The goal of industrial utilization and exploration of space requires that one addresses a wide range of engineering problems. Examples of research activities include lightweight structures for large space apertures (specifically, space solar power satellites), deployable antennas, in-space manufacturing, material and structural behavior in extreme temperature and radiation environments, spacecraft shielding against hypervelocity impact threats, locomotion in planetary atmospheres, hypersonic reentry into planetary atmospheres, in-space propulsion, spacecraft autonomy, ranging from spacecraft swarms to perception-driven navigation systems to robotic satellite assembly, autonomous guidance, navigation, and control, micropropulsion electrospray arrays for attitude control and precision pointing, and launch-vehicle performance and safety. Opportunities exist for research in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
