space exploration

George Mason �鶹�� announces its first NASA Space Mission, which seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy

Jeannine Harvey — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 13:34:19 +0000

George Mason �鶹�� announces its first NASA Space Mission, which seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy Jeannine Harvey Mon, 06/10/2024 - 09:34

George Mason �鶹�� will be the home of the $19.5 million recently approved Landolt NASA Space Mission that will put an artificial “star” in orbit around the Earth. This artificial star will allow scientists to calibrate telescopes and more accurately measure the brightness of stars ranging from those nearby to the distant explosions of supernova in far-off galaxies. By establishing absolute flux calibration, the mission will begin to address several open challenges in astrophysics including the speed and acceleration of the universe expansion.

"This mission marks another first for George Mason �鶹��, a milestone that proves our impact as a major public research university truly knows no bounds,” George Mason �鶹�� President Gregory Washington said. “It's an honor for George Mason to lead this unique team seeking to expand the boundaries of knowledge through College of Science associate professor Peter Plavchan’s collaboration with NASA, one of George Mason's most prestigious research partners.”

Scientists know the universe is expanding, which is measured by calculating the brightness of numerous stars and by the number of photons-per-second they emit. According to Plavchan, a George Mason associate professor of physics and astronomy and the Landolt Mission primary investigator, more accurate measurements are needed for the next breakthroughs.

Landolt Mission Principal Investigator Peter Plavchan, associate professor of physics and astronomy at George Mason �鶹��'s College of Science. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of �鶹�� Branding

Named for late astronomer Arlo Landolt, who put together widely used catalogs of stellar brightness throughout the 1970s through the 1990s, this mission will launch a light into the sky in 2029 with a known emission rate of photons, and the team will observe it next to real stars to make new stellar brightness catalogs. The satellite (artificial star) will have eight lasers shining at ground optical telescopes in order to calibrate them for observations. The effort will not make the artificial stars so brightly to see with the naked eye, but one can see it with a personal telescope at home.

“This mission is focused on measuring fundamental properties that are used daily in astronomical observations,” said Eliad Peretz, NASA Goddard mission and instrument scientist and Landolt’s deputy principal investigator. “It might impact and change the way we measure or understand the properties of stars, surface temperatures, and the habitability of exoplanets.”

The artificial star will orbit earth 22,236 miles up, far enough away to look like a star to telescopes back on Earth. This orbit also allows it to move at the same speed of the Earth’s rotation, keeping it in place over the United States during its first year in space. “This is what is considered an infrastructure mission for NASA, supporting the science in a way that we’ve known we needed to do, but with a transformative change in how we do it,” Plavchan explained.

Landolt Mission contributor Peter Pachowicz, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in George Mason's College of Engineering and Computing. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of �鶹�� Branding

The payload, which is the size of the proverbial bread box, will be built in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a world leader in measuring photon emissions. “This calibration under known laser wavelength and power will remove effects of atmosphere filtration of light and allow scientists to significantly improve measurements,” said Piotr Pachowicz, associate professor in Mason’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who is leading this component of the mission.

George Mason faculty and students from Mason’s College of Science and College of Engineering and Computing will work together with the NASA and NIST and nine other organizations for a first-of-its-kind project for a university in the Washington, D.C., area.

“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for George Mason and our students," said Pachowicz. "�鶹�� team will design, build, and integrate the payload, which—because it’s going very high into geostationary orbit—must handle incredible challenges.”

With mission control based at George Mason on its Fairfax Campus, the team also includes Blue Canyon Technologies; California Institute of Technology; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Mississippi State �鶹��; Montreal Planetarium and iREx/�鶹�� of Montreal; the �鶹�� of Florida; the �鶹�� of Hawaiʻi; the �鶹�� of Minnesota, Duluth; and the �鶹�� of Victoria.

With more accurate measurements, experts will use the improved data from the project to enhance understanding of stellar evolution, habitable zones or exoplanets in proximity to Earth, and refine dark energy parameters, setting a foundation for the next great leaps in scientific discovery. “When we look at a star with a telescope, no one can tell you today the rate of photons or brightness coming from it with the desired level of accuracy,” Plavchan, who is also the director of Mason’s Observatories in Fairfax, said. “We will now know exactly how many photons-per-second come out of this source to .25 percent accuracy.”

