Research at risk: Building our future in space

ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell researchers were preparing to launch two spacecraft – in Ward Laboratory.

Hovering in a three-story, hangar-like room called a high bay, the spacecraft would have moved around each other as if in orbit, to model space on Earth. The simulator – the only one of its kind in the U.S. – would have allowed researchers, companies and government agencies to test and refine space technologies and to address a particularly difficult and important challenge: understanding how spacecraft can interact when they’re in orbit.

The work is crucial for building job opportunities, stronger economies and a better future for our species, said Mason Peck, director of the New York Consortium for Space and Technology (NYCST).

“Cislunar space, between the Earth and the moon, is becoming populated with commercial spacecraft, and in the near future, we expect even more, with multiple spacecraft collaborating together,” said Peck, the Stephen J. Fujikawa ’77 Professor of Astronautical Engineering in Cornell Engineering. “The spacecraft might need to communicate, refuel, repair themselves – all of these things need to happen in orbit that don’t currently happen in orbit. We’re building a unique facility where we’ll be able to test and verify and understand better all the technologies involved – where we’re forming the basis for how the future of space will look.”

The simulator and consortium are vital enough that the U.S. Department of Defense committed $5 million in September 2023 to support the effort. But on Apr. 10, Peck received a stop-work order that halted progress on renovations of the high bay and on construction of the spacecraft that would have hovered at its center.

Peck had hoped to have the simulator running by August, but the funding cut has scuttled the timeline. That could amount to the loss of tremendous economic opportunity. Peck cited studies from NASA finding that taxpayer investment in the agency generates three times as much in economic activity.

Mason Peck, director of the New York Consortium for Space Technology, right, and Juan Pelaez ’25, a mechanical engineering major in Cornell Engineering, demonstrate how a lab-size satellite, a proof-of-concept for a larger spacecraft, can move as if in orbit.

The simulator would also vastly expand the ability of small companies to enter the arena of space exploration and commerce. For example, Paterson Aerospace Systems in Rome, New York, a current collaborator, would have been able to develop devices with Cornell researchers and then test and refine those devices in the simulator before sending them into space – saving huge amounts of time and money.

“We at NYCST would have taken their technology with them from low readiness to very high readiness, having demonstrated it in orbit,” Peck said. “Now they could sell this to the U.S. Department of Defense or a company that needs a reliable and tested technology.” 

The stop-work order has put that possibility on hold, Peck said. 

Also on hold is further development of the work they’ve done so far. Peck and his students have constructed a lab-size satellite, perched on a column of air and spherical air bearing, that moves as if in orbit, to provide proof-of-concept for the larger spacecraft

They’ve also connected with businesses and laid the groundwork for a program that will train workers in New York state.

“If you’re a person with aerospace engineering skills, technical skills, you can find jobs,” Peck said. “But there are a whole lot of people in our state who aren’t finding jobs – it’s a skills mismatch, and we want to fill that gap.”

Peck said the halt in funding prevents the U.S. and humankind in general from meeting the moment, a pivot point, in the development of space infrastructure, as the cost of sending material into space has come down drastically. 

“This center we’re building here, with NYCST, is at this pivot point,” Peck said. “It’s going to enable the research that makes possible that extraordinary vision of the future.”

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

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