Episode 142: RAPTORS in Space

Today, Kevin and I meet with the TheTERP RAPTOR team at the University of Maryland who are  leading an ambitious mission. What started as a class project has rapidly grown into a multi-institutional collaboration, bringing together researchers from UMD, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks to design and launch a 12U CubeSat for ahigh-speed flyby of the asteroid Apophis.  Their goal? To image Apophis, analyze its surface, and send ground-breaking data back to Earth. Guided by aerospace engineering professor Brent Barbee, the UMD team includes Adrienne, Kruti, Chinthan, Sean, Rahul, Ryan, and Cameron, a diverse group of Masters and PHD students. Their expertise spans orbital determination, machine learning, radio communications, and structures and mechanical modeling, and their prior experience includes work at NASA, Naval ResearchLaboratory, the FDA, ExoAnalytic Solutions, and UMD's Balloon Payload Program.  We are excited to learn more about how their student-led initiative evolved into a full-scalespace mission and we know you will be just as  inspired as we are by this amazing team.