"Flux calibration is essential for astronomical research.” explained NIST’s Susana Deustua, a physical scientist in the NIST Remote Sensing Group. “We constantly ask: ‘How big? How bright? How far?’ and then ponder: ‘What is the universe made of? Are we alone?’ Accurate answers require precise measurements and excellent instrument characterization,” Deustua said.

Learn more at landolt.gmu.edu

Learn more about the mission

Landolt partners weigh in on importance of this mission

Did You Know

The Landolt Space Mission is named for the late astronomer Arlo Landolt, one of the most recognizable American astronomers. Renowned throughout the astronomical community for his discoveries, astronomers and physicists worldwide continue to use his series of papers, which established the “Landolt Photometric Standard Star Catalog,” and his standard stars are among the most heavily used photometric standards throughout the globe.

Find out more >>

Topics

National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST

College of Engineering and Computing

Mason Momentum

Working on spacecraft and 3D-printed solar cars, junior accelerates his career at Mason

Mariam Aburdeineh — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:15:24 +0000

Working on spacecraft and 3D-printed solar cars, junior accelerates his career at Mason Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 01/25/2022 - 14:15

In This Story

John Shortle

Syed Abbas Zaidi

Michael Riggi, president of Mason's solar car team, Hypernova Solar, poses with Orion, a solar car his team revamped. Photo provided by Hypernova Solar.

Since Michael Riggi was about six years old, his father and brother would take him to a “Cars and Coffee” show in Great Falls, Virginia, on weekends. Being around classic automobiles and luxury vehicles, Riggi said he developed an appreciation for cars, and other machines that go fast, including planes, boats, and rockets.

Riggi developed an appreciation for cars at a young age. Portrait by Michael Riggi.

Now, as a junior at George Mason �鶹��, his career path has also been racing forward.

The systems engineering major working on an accelerated master’s degree is the president of Hypernova Solar, a student organization creating what they believe will be the world’s first 3D-printed solar car.

Ultimately, Riggi said he aspires to work in the aerospace industry. His work with Hypernova Solar combined with his degree helped him land an internship with the global aerospace, defense, and security company, Northrop Grumman, he said.

“[Systems engineering] is in high demand in almost all tech industries,” Riggi said.

“Mason is one of the only schools I found in this area that offered a system engineering major, and Mason’s program was ranked higher than [the �鶹�� of Virginia]’s,” he said. “I chose Mason off their great program.”

When Riggi interned with Northrop Grumman in summer 2021, he said he worked on spacecraft that go up to the international space station—in particular, the Cygnus Mission. Riggi said his tasks involved taking measurements, estimating error, and creating a CAD model of the thruster.

Riggi interning at Northrop Grumman. Photo provided.

“We made a tool that allowed Mission Control to quickly throw in measurements of the motors to see how it affects the angle of the spacecraft on-the-fly, so they can steer the spacecraft,” Riggi said.

“The qualities about Michael that impressed me and my colleagues [at Northrop Grumman] were his imagination and ability to tackle a task that was initially beyond the scope of his previous experience,” said Roseann Alvarez, systems engineering manager at Northrop Grumman. “He shows plenty of growth potential and will be an asset to any future employer.”

“Based on Michael’s performance and his contributions to the [Commercial Resupply Services] program, I would highly recommend Northrop Grumman recruitment of Mason interns and graduates in the future,” she said.

Riggi said he’s excited to intern again with Northrop Grumman in summer 2022.

“There’s something about being on the cutting edge of technology and science that I really love,” he said. “[My internship] helped me realize what traits I value in a workplace and helped me realize specific parts of my education to focus on because I’ve seen what’s actually needed in the workforce.”

In addition to opportunities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Riggi said he has enjoyed learning from supportive Mason professors including John Shortle, Abbas Zaidi, and Colin Reagle.

“Michael embodies the ideal of a systems engineer, being able to assemble and lead a large team of students with diverse skills to design, build, and test a complex system,” Shortle said. “He’s a great ambassador for the discipline and will be a great asset in the workforce.”

