NDSU software engineering doctoral student Andrew Jones was among an auspicious group that gathered in Washington D.C. for the 70th annual International Astronautical Congress Oct. 21-25. Jones attended the congress to present a paper titled “Characterizing the impact of rotational velocity on a laser-based debris removal system.”
The congress is hosted by countries around the world. It was last in the United States in 2002, when it was held in Houston, Texas. It came back to the USA in 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of humans first walking on the moon.
“It was a great networking opportunity and a great opportunity to learn about the state of the art in aerospace technology,” said Jones. “It was also exciting to visit the exhibit hall and see what companies and organizations were displaying.”
Jones also attended the congress in 2017, when it was in Adelaide, Australia.
“Conferences like the International Astronautical Congress are excellent opportunities for students to share their work and meet and learn from others about advances in their field,” said Jeremy Straub, computer science assistant professor of computer science, who is Jones’s dissertation adviser. “This conference has such a broad level of international participation that student attendees can meet potential employers and collaborators from all over the world – both from national space agencies and from the private sector.”
The work Jones presented was a collaboration between students in several disciplines in the College of Engineering, including computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering. It is designed to help remove space debris by using a laser to vaporize parts of the debris. This turns it into propellant to send the debris safely back into the atmosphere where it can burn up and no longer pose a danger to orbiting spacecraft.
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