My name is Jae Lynch. I am a senior in aerospace engineering with a minor in astronomy. I will be graduating in May 2012. Upon graduation I would like to obtain a position in the aerospace industry which will allow me to utilize my skills and continue to learn. Astrodynamics and propulsion have been my favored areas of study at Iowa State. The undergraduate research I am conducting provides an opportunity to learn about new topics and expand my knowledge of others. It also offers valuable experience for graduate school and my future aerospace career.
My research involves the dynamics necessary to land a spacecraft on an asteroid. This includes both the establishment of an orbit and the descent and ascent from the asteroid. By the end of the semester I hope to have developed a plan for sample acquisition from an asteroid including the method of sample acquisition and develop many of the necessary equations. The work will build on past missions such as JAXA’s Hayabusa and NASA’s DAWN and OSIRIS-Rex.
Final Paper: Spacecraft Dynamics for Sample Acquisition