When he’s not leading Hypernova Solar, Riggi said he enjoys going off-roading and taking photos.

When he's not leading Hypernova Solar, Mason student Michael Riggi enjoys going off-roading with his truck and taking photos. Photo by Michael Riggi.

Photography by Michael Riggi.

“It’s really a great way to blow off steam and relax,” Riggi said, suggesting diverse activities help keep his life balanced yet exciting. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s being bored.”

That’s another reason he appreciates the opportunities at Mason.

“My favorite part of Mason is the community,” Riggi said. “The diverse student population has taught me so much and helped me make so many friends, the amazing faculty have been so helpful, and the community of Fairfax is very diverse and a great space to explore.”

Riggi (front left in green) with members of Mason's solar car team, Hypernova Solar. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications/George Mason �鶹��

Topics

Systems Engineering and Operations Research

Space

space exploration

experiential learning

accelerated masters

diversity

Mason researcher helps lead the search for new exoplanets

John Hollis — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:59:06 +0000

Mason researcher helps lead the search for new exoplanets John Hollis Wed, 12/09/2020 - 13:59

Topics

space exploration

MINERVA Observatories

Research

Peter Plavchan is an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the director of the Mason Observatory.

Photo credit:

Ron Aira/Creative Services.

A George Mason �鶹�� professor is part of team of scientists running a global network of telescopes dedicated to the confirmation and validation of exoplanets in our galaxy.

Peter Plavchan, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within the College of Science and the director of the Mason Observatory, is the co-principal investigator for two Miniature Extreme Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) observation facilities, including the first in the United States. Plavchan, who drew national and international headlines earlier this year when he and his team of students discovered a new exoplanet the size of Neptune, recently received a grant of $126,758 from the National Science Foundation for his team’s research.

The U.S facility (MINERVA North) atop Mt. Hopkins in Arizona combines five robotic telescopes that simultaneously fiber-feed two small, bench-mounted spectrometers. The Australian facility (MINERVA Australis) combines five robotic telescopes as well that fiber-feed a single spectrometer atop Mt. Kent in Toowoomba, Australia.

“MINERVA has been used to help confirm or validate about a dozen planets orbiting nearby stars.” Plavchan said.

The MINERVA observatories, whose data helped in the confirmation of AU Mic b, follow up on possible planetary candidates, including those identified by the NASA TESS mission, by using the Doppler Effect to measure the color of light originating from a star. Using the highly advanced spectrometers, Plavchan and his team look for even the smallest deviations in color from a star that may have resulted from changes to the star’s velocity.

“Physics tells us that a change in velocity or speed means there is an acceleration,” Plavchan said. “That acceleration, according to Newton’s Second Law of Physics, says that a force is acting on that star. And that force is the gravitational tug of something going around it. It’s kind of a chain of logical reasoning—with the color changes of stars, we can infer the presence of planets orbiting around that star.”

Australia’s �鶹�� of Southern Queensland is the lead institution in the MINERVA Australis project. There are fewer telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere, and we can observe stars that telescopes in the Northern Hemisphere can’t see because the Earth is in the way, Plavchan said.

Harvard �鶹��’s Jason Eastman, who serves as the other co-PI for MINERVA North, credits both facilities for the knowledge they will bring about other planets and the universe’s origins.

“With MINERVA,” he said, “we should be able to double the number of planets with such measurements, and shed light on the migration mechanism for large, close-in planets.”

Plavchan said the first two years of the MINERVA project have been very productive. The team looks forward to uncovering more of the galaxy’s secrets.

“We’ve answered a question humanity has wondered for millennia—are there other worlds out there? The answer is a definitive yes, and there are billions more worlds with unexplored lands waiting to be found,” he said.

space exploration

George Mason �鶹���� announces its first NASA Space Mission, which seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy

Learn more about the mission

Landolt partners weigh in on importance of this mission

Did You Know

Topics

Working on spacecraft and 3D-printed solar cars, junior accelerates his career at Mason

In This Story

Topics

Mason researcher helps lead the search for new exoplanets

Topics

George Mason �鶹�� announces its first NASA Space Mission, which seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy