ANNUAL 2011-12 • MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Editors Department Head Associate Head Editor & Director of Communications Jaime Peraire Karen Willcox William T.G. Litant
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] AeroAstro is published annually by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 33-240, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. http://www.mit.aero AeroAstro No. 9, July 2012 ©2012 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Except where noted, photographs by William Litant/MIT DESIGN Opus Design www.opusdesign.us Cover: Alumni astronauts (from left) Mike Fincke (AeroAstro, BSc ’89), Cady Coleman (ChemE, BSc ’83), and Greg Chamitoff (AeroAstro, PhD ’82), wearing MIT 150 anniversary t-shirts, send video greetings from the International Space Station to high school students around the world participating in AeroAstro’s 2011 Zero Robotics competition. Each is accom- panied by a Space System’s Lab SPHERE microsatellite. For more on Zero Robotics and SPHERES, turn to page 25 (Video grab via NASA). Cert no. XXX-XXX-000 THESE ARE EXCITING TIMES FOR AEROASTRO. Our research funding has risen by 40 percent over the past three years: there are more than 170 research projects in our labs and centers repre- senting $28 million in expenditures by the Department of Defense, NASA, other federal agencies and departments, and the aerospace industry. Our incoming sophomore class size is up by 48 percent over last year. Our faculty now includes a former secretary to the Air Force, a former astronaut, a former NASA associate administrator, a former USAF chief scientist, nine National Academy of Engineering members, nine Amer- ican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellows, two Guggenheim Indeed, we have a number of great projects and initiatives ramping Medal recipients, and two AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award recipients.