Lost Science is an ongoing series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. The conversations have been edited for clarity and length. Here’s why we’re doing this.
Interview by Katrina Miller
Mason Peck: I teach aerospace engineering and conduct research at Cornell University. We have a pretty large team, sometimes nearly 100 people and sometimes just a few, depending on the project.
In my lab, we start with a theory and mature that through testing, analysis and modeling, to the point where we can try it in space. Over the years, we have designed, built and launched spacecraft to figure out if our theories are right.
For example, we launched a pair of spacecraft to demonstrate how one spacecraft can dock with another using only electromagnetism — something that had never really been tried. It didn’t work out perfectly, but we learned a lot in the process. This is what happens in high-risk research: You shoot for the moon; sometimes you get there, sometimes you don’t.
Another thing we’ve innovated are spacecraft on a chip. These are cracker-size spacecraft, just a couple of grams. It requires a lot of subtlety in design. We launched these to demonstrate that you can make something small that survives for many years in space.
Recently, those little spacecraft have formed the basis of our Alpha mission, a spacecraft about the size of a grapefruit that spits out a large sail. It flies around in space, blown around by solar wind or laser light or even the drag of the upper atmosphere, demonstrating some cool ideas about what makes next-generation spacecraft possible.
With the New York Consortium for Space Technology, we’ve leveled up with regard to what we can do and hope to do for space. We’re building a spacecraft simulation environment and a number of labs that allow businesses, universities and government agencies to try out new technologies for the future of space transportation.
On April 10, I received a stop-work order, without clear reason, about eight minutes before the end of my workday.
As a result, people are leaving. Work is going unfinished. Contracts are being canceled. Some students have volunteered to help make progress on the research despite the stop-work order. That’s great, but there’s only so much they can accomplish without funds.
If we are fortunate enough to restart, we will have lost a lot of time and money. It’s like putting on a tourniquet and stanching the blood flow. Too much time of that kind of reduction in resources means you lose the limb.
Mason Peck is a professor of astronautical engineering at Cornell University and the director of the New York Consortium for Space Technology.
Katrina Miller is a science reporter for The Times based in Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago.
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