草榴社区

Neil Laya, an aerospace engineering graduate student at 草榴社区 (UAH), has received a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) Fellowship to help pursue his goal of revolutionizing space travel.

鈥淭his is a huge deal for me. It means I鈥檓 funded for four more years,鈥� says Laya, who received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in 2022 from UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System. 鈥淚 had started in my master鈥檚 program. Getting this fellowship has allowed me to begin pursuing my doctorate.鈥�

The NSTGRO Fellowship is sponsored by NASA鈥檚 Space Technology Mission directorate to help U.S. citizen and permanent resident graduate students 鈥渃ontribute to NASA鈥檚 goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation鈥檚 science, exploration and economic future,鈥� according to the .

Laya鈥檚 research involves magnetic reconnection, a physical process occurring in highly conducting plasmas in which magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy and particle acceleration to produce thrust for space propulsion.

鈥淭he specific system that I鈥檓 working on has the potential, if given enough power in space, to become one of the highest-performing propulsion systems out there in terms of balancing high Isp, which is specific impulse, and the thrust levels,鈥� Laya explains. 鈥淢ost propulsion technologies either tend toward high thrust in terms of chemical rockets or high specific impulse in terms of electric propulsion.鈥�

The ideal system, he says, would combine both.

鈥淒eveloping that could be a huge gain to our spacecraft technology and general space travel for the world. The basic physics and the basic analyses done on this magnetic reconnection physics seem to indicate that those thrust and Isp levels are possible given the right engineering to harness that phenomenon.鈥�

Laya works in UAH鈥檚 Plasma and Electrodynamics Research Lab (PERL), run by his advisor and mentor, Dr. Gabriel Xu, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering. Part of UAH鈥檚 Propulsion Research Center, PERL conducts research in plasma physics and electromagnetics for propulsion, materials, combustion, biomedical and energy.

Laya says Xu鈥檚 input was invaluable as he compiled the details of his research plan, including a feasible timeline and progress benchmarks, into a successful application.

鈥淚 made it very important to have benchmarks. Every time I鈥檇 reach a benchmark, I鈥檇 at least have something new, something useful for the science community and for the field.鈥�

Another segment of the science community is pursuing a power source strong enough to sufficiently fuel Laya鈥檚 system.

鈥淚鈥檓 interested in our gains in the fusion technology department,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e use charged capacitors to fire this device in pulses, and those require a ton of power, especially if we were to field this on a spacecraft scale. This would be the perfect propulsion system to take advantage of that near-limitless amount of power.鈥�

Laya may have to wait on the perfect power source to make his propulsion dreams a reality, but the work he is doing can have other important uses.

鈥淓ven if our system does not yield a reasonable propulsion source, the internal physics of magnetic reconnection 鈥� especially three-dimensional magnetic reconnection 鈥� could be huge in terms of other fields as these effects happen in quasars, in solar flares, in interactions with the Earth鈥檚 ionosphere and magnetic fields. Everyone鈥檚 advances help each other in the field in some way.鈥