Student interest and industry demand propel Michigan Tech into a new era of aerospace engineering.
Launching a new undergraduate aerospace engineering degree at Michigan Tech—and changing the name of the University's largest academic department—is about more than just putting a new name on students' diplomas and the department's door. It's about matching the desire of incoming students who want to earn specialized aerospace degrees, and the demand of a burgeoning industry in search of engineers for the next level of discovery and exploration in space.
Given Tech's already robust aerospace research programs and optimistic projections of aerospace engineers needed in the future, the new degree and the departmental name change are happening at just the right time. Jeffrey S. Allen, John F. and Joan M. Calder Endowed Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering's associate chair and director of undergraduate studies, sees the addition of an aerospace undergraduate degree as a natural extension for Michigan Tech. Additionally, it's a change being made in sync with the evolution of the aerospace industry, which has moved away from being funded exclusively by government and now has a plethora of sponsors from private industry. There are currently hundreds of companies working on space systems, with thousands of manufacturers building components for them.
360° view of the Aerospace Enterprise Design Lab
"There's huge demand and huge excitement, and we're preparing for a pretty substantial enrollment increase," says Allen. "Our reputation has put us in a good position for adding this degree."
This world—and the solar system beyond—needs more aerospace engineers, and Michigan Tech is ready to provide them.
Space Research Already Surging
Engineers at Michigan Tech have been considering the multiple facets of the space engineering challenge for a long while. Establishing a permanent human presence on the moon or another planet involves devising ways to traverse unfamiliar ground surfaces and generating the required power to get into space—and stay there.
Living and building in space is going to require different kinds of materials, too—materials developed to withstand environments more extreme than what we're used to on Earth. Gregory M. Odegard, the department's John O. Hallquist Chair of Computational Mechanics, is working on making what he describes as "a new generation of composite materials that are light enough that they could be used to send a person to Mars." His lab is also creating composite materials for hypersonic applications, which are used at very high temperatures and can withstand hypersonic speeds, which spacecraft experience when reentering Earth's atmosphere. For his work, Odegard received the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal in 2023.
Before coming to Michigan Tech, Odegard, like several MTU faculty members, worked at NASA. He joined the faculty here because he wanted to teach while also continuing to research topics similar to what he worked on for the space agency. NASA funded him when he made the transition, and still does today.
"Labs and Enterprise groups are mixed and mashed together, including students from every major and discipline, even the non-STEM ones. We've come together and built satellites, rockets, aircraft, and rovers. It's great training for the future."
"I think it works because here at MTU, we have really good students at both the undergraduate and graduate level," Odegard says. "At the end of the day, we have some of the same research goals. We want to achieve great things in space technology research, so we work together to do it."
The students on Odegard's team have had many tremendous opportunities in recent years. In addition to collaborating with many other professors and graduate students across the country for the NASA project, they have taken advantage of summer internships at various NASA research centers as well as the Air Force Research Lab. These internships broaden their network and provide real-world motivation for their research at Michigan Tech.
While Odegard works with composite materials, Allen conducts research on two-phase flow in capillary systems, where liquid and gas are in the same system. The implications of this kind of work are wide and far-reaching, including understanding the behavior of water in the internal passages of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. PEMs are low-temperature fuel cells that could help power the next phase of space exploration—that is, if the mysteries of how gas-liquid flows in the environment can be unlocked. That's what Allen is trying to do—when he's not launching a new undergraduate major or working with undergraduates in his lab.
Another side of the challenge of engineering for space readiness involves testing technology in environments that simulate those found in space. Michigan Tech students and faculty do this in large part through the Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab (PSTDL), a cutting-edge facility focused on developing technology for excavation, construction, and other basic infrastructure for building in space. Facilities at the lab include the Lunar Simulant Sandbox, which is used to test mobility systems in a simulated moon environment; the Dusty Thermal Vacuum Chamber, which mimics extreme surfaces like those of the moon and Mars; and the Mini Thermal Vacuum Chamber, which replicates the atmospheric pressure and temperature of Mars.
Some of these technologies aren't just unique to Michigan, says Paul van Susante, assistant professor, Lou and Herbert Wacker Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and the PSTDL's director. They are unique to the country and, in some cases, the world. Scientists and engineers frequently travel to Houghton to use the lab's test chambers, which Michigan Tech faculty and students use on a daily basis to test the lunar rovers and power management systems they design and build at Tech. The ultimate goal of the PSTDL, says van Susante, is for hardware first designed at Tech to be used on the lunar surface. "It's a long process, of course," he says, "but we've made good strides with several of our technologies that may have a chance of flying in the next couple of years."
A Hands-on Student Space Experience
Though some of Michigan Tech's aerospace research happens in a vacuum chamber, that doesn't mean it happens in a bubble. Students can be part of the research process from the second semester of their first year, working in MTU labs while building their engineering knowledge in and out of the classroom. They have also competed in—and won—a number of prestigious aerospace engineering competitions and challenges.
