Satellites

Angela Crews, a PhD candidate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, coauthored a study comparing weather data collected by low-cost, shoebox-size satellites with that gathered by much larger, more expensive traditional weather satellite.

For collecting weather data, tiny satellites measure up to billion-dollar cousins

Study finds shoebox-sized CubeSats gather weather data comparably to data collected by larger satellites.

September 27, 2018

Members of the ASTERIA team prepare the petite satellite for its journey to space.

Tiny ASTERIA satellite achieves a first for CubeSats

Measurement of an exoplanet transit demonstrates proof of concept that small spacecraft can perform high-precision photometry.

August 15, 2018

Students in the Beaver Works Summer Institute’s Autonomous RACECAR course follow their cars around a racetrack during the program’s final race.

A transformative summer for student engineers

High school students explored engineering and technology at the Beaver Works Summer Institute, ending with robot races and demonstrations.

August 13, 2018

Illustration of NASA's Parker Solar Probe in front of the Sun.

3Q: A bold mission to touch the sun

MIT’s John Belcher discusses the launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which will fly directly into the sun’s atmosphere.

August 13, 2018

Muriel Médard, the Cecil H. Green Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT, describes how 5G, or fifth generation, mobile technologies is refashioning the wireless communications and networking industry.

3Q: Muriel Médard on the world-altering rise of 5G

“The reason 5G is so different is that what exactly it will look like is still up in the air. Everyone agrees the phrase is a bit of a catch-all.”

August 10, 2018

“I really wanted people to think of the satellite not only as this technology that’s floating around out there in orbit, but as a machine that plays a structuring role in our everyday lives,” says Lisa Parks, a professor in MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing program.

Contemplating the eyes in the sky

Media studies scholar Lisa Parks examines the way satellites and other aerial technologies have changed society.

July 20, 2018

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics head Jaime Peraire calls Rebecca Masterson “an outstanding researcher with an impressive record of accomplishment in space systems engineering and design.”

Rebecca Masterson appointed AeroAstro principal research scientist

Mechanical engineer and instrument scientist on NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is the first female principal research scientist in the department's history.

July 19, 2018

Alexa Aguilar is co-president of MIT’s Graduate Women in Aerospace Engineering (GWAE) group. “It's important to me that women have this kind of support and encouragement because I wouldn’t be here without the support of women,” she says.

Networks in aerospace

Graduate student Alexa Aguilar helps tiny satellites communicate and builds connections in her academic community.

June 22, 2018

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope orbits the Sun in concert with the Earth, slowly drifting away from Earth.

Nearly 80 exoplanet candidates identified in record time

Search considered successful “dress rehearsal” for exoplanet hunter TESS.

June 20, 2018

Clouds of pollution float into the sky from two smoke stacks

Checking China’s pollution, by satellite

Study finds reduction in sulfur emissions from power plants.

June 18, 2018

This test image from one of the four cameras aboard the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) captures a swath of the southern sky along the plane of our galaxy. More than 200,000 stars are visible. The image, which is centered in the constellation Centaurus, includes dark tendrils from the Coal Sack Nebula and the bright emission nebula Ced 122 (upper right).The bright star at bottom cente...

TESS takes initial test image

Exoplanet-seeking satellite developed by MIT swings by moon toward final orbit.

May 18, 2018

An artist concept depicts TESS in front of a lava planet orbiting its host star.

Ushering in the next phase of exoplanet discovery

Professor Sara Seager previews a new era of discovery as a leader of the TESS mission, which is expected to find some 20,000 extrasolar planets.

May 3, 2018

A set of flight camera electronics on one of the TESS cameras, developed by the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI), will transmit exoplanet data from the camera to a computer aboard the spacecraft that will process it before transmitting it back to scientists on Earth.

TESS readies for takeoff

Satellite developed by MIT aims to discover thousands of nearby exoplanets, including at least 50 Earth-sized ones.

April 12, 2018

Aviation Week Network “20 Twenties” award recipient Alexa Aguilar is a grad student working in AeroAstro’s Space Telecommunications, Astronomy, and Radiation Laboratory (STAR Lab) on the Cubesat Lasercommunication Infrared CrosslinK mission. She assisted with an engineering model assembly that identified problem areas in the initial design.

Two from AeroAstro named to Aviation Week's “20 Twenties” for 2018

Grad students Alexa Aguilar and Arthur J. Brown receive honor that recognizes outstanding student academic performance, civic contributions, and research.

January 17, 2018

An engineer installs SensorSat, developed at Lincoln Laboratory, in the thermal-vacuum chamber used for testing the satellite's tolerance of conditions in space.

Monitoring activity in the geosynchronous belt

New ORS-5 SensorSat satellite developed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory is fulfilling a critical need for situational awareness in space.

November 29, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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