satellite

Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’

Colleen Rich — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 16:12:46 +0000

Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’ Colleen Rich Tue, 08/08/2023 - 12:12

A team of ��AV scientists has received a federal grant of more than $13 million to work with the Department of the Navy to study and better understand increased solar activity that could potentially cause an “internet apocalypse” disrupting all electronic communications on Earth, including satellite communications.

Peter Becker
Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Research from the grant, which will total $13.6 million in expenditures over five years, will be done in collaboration with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and will include state-of-the-art data mining, analysis, and scientific modeling, among other endeavors, led by Mason faculty, students and staff. Under the terms of the contract, Mason provides scientific support for a broad range of astronomy-related activities that are of interest to the U.S. Navy and the nation at large.

“The main focus is on solar activity and the way it can impact systems on Earth,” said principal investigator Peter A. Becker, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy within the College of Science. “This is especially important to the Navy—and more broadly the Department of Defense—because high-energy outbursts from the sun can have a strong negative impact on earthly radio and internet communications. And they can also have a detrimental effect on navigation systems and energy grids on Earth.”

The focus on violent solar activity is the most significant research activity for U.S. citizens as eruptions from the sun’s surface can have devastating consequences 93 million miles away on Earth. This violent activity includes bursts of radiation, high-speed electrons, protons and other highly energetic particles that are launched into space and can disrupt technologies such as the internet that we have come to depend on. Much of this activity can reach Earth in less than a day.

Violent solar storms are expected to become more frequent and more severe over the next 10 years, and they possess the potential to severely interfere with radio transmitters, navigation and GPS, satellite operations and communications, and the electric power grid. Being able to more effectively warn of their occurrences will help better protect the public and our infrastructure.

“The internet was simply not designed to handle this level of communication interference, and, consequently, is considered a very ‘soft’ type of infrastructure,” Becker said. “Hence, the period from 2024 to 2028 is a time when the entire internet could conceivably be knocked out for a period of weeks to months in the event of a really extreme solar flare.”

Such a scenario could create “an unprecedented disaster for modern society, potentially triggering a worldwide recession,” Becker warned, because of the world’s heavy dependence on the internet for information, communications and global commerce.

Becker and his team, which also includes several Mason undergraduate students, will also study black holes and neutron stars. These studies will help scientists understand similar processes occurring in the solar atmosphere and how they can affect life on Earth.

Most of the Mason team’s work will be performed at the NRL in Washington, D.C., although space has also been allocated at ��AV’s Fairfax Campus to accommodate visiting NRL scientists working on joint space science research projects.

Others researchers working on Becker’s team include associate research professors Tyrel Johnson and Iulia Deneva; senior research administrator Jessica Hanna; research scientists Jacob Smith, Carlos Braga, Natsuha Kuroda, Eliana Nossa Gonzalez and Craig Johnston; senior research scientists Megan DeCesar and Keiji Hayashi, postdoctoral research fellows Sherry Chhabra, Micah Weberg, and Shaheda Shaik.

“Mason scientists are working to explore and understand the nature and level of these dangerous threats to our infrastructure posed by strong solar activity,” Becker said, “and how to predict extreme events and mitigate the damage.”

Listen now

Listen to Becker discuss the research with President Washington on an episode of the Access to Excellence podcast.

Delve into physics and astronomy at Mason

George Mason Readies Reclaimed Satellite Dish

Tama Moni — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:37:25 +0000

George Mason Readies Reclaimed Satellite Dish Tama Moni Thu, 10/27/2022 - 12:37

In This Story

Peter Pachowicz

For ��AV's Peter Pachowicz, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, things are looking up—up to space, specifically. Pachowicz is eager to finally make what will be the largest satellite dish in the Washington, D.C., area, which was nearly discarded a few years ago, available to undergraduate students.

Satellite dish at ��AV

As previously reported in 2020, the university was planning to toss the 27-year-old, 30-foot satellite dish on its Fairfax Campus. Said Pachowicz at the time, “If we didn’t take it, it was headed to the scrap yard,” adding that a new dish the same size would cost more than $1 million.

CACI, a longtime corporate partner of the Volgenau School of Engineering, stepped in to help, providing funds to make the dish, which was donated and financially supported by a subsidiary of the ��AV Instructional Foundation, available to students. CACI provides expertise and technology—including satellite engineering and space operations—in support of national security.

CACI Chief Technology Officer Glenn Kurowski said, “The dish is a compelling asset that we helped salvage for a new mission. Our industry needs innovative young talent in satellite communications, digital signal processing, and RF. There’s no better way to learn this than by combining academic instruction with experiential learning on real-world equipment.”

The first big project for the dish, dubbed Space Communications Ground Station, or SpaceCom, is for a senior design team to work on the dish guidance system, including dish motion control and feedback from position sensors.

The dish will be available to engineering students, as well as those in other Mason schools and colleges, allowing for multidisciplinary, hands-on experience. Pachowicz notes that when he tells students about the opportunity to do projects with SpaceCom, “[they] jump at the chance and ask when they can work on it.”

Topics

satellite

space operations

digital signal processing

Masonat50

Aerospace

Electrical and Computer Engineering seniors excel in space and satellite student competition

Tama Moni — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 13:28:09 +0000

Electrical and Computer Engineering seniors excel in space and satellite student competition Tama Moni Wed, 06/08/2022 - 09:28

In This Story

Peter Pachowicz

A team of seniors from the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department combined their knowledge and skills to win the Space and Satellites Professionals International (SSPI) student prize competition.

Kelsey Schneider, the team’s leader, says they designed a satellite radar system to extract and transmit data from one antenna to another. Schneider says the satellite radar systems at space stations contain large and expensive antennas for this purpose. She says space stations use the Synthetic Aperture Radar System – SARS – to monitor a planet’s environment.

“The goal was to build a low-cost, low-size, weight and power synthetic aperture system,” Schneider said. “Our antennae was only about four inches in diameter.”

She said the satellite radar system transmits electrical waves and transmits data when the radar detects an object. Then the electrical waves bounce off the object and get sent back to the radar system. The radar then transmits the data through the antennas. They used a computer algorithm to convert the received data into an image.

Schneider said the hardest part of the competition was finding a balance between the technical and non-technical language used to explain the project to an easy-to-understand presentation. “You can’t be so nontechnical that it just doesn’t make sense,” Schneider said. “You don’t want it to sound silly.”

The competition featured a variety of competitors, ranging from graduate students to PhD students both competing as teams and individuals.

“We just felt really grateful. There were a lot of other really good projects and presentations we got to see. So, we were just really honored that they chose us out of the other teams.”

The competition was hosted by SSPI, who had reached out to Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Peter Pachowicz and Jay Deorukhkar, a PhD student and teaching assistant in the ECE department.

Deorukhkar was assigned to the team’s senior design class. While looking for projects to nominate, he reached out to Qiliang Li, a professor in the ECE department, who is the faculty advisor for the senior design projects.

As for how he feels about this team’s win in the SSPI competition: “Since we did not compete last year, it was great to see them participate and win this year."

The team also won the ECE award for their senior design project. The competition took place on May 12, 2022.

Topics

Space

satellite

Radar

Electrical and Computer Engineering

satellite

Mason scientists to work with the U.S. Navy to avert ‘internet apocalypse’

Delve into physics and astronomy at Mason

Related News

More from Mason Spirit

George Mason Readies Reclaimed Satellite Dish

In This Story

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering seniors excel in space and satellite student competition

In This Story

Topics