Aerospace Engineering’s Professor James Cutler Utilized CubeSats for New U-M Astronomy Mission

Aerospace Engineering Professor James Cutler and a team of researchers are set to launch the first space mission led by the University of Michigan Astronomy Department. The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) mission is supported by a $10 million grant from the Astrophysics Research and Analysis program of NASA’s Astrophysics Division and will study planets that are outside of our solar system.

STARI will demonstrate technology required for a technique called interferometry. Interferometry requires multiple satellites, separated by hundreds of yards that will transmit light to each other with pinpoint accuracy while maneuvering in precise coordination to bounce starlight between each other. Additionally, this mission will demonstrate control and stability using two small satellites called CubeSats. 

Professor Cutler will utilize his CubeSats Working Group in the U-M Space Institute for this mission, as well as his Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL), which has already launched nine satellites into space and will help integrate and optimize the STARI satellites. This will then help to prove that larger, more expensive future missions can use this approach to look for signs of life on other planets.

Professor of Astronomy and leader of the project, John Monnier, will be joined by experts from across the country, including Simone D’Amico at Stanford University, E. Glenn Lightsey at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Gautam Vasish at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Leonid Pogorelyuk at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and U-M Professor James Cutler as co-investigator. The STARI mission will require a collaborative effort between partners, utilizing the expertise and experience of the researchers in several major areas including formation-flying, optical interferometry, propulsion and system engineering.

Read more about the STARI mission and how the University of Michigan Department of Aerospace Engineering is playing a role in this article from Michigan News.