Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory (STAR)

The Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory, led by Prof. Kerri Cahoy, is part of the Space Systems Laboratory in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.

The AeroAstro faculty, students, and staff affirm a commitment to protect and nurture the mental and physical well-being of each member of our community. A core value of the department is a commitment to diversity, which connotes an awareness and acceptance of the value and strength derived from engaging the richness of multiple cultures including race, disabilities, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and skin color, among other attributes. The full potential and impact of our scholarship, teaching and learning, knowledge creation, innovation, and service can only be realized in an environment where people are supported and valued for their humanity, without prejudice, and where inclusion, collaboration, and sharing are core principles. The STAR Lab specializes in designing state-of-the-art technology for space applications and we recognize that our lab and the aerospace field in general cannot reach its full potential until everyone has equal opportunity and access to contribute.

We achieve new scientific results from sensors on distributed space-based platforms. We innovate and use new commercial components to address technological challenges for future science missions, reducing cost and risk.

(*) Weather sensing: We develop, operate, and analyze data from nanosatellites that host miniaturized weather sensing instruments, such as microwave radiometers and Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation receivers.

(*) Connectivity: A critical gap toward coordinated distributed sensing systems capable of aperture synthesis is the ability to support high-rate crosslink communications with precision timing/ranging between a large number of resource-constrained individual nanosatellite agents.

(*) Exoplanet detection and characterization: Both detection and characterization are needed to find truly Earth-like exoplanets.

(*) Nanosatellite technology: We investigate miniaturization and innovation of key CubeSat components as well as demonstrating new technologies such as MEMS devices and shape memory alloys for CubeSat platforms.