge

Sunday, 31 December 2023

Bill Nelson and NASA guests visit the AE School's research labs

The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE) welcomed a special visitor during commencement weekend. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson toured three AE research laboratories before addressing the graduating Class of 2023. He was joined by Bryan Gulley, NASA senior advisor for strategic communications and Casey Swails (Mgt ’07), NASA deputy associate administrator and deputy COO.

The first stop was the Space Systems Design Lab’s Mission Operations Center, where eight excited students met Nelson and shared the story and technical aspects of Lunar Flashlight, which just celebrated its one-year launch anniversary.

(fourth from left) Micah Pledger briefs the NASA team on the lifespan of Lunar Flashlight, as well as the challenges the students faced.

The Lunar Flashlight team poses with Casey Swails and Bill Nelson in the Mission Operations Center (MOC)

Recent graduate Micah Pledger shared her experience joining the Lunar Flashlight project, which is the first NASA interplanetary spacecraft to be operated by a team of students.

“With a team large enough to operate an interplanetary spacecraft, communication is key. Our greatest challenge was ensuring no single person held all the information and that the entire team was always in the loop,” said Pledger.

Nelson took the time to ask each student what made them choose Georgia Tech and their post-graduation plans. He also teased the theme of his commencement speech – moonshots.

Next, Nelson traveled to the High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory (HPEPL), which is part of NASA’s Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) designed to collaborate with innovative universities and address the limitations of ground testing high-power electric propulsion systems. The group was interested to learn more about the lab’s work with JANUS and how far the project has developed.

“You all are coming along your careers at exactly the right time, which I like to call - the golden era of space exploration,”

Bill Nelson, NASA administrator

Dan Lev (left) shares with the group the NASA-funded research projects that the HPEP lab conducts and how their research is changing space exploration.

(from left) Dan Lev, Taylor Hampson, Jacob Evans, Bill Nelson, Noah Brenner, and Casey Swails pose in front of the cryogenic pumps at the HPEPL.

“At the end of this project we should be able to properly predict exactly how a propulsion system will operate in space, what are the best methods in designing different aspects of the system, and how to improve the testing infrastructure on the ground so to properly mimic space conditions on-orbit,” said Dan Lev, AE research engineer.

He showed the NASA guests around the lab, seeing the cryogenic pumps and two of the vacuum test chambers used in propulsion research with industry and corporate partners alike. Noah Brenner, Taylor Hampson, and Jacob Evans answered questions about their research and talked to Nelson about their journey through Tech.

Before leaving the lab Nelson thanked the researchers for their work on advancing the efforts in going back to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

The final stop included a tour of the Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory (Combustion Lab). Research in the Combustion Lab address challenges facing future air breathing and chemical rocket engines, such as combustion dynamics, emissions, flame stability, and sustainability, as well as fundamental science.

The Combustion Lab is home to a NASA ULI project aimed at reducing emissions and creating more sustainable aviation systems. The team recently completed their first experiments with a novel combustor designed for supersonic transport aircraft.

"In the past few months, our students have given tours to the NASA Administrator and Deputy Administrator, Members of Congress, C-level executives, and technical leaders from government and industry,” said Adam Steinberg, Pratt & Whitney Chair and AE associate chair for graduate programs. “Visits such as these speak volumes to the quality and impact of the students' work, while also providing motivational boosts during those long nights in the lab."

Adam Steinberg (second from right) discusses the types of projects the Combustion Lab is currently working on and shows the guests the equipment that makes it all possible.

All smiles from the Combustion Lab; (from left) Renee Cole, Bill Nelson, Hari Priya Rajagopalan, Steven Budsinsky, Casey Swails, (middle row) Dominic Olibid, EJ Douglas, Jeremiah Juergensmeyer, Adam Steinberg, (back row) Dr. Shawn Wehe, Isha Gupta, Rahul Viswanathan, Samuel Wonfor, and Connor Godbold.

Moonshots

Following the tours, Nelson spoke at the Undergraduate/Graduate Commencement Ceremony at McCammish Paviilon. He kicked off his speech by asking the crowd, “What’s the good word,” which was immediately followed by a roar from the attendees. His speech reflected on moonshots, a reoccurring theme in the aerospace field.