News
WVU Magazine: Weathering the Solar Storms
West Virginia University engineer Piyush Mehta is currently engaging in several projects confronting space weather, which deals with the conditions within the Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere. Driven by the sun and solar wind, the impacts of space weather can influence technological systems in space and on ground and endanger human life and health, affecting power delivery, grid security, communications, satellite operations, collision avoidance and even radiation exposure for astronauts and commercial airlines passengers and crews.
WVU Engineers Address NASA Problems through Artificial Intelligence
Ali Baheri and Piyush Mehta, professors in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University, have received a $100,000 grant from NASA EPSCoR Rapid Response Research (R3) program to explore the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques for onboard fault diagnosis of spacecraft.
Future Trillion Dollar ‘Space Economy’ Threatened by Debris, NSF Career Award Recipient Says
The space economy is on track to be valued at a trillion dollars by the end of 2030, according to Piyush Mehta, Wayne and Kathy Richards Faculty Fellow and assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at West Virginia University. Yet space assets – equipment that is placed in space such as navigation, weather and communication satellites that serve our society daily – are threatened by space debris.
A Deep Subject: WVU Engineers Tackle Limitations of Data Transfer During Space Exploration
Engineers at
West Virginia University are helping to solve one of the greatest limitations
of space exploration—sending and receiving information between a spacecraft and
the ground station— thanks to a $750,000 award from NASA’s highly competitive Established
Program to Stimulate Competitive Research program.
Navigating Space Junk: WVU Engineer Selected for NASA Small Business Innovation Research Program
Over the last six decades, spacefaring nations have slowly, but surely, cluttered up the final frontier. A report on space debris by the European Space Agency estimates that there are currently about 34,000 debris objects larger than 10 centimeters, about the size of a softball, currently in orbit.
How's the Weather Up There? WVU Engineer Aims to Enhance Space Weather Forecasting
Usually, the Earth’s magnetic field shields us from the misadventures of our nearest star, the mighty sun. But it failed on Sept. 2, 1859. Known as the Carrington Event, the most powerful solar storm on record burst through the magnetic field and pummeled telegraph wires throughout the United States and Europe, breaking down communication systems and igniting several fires.
Research Team Approved for NASA Grant for Early-Stage Space Technologies
A research team from
West Virginia University has been approved for a grant from a NASA fund designed
to determine the feasibility of early stage technologies that could go on to change
what’s possible in space.
WVU Scientists Take on Pioneering Space Weather Research and Forecasting Project
A cross-disciplinary team of researchers from
West Virginia University are undertaking a pioneering project in space weather
research to improve modeling and forecasting of space weather to safeguard satellites
in orbit and infrastructure on Earth.
Mehta, Tulu Named Richards Faculty Fellows in Engineering
Two assistant professors at West Virginia University have been named J. Wayne and Kathy Richards Faculty Fellows in Engineering.