A sounding rocket was collected after flight for its payload of particles from the mesosphere.

Chris Hall, a professor of aerospace and ocean engineering, is an expert in spacecraft dynamics and control. He is involved in modeling and simulation of complex spacecraft systems and hands-on student projects.

A couple of recent projects started as student design projects, including HokieSat, one of three satellites that comprised the Ionospheric Observation Nanosatellite Formation mission, funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and NASA.

A sounding rocket mission, which launched from Wallops Island in 2005, carried a Naval Research Laboratory payload to collect mesospheric particles. His students are currently building a scramjet payload for a two-stage sounding rocket, which will launch in 2010.

His modeling and simulation of complex spacecraft systems ranges from high-altitude balloon payloads to small satellites. In a recent study for NASA Goddard, his team completed a control system analysis for a tethered satellite system. They are currently modeling electrodynamic tether systems with rigid end bodies that use internal and external torques for attitude control. The current study is aimed at understanding the interactions of the tether's motions with the motions of the end bodies.

For more information, visit: www.space.vt.edu.