Ryan Russell, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, received the best paper award at the American Astronautical Society/ American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Flight Mechanics Meeting in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The paper, “A Systematic Method for Constructing Earth-Mars Cyclers Using Direct Return Trajectories,” deals with the creation of reusable vehicles that travel between planets using little or no fuel on trajectories that repeat indefinitely. His paper demonstrated this approach proves more efficient than the current model, which proposed several one-way trips followed by destruction of the vehicle.
Russell’s paper was selected as best of the conference from more than 150 papers
presented, and the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics recently accepted it for publication.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, Russell earned his master’s degree from UT Austin in 2000 and plans to finish his Ph.D. degree in 2004.
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