Spacecraft Fly Light, Thanks to NanoCenter Member

Jeremy Munday, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the
Maryland NanoCenter, was one of just 10 researchers to be awarded the new NASA Space Technology
Research Opportunity for Early Career Faculty.

Munday’s work aims to produce a new lightweight structure concept for solar sails, which will include a
way to guide the spacecraft without mechanical motion. Instead, the solar sail material will redirect the
reflection of the light, changing the spacecraft’s direction. Read More >>

Also, his research will include a technique to test the new solar sail material by measuring photon
radiation pressure using the NanoCenter’s atomic force microscope.

NASA's Early Career Faculty efforts are a new element of the agency's Space Technology Research
Grants Program. It is designed to accelerate the development of technologies originating from academia
that support the future science and exploration needs of NASA, other government agencies and the
commercial space sector.

"It's an honor to announce this outstanding group of early career faculty researchers, representing some
of the most talented new faculty from the best institutions of higher learning in America," said Michael
Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in the
October 2012 announcement.

Published December 6, 2012