Right now, about 70 million miles away, a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech streaks through the cosmos. It’s a briefcase-sized spacecraft called Lunar Flashlight that was assembled in a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) cleanroom in 2021, then launched aboard a SpaceX rocket in 2022. 

The plan was to send Lunar Flashlight to the moon, where the spacecraft would shoot lasers at its south pole in a search for frozen water. Mission control for the flight was on Georgia Tech’s campus, where students in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE) sat in the figurative driver’s seat. They worked for several months in 2023 to coax the craft toward its intended orbit in coordination with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). 

A faulty propulsion system kept the CubeSat from reaching its goal. Disappointing, to be sure, but it opened a new series of opportunities for the student controllers. When it was clear Lunar Flashlight wouldn’t reach the moon and instead settle into an orbit of the sun, JPL turned over ownership to Georgia Tech. It’s now the only higher education institution that has controlled an interplanetary spacecraft. 

Lunar Flashlight’s initial orbit, planned destination, and current whereabouts mirrors much of the College of Engineering’s research in space technology. Some faculty are focused on projects in low earth orbit (LEO). Others have an eye on the moon. A third group is looking well beyond our small area of the solar system. 

No matter the distance, though, each of these Georgia Tech engineers is working toward a new era of exploration and scientific discovery.

Meet them in the latest issue of Helluva Engineer magazine.