His lab tested cutting-edge spacecraft

Lost science is an ongoing series of testimonies from scientists who lost their jobs or funding after the Trump administration’s budget cuts. Conversations have been edited for clarity and length. Here’s why we do this.

Mason Peck: I teach aerospace engineering and conduct research at Cornell University. We have a fairly large team, sometimes close to 100 people and sometimes only a few, depending on the projects.

In my lab, we start with a theory and refine it through testing, analysis, and modeling, to the point where we can try it in space. Over the years, we have designed, built and launched spacecraft to determine if our theories were correct.

For example, we launched two spacecraft to demonstrate how one spacecraft can dock with another using electromagnetism alone – something that had never really been tried. It didn’t work perfectly, but we learned a lot in the process. This is what happens in high-risk research: you shoot for the moon; sometimes we get there, sometimes we don’t.

Another thing we’ve innovated is spaceships on a chip. These are spacecraft the size of a cracker, just a few grams. This requires a lot of subtlety in design. We launched them to demonstrate that it is possible to make something small that survives for many years in space.

Recently, these small spacecraft formed the basis of our Alpha mission, a grapefruit-sized spacecraft that spits out a large sail. It flies through space, blown by solar wind, laser light, or even upper atmosphere contrail, demonstrating some interesting ideas about what makes next-generation spacecraft possible.

With the New York Space Technology Consortium, we have made progress in terms of what we can and hope to do for space. We are building a spacecraft simulation environment and a number of laboratories that allow companies, universities and government agencies to try new technologies for the future of space transportation.

On April 10, I received a work stoppage order, without clear reason, approximately eight minutes before the end of my work day.

As a result, people leave. The work remains unfinished. Contracts are canceled. Some students volunteered to help advance the research despite the order to stop work. That’s great, but they can’t accomplish much without funds.

If we are lucky enough to restart, we will have wasted a lot of time and money. It’s like putting on a tourniquet and stopping the blood flow. Too much time of this kind of reduction in resources means you lose the member.

Mason Peck is a professor of astronautical engineering at Cornell University and director of the New York Space Technology Consortium.