IU Astronomy graduate student Brandon Radzom participated in the 2023 NASA Planetary Science Summer School, a 3-month summer program for doctoral students, post-docs, and early faculty who are interested in science-driven robotic space exploration.
NASA Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS) 2023 cohort at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) during the program’s culminating week (pictured below). IU Astronomy graduate student Brandon Radzom (front left) worked with this group for 10 weeks to design a mission concept for an orbiting satellite at Saturn’s moon, Titan. During the culminating week, the PSSS cohort worked with NASA’s Team-X to refine their design before finally presenting it to a review panel.
Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, and the most Earth-like, with abundant organic compounds (such as methane and ethane), a thick atmosphere, surface liquid bodies, an active hydrological cycle, and a water ocean (within the subsurface layers). As such, it's one of the most interesting bodies for planetary scientists to study and may be one of the best candidates to search for life beyond Earth.
The group worked closely with NASA mentors throughout the program where they designed a New Frontiers-class planetary mission, which is a mid-scale mission with a ~billion-dollar cost cap. Examples of past New Frontiers missions include the New Horizons flyby to Pluto, the OSIRIS-REx sample return to the asteroid Bennu, and the Juno orbiter at Jupiter, while the Dragonfly mission to Titan is slated for launch in 2027.
Very impressive Brandon and we're excited to see what may turn out of your hard work this summer. Congratulations!!
The College of Arts