{"419671":{"#nid":"419671","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Prox-1 Takes Tech Students to New Heights","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Frieman has always had big goals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen he was growing up, he wanted to become an engineer.\u0026nbsp; (He\u0027s now working toward a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering.)\u0026nbsp; And, of course, he wanted to send something into space.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It kind of has been something I\u0027ve always dreamed about since I was a kid,\u0022 he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow he\u0027s making that dream come true, too.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the Prox-1 team, Frieman is among the students working on what is said to be GT\u0027s first-ever spaceflight mission.\u0026nbsp; Prox-1, a satellite mission, recently won the University Nanosat Program (UNP) competition, which means it will receive an Air Force launch slot as a secondary payload.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProx-1 is historic in more ways than one.\u0026nbsp; The mission is designed to demonstrate automated trajectory control in low-Earth orbit relative to a deployed CubeSat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDavid Spencer, Prox-1\u0027s principal investigator, explains that most proximity operations to date have had ground controls behind them- that is, people on earth have to do the bulk of the work manually.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022They\u0027re effectively joysticking the spacecraft,\u0022 says Spencer, a professor in the Guggenheim School of AE.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Prox-1 uses a technology called AutoNav, whose infrared imaging is key to orbital determination and trajectory control.\u0026nbsp; When it\u0027s launched around 2015 or so, Prox-1 will first release a separate satellite (the CubeSat), and it will then demonstrate its automated abilities to trail the CubeSat and circumnavigate it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe entire mission is expected to take about six weeks, but for now, there\u0027s still a lot more work and testing to be done.\u0026nbsp; Over the past two years, Spencer says, about 60 students (both undergraduate and graduate) have been involved with Prox-1.\u0026nbsp; Most are engineering majors, though some are from other disciplines.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrieman, who\u0027s been involved with Prox-1 since he was an undergraduate in Spencer\u0027s senior design class, hopes to stick with the mission through its launch.\u0026nbsp; He serves as both its systems engineer and propulsion subsystem lead.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe spends between 15 and 20 hours a week working on Prox-1, which ties in with his graduate studies in electric propulsion.\u0026nbsp; He was also among the students who traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., to compete in the UNP competition.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen he learned Prox-1 had won in its category, Frieman syas, \u0022I was surprised, excited, numb - it was just a whole range of emotions going on.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProx-1\u0027s achievements are seminal not only for Georgia Tech, but for the Center for Space Systems (CSS) as well.\u0026nbsp; Established in 2008, CSS uses a multidisciplinary approach to design and develop advanced space systems, and Prox-1 is one of its projects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpencer, who is also the CSS director, says the UNP win is a big boost.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022To have this sucess,\u0022 he says, \u0022is a big step forward towards our goals.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Prox-1  recently won the University Nanosat Program (UNP) competition meaning it will receive an Air Force launch slot as a secondary payload."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-06-30 16:05:54","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:52","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-02-04T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-02-04T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"98181","name":"David Spencer"},{"id":"130961","name":"Jason Frieman"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}