In 2023, a team of students from the PSTDL was selected as one of four finalists in NASA's Watts on the Moon Challenge, which asked competitors to create ways to transmit and store energy on the lunar surface. They advanced on the strengths of their TEthered Mechanism for Persistent Energy Storage and Transmission (TEMPEST), which uses a power management system and battery storage hub to connect power infrastructure elements using updated rover designs. The technology was built on the Artemis Award-winning design the lab created for the 2020 NASA BIG Idea Challenge for lunar power management. All four Watts on the Moon finalist teams received $400,000 and a chance to compete for a share of the competition's grand prizes: $1 million for the winner and $500,000 for the runner-up.
Another PSTDL team was a national finalist in NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, which tasked teams to create robots that can excavate and transport the icy regolith located at the moon's south pole—the targeted landing site for upcoming moon landings as part of NASA's Artemis missions. In the final round of the competition, which took place in June, the PSTDL placed third, earning access to the Marshall Space Flight Center's thermal vacuum chambers to continue testing and developing their technology.
Many students who work in the PSTDL and other labs also participate in the Michigan Tech Enterprise Program, an integrated curriculum that lets students earn credits toward their degree by working on student-driven, multidisciplinary teams structured like companies. As Enterprise team members, students work on complex, real-world, client-sponsored engineering projects. Instead of doing a Senior Design capstone project as the final piece of their degree, they can join an Enterprise team as early as their second year of study. The program currently has 26 different teams working on a range of projects, including two directly related to space exploration: the Aerospace Enterprise and the Multiplanetary INnovation Enterprise, also known as MINE.
In MINE, students design, test, and use robotics to extract and use resources found locally on other planets or interstellar bodies, and to build in extreme environments. They have participated in NASA's Lunabotics competition, building and testing robotic vehicles directly related to state-of-the-art research for eventual end users, including the government and commercial enterprises. Lunabotics requires the use of systems engineering throughout the design process, and it also involves a STEM-focused public outreach program for K-12 students.
Students in the Aerospace Enterprise similarly get hands-on space systems engineering project experience through the design, testing, and integration of spacecraft. The satellites they build are more than just student science projects; they are real satellites, with real missions, that are directly relevant to current government and private industry needs. The Aerospace Enterprise has more than 100 student members, over 900 alumni, and two nanosatellites that have made it into space. The first, Oculus-ASR, was launched in 2019. The second, Stratus, was deployed to the International Space Station in 2021 on a cloud imaging mission. More are expected to fly into orbit in the coming years. Auris is tentatively scheduled to launch in 2024.
Working on projects like these, and competing in national and international challenges, is an important thing to do—not just for the sake of space exploration, but for the development of space engineers, says van Susante.
"The goal of NASA and of companies is to start a space economy," he says. "They need people educated in these areas and getting hands-on experience so they can make this happen."
Because undergraduate students are so involved in research at the start of their academic careers at Tech, they'll be ready for that career challenge, he says. He wishes he'd had the opportunity to work on these kinds of projects when he was a student, for reasons that go beyond just gaining aerospace engineering experience for a resume.
"It's just cool!" says van Susante—an experienced researcher and academic recognized by his peers for his contributions to the industry. And, he stresses, the skills students are learning as part of these aerospace projects are valued across multiple industries, not just aerospace. Even if students decide not to go work for NASA or a private aerospace company, their skills will transfer to other fields after they graduate. "There is high demand and job openings that are projected to grow in the next decade in a number of related fields, so there's a lot of demand for students with skills like our students have," he explains.
While at Michigan Tech, students can also join the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or AIAA. Tech's student chapter started on campus in 2022 with a goal to "help students increase their exposure to the aerospace industry," says Marcello Guadagno '19 '22, president of AIAA and PhD candidate at MTU. It has quickly grown to become one of the largest student chapters in the country.
The group hosts guest speakers, including alumni and others who work for the US Department of Defense and NASA. The group also helps students prepare for and travel to conferences. Guadagno says they have about 180 members on their mailing list, with 30 to 50 members coming to each guest speaker session.
He sees Michigan Tech as the right spot for this kind of education, research, and exploration. "I could totally see the aerospace degree becoming one of the most popular majors at the University, especially as we prepare our return to the moon as part of the Artemis missions," he says. Begun in 2022, NASA's Artemis program includes a campaign of missions to explore the moon for scientific discovery and technical advancement, and to prepare for a human mission to Mars.
"This place tends to emphasize a more collaborative attitude," adds Guadagno.
Michigan Tech is also reaching and encouraging potential aerospace engineers before they get to college with an aerospace engineering course offered through the University's Summer Youth Programs. The summer exploration brings high school students from around the region, and the weeklong curriculum covers airplanes, aircraft, and rockets, says Kazuya Tajiri, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and director of the Multiscale Transport Process Laboratory. His research focuses on the multiphase, multiscale transport phenomena in energy conversion devices and propulsion systems.
