MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics

Three MIT teams took five top awards in the 2026 NASA RASC-AL Competition, including first and second place overall! Congratulations to the 30+ students from eight MIT departments and Wellesley College on their exceptional achievements designing critical elements for the Moon Base and future missions to Mars.

ECLIPSE: The Exploration-Class Lunar Integrated Power SystEm team won first place overall and first in its theme category, lunar surface power.

MELIORA: The communications and navigation constellation team won second place overall and first in its theme category on Mars communications, position navigation and timing, which included a strategy for proving the design at the Moon.

CHEESEBURGER: A campaign to mine and process lunar regolith into oxygen, metals and bricks, won first in its theme category, lunar technology demonstrations.

Read the full story: https://ow.ly/Q12g50Z9ye9

Departments:
AeroAstro, System Design and Management, Nuclear Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Technology and Policy Program, the Sloan School of Management and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences

Advisors:
Olivier de Weck, Kerri Cahoy, Jeffrey Hoffman, George Lordos, Koroush Shirvan

Interdisciplinary MIT teams design power, communications, and early lunar industries to win top honors in NASA innovation competition - MIT AeroAstro Three MIT teams took five top awards in the 2026 NASA RASC-AL Competition for designing critical elements for the Moon Base and future missions to Mars. Three teams comprising 35 […]

A new system that combines chemical and electrical propulsion could enable the design of nimbler, more flexible small satellites that can maneuver and explore across our solar system.

“We could send CubeSats to Mars, or the asteroid belt, where they could make the journey slowly, using electrospray thrusters,” says Prof. Paulo Lozano. “You could then use your chemical thrusters to quickly move to look at interesting features.”

The team is working with NASA to launch the Green Propulsion Dual Mode mission to test this new propulsion system. If it is successful, lead author Amelia Bruno says the mission could pave the way for small satellites to explore beyond Earth’s orbit.

Learn more via MIT News:

New propulsion system could make tiny satellites both fast and fuel-efficient A new propulsion system combines the power and speed of conventional chemical thrusters with the precision and fuel-efficiency of electrical thrusters. The system could enable small satellites capable of both fast, powerful maneuvers and slower, precise adjustments.

In disaster zones, every second counts. Researchers from the Aerospace Controls Lab (ACL), LIDS, and the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new open-source trajectory-planning system, dubbed “MIGHTY,” that could help unpiloted aerial vehicles navigate disaster recovery and parcel delivery.

“MIGHTY achieves comparable or better performance using only open-source tools, which means any researcher, student, or company — anywhere in the world — can use it freely. By removing this cost barrier, MIGHTY helps democratize high-performance trajectory planning and opens the door for a much broader community to build on this work,” says Kota Kondo, a graduate student in the ACL and lead author of the research.

Read more on MIT News:

New research enables a robot to chart a better course The new “MIGHTY” system rapidly generates travel routes for autonomous robots navigating in uncertain situations, allowing them to react to obstacles in milliseconds while staying on a smooth flight path that minimizes travel time.

Reframe Systems, co-founded by Vikas Enti SM ’20, is developing microfactories for modular home construction aimed at reducing both cost and carbon emissions in housing. The team credits its strategic direction in part to technology roadmapping, a systems-level planning framework developed by Prof. Olivier de Weck, which helped shape how they think about scaling the business.

Read more on MIT News:

Tackling the housing shortage with robotic microfactories Reframe Systems, co-founded by MIT alumnus Vikas Enti, creates microfactories that use robotics for modular home construction. Homes can be constructed closer to where they're needed, reducing carbon emissions and costs.

“I want to bring an expert level in science in the rooms where policy decisions are made.”
STAR Lab PhD student Carissma McGee SM ‘25 is helping ensure that critical decisions in space policy are informed by deep technical expertise from the start.

Read more about how she is bridging space research and policy:

Bridging space research and policy MIT PhD student Carissma McGee studies exoplanets and examines intellectual property frameworks for space collaborations.

Before he was modeling the future of space traffic, Prof. Richard Linares was drawn to the challenge of understanding our place in the universe. That curiosity has shaped a career at the intersection of aerospace engineering, data, and autonomy, where he now helps satellites find their place and trajectory in increasingly crowded orbits.

“We want to enable all these economic opportunities that satellites give us. And we are figuring out engineering solutions to make that possible.”

Read about his journey and his work directing ARCLab on MIT News:

Managing traffic in space MIT Associate Professor Richard Linares applies astrodynamics to help track and manage space debris — the millions of objects in orbit around Earth.

Three – that’s right, three – MIT student teams from the Space Resources Workshop have been named finalists in the 2026 NASA RASC-AL Competition! This is the first time that three MIT teams have been selected as RASC-AL finalists in one competition.

This year’s finalist teams were selected for their proposals in three out of four theme categories:

Theme 1: MELIORA: Mars Exploration Layered Infrastructure for Operations, Research, and Advancement proposes a robust, high-data-rate connection between Earth and Mars to support future human missions.

Theme 2: ECLIPSE: Exploration-Class Lunar Integrated Power SystEm proposes a lunar surface power system for future Moon bases.

Theme 4: CHEESEBURGER: CLPS-enabled Highly-autonomous End-to-End isru-System Evaluations to Build Understanding and Resilient Growth by Experimenting with Regolith is not, in fact, about lunar snacking, but a proposal for lunar surface manufacturing technology experiments using lunar regolith.

We’ll be watching their final presentations at the RASC-AL Forum in June. Check out their projects: https://ow.ly/Mrhe50YNwq9

Congratulations to John Thomas, Director of the Engineering Systems Laboratory Safety and Cybersecurity Group, on his 2026 Teaching with Digital Technology Award! Thomas was nominated by his students for his innovative use of Zoom Whiteboard for active learning and discussion.

Read more about the winners:

Seven MIT faculty and instructors awarded by students for their outstanding use of technology to improve learning | Open Learning Seven MIT faculty and instructors have received the 2026 Teaching with Digital Technology Award. Nominated and judged by students who experience learning firsthand, the award honors MIT educators for outstanding use of technology in their teaching.

Brian Robinson ‘26 always knew he wanted to fly. As a double major in aerospace engineering and political science, he’s combining technical skill with a broader understanding of the world he’ll serve.

After graduation, he’ll be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

“You’re a technical expert for the first part of your career [in the Air Force], and as you transition to leadership roles, the combination of the technical and theoretical improves your ability to lead, and be led,” he says.

Read about his path to MIT:

Built to fly MIT senior and master's student Brian Robinson, a double major in aerospace engineering and political science, lives and works at the intersection of aviation, politics, and technology.

“All the ingredients to leave the first layer of the atmosphere were laying on a picnic table.”
In the reimagined 16.00 Introduction to Aerospace Engineering course, student teams designed, built, and flew stratospheric balloon payloads reaching 22 km above Earth, capturing images and video of the planet’s curvature and navigating real-world constraints like weather, thermal control, and flight paths.

The course was co-taught by Professor of the Practice and former NASA astronaut Jeff Hoffman, and Olivier de Weck, Associate Department Head and Apollo Program Professor."

Read more and watch the balloon burst in the stratosphere:

Flying at the edge of the stratosphere MIT AeroAstro’s first-year aerospace design course showcases a hands-on engineering education experience where students build Arduino sensors, GPS balloon payloads, and conduct stratospheric balloon launch experiments in a first-year engineering class.