New Propulsion Method for Low-Cost Microsatellites February 16,
2012 Doctoral Candidate Kyle Godin Receives Abe M. Zarem Award
for Research Paper Thanks to the development of microsatellites,
universities and independents can now launch research craft for
tens of thousands of dollars, rather than the multi-million
dollar price tags of traditional launches. This new class of
satellite is democratizing outer space exploration and offering
NASA new opportunities to study little-known regions of the
Earth’s atmosphere. Kyle Godin, an Interdisciplinary Engineering
PhD student at Stevens Institute of Technology, recently
demonstrated a new method for propelling some of these
miniaturized satellites. The American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics presented Kyle with its annual Abe M. Zarem
Award for Distinguished Achievement in Aeronautics for his
inventive research on satellite propulsion. Weighing in at less
than 1 kilogram, picosatellites offer incredible promise to
budget-conscious space explorers, not t