This past summer, the program had 22 students who did hands-on projects, like building paper airplanes and analyzing why they did or did not fly well using a wind research tunnel.
"We want to introduce more motivated high school students to aerospace technology and the basic parts of aerospace engineering," Tajiri says.
Alumni and Faculty Take Flight in Aerospace Careers
Whether Huskies start their aerospace career trajectory in high school, as an undergrad, or at the graduate level, they will be ready for whatever the future holds. Michigan Tech alumni and faculty are already leading the way.
In 2017, L. Brad King, Richard and Elizabeth Henes Endowed Professor of Space Systems, co-founded the plasma thruster manufacturing company Orbion Space Technology with Jason D. Sommerville, who earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from Tech in 2009. They are now CEO and CTO, respectively. The company's Hall-effect plasma thruster, Aurora, powers small satellites on their journeys in space.
King likens Orbion's thrusters to car engines. "Every single car needs an engine. We've got the best engine on the market, and we're selling our engine to every car manufacturer," he says. "The market is going to keep improving and the engines we build will keep increasing performance and keep propelling forward."
King and Sommerville created Orbion because, in 2016, they saw that the manufacturing of small satellites, which range in size between shoe box and dishwasher, was a burgeoning field. Aurora entered the market at just the right time, and is now being used to power small satellites that do things like track climate change and evaluate the speed of development of different projects—by providing images of any point of the globe at any time, monitoring environmental impacts of different events, and even catching illegal fishing boats "where they're not supposed to be," King says.
Orbion has been an ideal means for taking research conducted at Michigan Tech and putting it to practical use, and has also served as a major part of the student-to-professional pipeline at Tech. King estimates that about three dozen of Orbion's employees are Michigan Tech students or alumni. "Some were fresh graduates who never left home, and others were boomerangs looking for a way to get back," he says. This past summer, Orbion hired 15 interns, and most were MTU students.
Michigan Tech grads are also launching aerospace careers with government agencies. Colonel Galen K. Ojala earned his mechanical engineering degree in 1998. While at Tech, he also served in the US Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC). He didn't expect his entire career to be in the military, but that's exactly what happened—and it led him to be part of the formation of a new branch of the military.
Ojala is the director of operations for all US Space Force operations within Europe and Asia, a new Space Force field command. "Not only are we working with the Navy, the Marines, the Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force, but also our NATO partners and allies and other nations in these two regions," he says. The work of the Space Force isn't necessarily about putting boots on the moon. Right now, they are focused on protecting satellite operations, says Ojala. It's a critical mission, as there are now more than 9,900 satellites orbiting Earth—a huge leap forward from 2008, when there were less than a thousand.
That means stopping things like jamming GPS, which is used for everything from Google Maps, to air traffic control, to what mariners use for autopilot systems. When foreign adversaries mess around with that, "it impacts daily lives and economics," Ojala says. As part of his job, he's also working with countries on space situational awareness, which he describes as "an informal traffic management in space."
The United States is preparing for space exploration, too, as transport ships like SpaceX's Starship are moving closer to reality. These types of spacecraft can make multiple trips to and from space, instead of burning up after one flight. "You could basically build the international space station in a week off just one rocket," Ojala says. "That is going to transform how we as humans view space, and we have to consider how we deal with all the human foibles that are part of reality and will be in space."
Of course, Michigan Tech also has many alumni working for NASA. There's a well-established link between the University and the space agency. Benjamin Jensen '09 '14 is a research engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center. He works in lightweight materials and "taking new and emerging materials and trying to progress them up the technical readiness scale to the point where they can become enabling technologies for aircraft and spacecraft," he says.
When he first considered coming to Michigan Tech for his undergraduate studies, he asked if the school had an aerospace degree. Even though it wasn't a formal option at the time, he came anyway. He's glad there is going to be that option now for Tech students—and for the greater good.
"Aircraft and spacecraft technology are vital national interests," he says. He added that he likes that NASA is a civilian space agency, which means a lot of the technologies developed by NASA for space are useful on Earth as well. For example, he says, solar panels have become ubiquitous on the ground around the US in part because NASA invested a lot of research into that technology.
The Next Generation of Space Engineers
While the aerospace engineering undergrad degree program is pending final approval by the state and Higher Learning Commission to officially start in fall 2025, first-year students enrolling at Michigan Tech will be able to change their major to aerospace engineering in 2024, Allen says. Mechanical engineering students will also be able to add on classes to complete a double major. The first students to graduate with the degree could walk across the commencement stage as early as spring 2027. Allen estimates that the aerospace engineering program should attract somewhere between 400 and 600 additional students to the University.
The planned addition of the undergraduate aerospace engineering degree will complement and build on the foundation of aerospace research already happening at Michigan Tech.
"This is a unique engineering university in a gem of a community, with high-tech companies based here building some of the most innovative aerospace technologies available on the market," King says. "And this is just the beginning. With the expansion of the department and the new curriculum, you're going to see all of those efforts multiplied and taken to the next level."
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to nearly 7,500 students from more than 60 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
