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At ASSIST Lab, we perform state-of-the-art research at the intersection of Astrodynamics,
Space Weather and Machine Learning. We are working on developing novel
technologies and solutions including methods, tools, and software for
real-world problems in:
- Astrodynamics, Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management
- Space Weather - Probabilistic Modeling and Forecasting with Uncertainty Quantification
- Physics-informed Machine Learning
- Space Exploration
- Atmospheric re-entry
- Dynamic Reduced Order Modeling for Large-Scale, High-Dimensional Systems
- Model-Data Fusion and Nonlinear State Estimation
- Data-Driven Modeling
For more information on research projects, publications, open-source and free software, the team, and sponsors of our research, please feel free to navigate the different pages.
News
Piyush Mehta earned a competitive National Science Foundation grant to apply
artificial intelligence and machine-learning to better predict space weather.
He and his colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico
will work to develo
p a computationally efficient model that can expand the role of simulation
models in scientific discovery and operations.
ASSIST Laboratory's Richard J. Licata received one of two AMS student travel grants
and presented his
poster at the 17
th Conference on Space Weather - 100
th AMS Annual Meeting:
A WVU team led by Dr. Yu Gu and Dr. Piyush Mehta will be working on the following
project to test exciting new technology:
Inspired by spiders’ ballooning capabilities, the proposed concept envision the deployment
of thousands of micro probes to study planetary atmospheres. Each micro probe,
with a total mass of about 50 mg, will have a small payload pod hanging under a
200 m long string loop, which provides both atmospheric drag and electrostatic
lifts. Two electric booms each about 2.5 m long will sense the Atmospheric Potential
Gradient (APG) and harvest a small amount of electricity for powering the probe.
The payload pod will contain energy storage and conversion devices, an actuator
for replenishing and regulating the static electric charge on the string loop,
and integrated microprocessor, radio, and sensors. The motions of the micro probes
will be uncontrolled along the horizontal directions but can be regulated to a
limited degree along the vertical direction. The onboard control system will allow
extending the mission time and increasing the probability of keeping the probe
in the desired atmospheric layer. If successful, the proposed micro probes can
support several future planetary missions by gaining large spatial-scale atmospheric
sensing capabilities. [Written by Dr. Yu Gu]