The same technologies and advances that have upended many Earth-based industries are poised to revolutionize satellite communications, space travel, and the study of other planets and stars. The changes have already begun, and the need for engineers trained in the field is growing rapidly, according to ECE Professor Scott Bailey, who was recently named director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Space Science and Engineering Research. 

Virginia Tech, he said, is well positioned to be a leader in educating this workforce.

Technological changes

Machine learning, shrinking instrumentation, new fabrication technologies, imaging technology, and computing and communications advances are informing new approaches that will rapidly change how we do things in space, according to Bailey. Greater demand for internet by satellite and satellite communications add to the challenge.

Smaller instrumentation and the move to smaller satellites, such as CubeSats, are already changing missions, he said. “Any single satellite is much less expensive. We’re launching more of them.” 

Then, there is space junk. “That’s going to increase exponentially because of the number of devices we’re putting in orbit.” During the career lifetime of today’s graduates, a whole new industry will arise to deal with space junk, he predicted. 

A paradigm shift in space science

In addition to technology advances, Bailey described a paradigm shift unfolding in space science. “Where we once measured small changes in the  brightness of a star to determine the presence of orbiting planets, now we will look directly for the atmospheric signal from those planets—the same way we now study Earth,” he said.

The excitement over the New Horizons images is a start, he said. “We may not have pictures that are quite so cool, but our science results will be.” 

Virginia Tech is a part of that shift in space science, he said.

Training students in the field

The Center for Space Science and Engineering Research has an international research reputation and is well positioned to be an educational leader, Bailey said. Space@ VT, as the center is nicknamed, was officially founded in 2007 with Wayne Scales, the J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering, serving as director until this year. Today, the center includes 25 tenure-track and research faculty members from ECE and the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering (AOE). 

Projects in the center are typically driven by scientific inquiry into issues like dusty plasmas, space weather, Earth’s magnetic field, noctilucent clouds, upper atmospheric physics, plus spacecraft dynamics and control, propulsion, GPS, and environmental interactions. In pursuing the science, the center’s students and research teams have built and launched rockets and satellites, plotted trajectories and selected stars for navigation points, traveled to Antarctica establishing magnetometer base stations, and worked on Earth-based space weather radars in the SuperDARN chain.

Curriculum innovation to meet the demand

Practical education driven by scientific inquiry is a valuable model for education, according to Bailey. “Our graduates are in demand,” he said. However, in order to meet the growing need for graduates, “We are innovating our curriculum and in five years want to graduate 50 master’s students annually,” he added.

This is possible by expanding in Blacksburg and in the greater Washington, D.C. region, where many industry partners are located.

Since being named director in February, along with co-director and AOE professor Jonathan Black, Bailey has been meeting with industry partners and government laboratories to understand the skills and background they seek in new hires. “These organizations are all telling us that most graduates from universities need more experience in safety and systems engineering,” he said.

“We can do this. We already have the system in place.” The difference, he said, would be to establish educational programs that ensure that undergraduate and graduate students gain a systems engineering perspective.

A key goal for Space@VT has always been increasing the diversity of people in the field. “As we are growing, we want to increase our efforts in that area. This means we must build on the work that Wayne Scales initiated and reach out to people from underrepresented groups to encourage them to consider a career in space science and engineering.” 

Diversity is crucial in a field where there are complex problems to solve and multiple paths forward.

From a student’s dream to international success

Virginia Tech’s Center for Space Science and Engineering Research began life in 1985 as a graduate student’s dream. When Wayne Scales, the J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering, was a Ph.D. student at Cornell, he wanted to create an interdisciplinary center that educated students by pursuing scientific inquiry—striving for excellence in both science and engineering.

“When I came to teach at Virginia Tech, my friends and professors at Cornell told me I was crazy for going into a vacuum with no supporting faculty members or infrastructure,” he recalled. 

“Today,” he said, “we are one of the very few groups in the country with the potential that we have. I think that’s because we integrate science and engineering, plus perspectives from the intelligence and defense communities. We are very well positioned.”

When Scales first joined the ECE faculty in 1992, he was the only space science faculty member in the College of Engineering. By 2000, two AOE faculty members were conducting research in the field. “Within a few years, we conceived of what became Space@ VT.” Scales served as the center’s director until this year.

 “We’ve been very fortunate to bring in very talented faculty members who have contributed,” Scales said. While proud of his role in creating the center, “I’m most proud of the impact we’ve had on students,” he said. “We have 60 to 70 grad students and many undergraduates who work with our center every year.”

Scales recently accepted a position as special assistant to the dean of engineering. His new goal: to develop bold visions to help drive Virginia Tech’s expansion. 

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