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Welcome to the Low-Gravity Science and Technology (LGST) Laboratory! Our group is part of the Space Systems Design Laboratory and engages in a broad range of activities in the fields of microgravity and low-gravity research. We are currently working on the development of novel multiphase flow management technologies by exploiting electromagnetic and acoustic actuation mechanisms. Our ultimate goal is to expand the traditional boundaries of the field of low-gravity fluid mechanics and contribute to the development of next-generation space systems. Areas of interest include life support, in-situ resource utilization,  propellant sloshing, and heat transfer, among others.

News & Events

  • January 19th, 2023: Congrats to Samuel Hart, Evan Sanchez, and Hadi Malik for publishing their paper “Neutral Buoyancy Testing of Low-Gravity Fluid Management” in the AIAA Journal!
  • January 11th, 2023: Congrats to Samuel T. Hart for winning the Best Small Satellite Student Paper Award at the 2024 AIAA SciTech Conference! Interview here.
  • January 5th, 2023: Today, NASA announced the selection of our low-gravity magnetohydrodynamic water electrolysis technology for a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Phase I study. Excited to work on this new project! Read the full history here.
  • January 4th, 2023: This semester, we welcome Theo St. Francis, Francesco Isidori Pacelli, and Luca Scifoni to the LGST Lab! They will be working on low-gravity water electrolysis and lunar dust mitigation. Read more about them here and here!
  • December 19th, 2023: Our Magnetically-Enhanced Electrolysis experiment flew today onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard 24 mission. Data is looking great! Watch the webcast here.
  • November 18th, 2023: Today, the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research awarded the Thora Halstead Young Investigator Award to Dr. Romero-Calvo at the closing ceremony of the 2023 ASGSR Meeting in Washington, DC. Full story here.
  • November 13th, 2023: Congratulations to Samuel T. Hart for publishing his first leading-author journal article in Acta Astronautica!
  • October 27th, 2023: Congratulations to Samuel T. Hart for successfully proposing his Ph.D. thesis this Friday!
  • October 14th, 2023: Interested in UV lasers and spacecraft charging? Make sure to check our latest paper at IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science
  • October 13th, 2023: Thanks to Monique Wadell and the AE Communications Office for featuring our work as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month!
  • August 21st, 2023: Our lab is now one year old, and what better way to celebrate it than welcoming our new graduate students Hugh Chen, Romain Fonteyne, and Tianyang Hu? Read more about them here and here!
  • August 15th, 2023: Congratulations to Eric Comstock for winning the APS travel award to attend the 65th APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting in Denver, CO, this winter!
  • August 11th, 2023: Our AE-4342 Space Systems Design teams TRTL and COAST ended up 1st and 3rd at the AIAA Undergraduate Space Design competition! Congrats on a job well done, and good luck presenting at AIAA ASCEND! Read the full story here.
  • July 14th, 2023: Congratulations to Brian González and Shay Vitale for landing the Georgia Tech President’s Undergraduate Research Salary Award (PURA)!
  • June 14th, 2023: Prof. Katharina Brinkert’s group at the University of Warwick and the LGST lab are looking for a PostDoc to support our ESA SciSpace low-gravity water electrolysis project. More details are in our Opportunities section!
  • June 12th, 2023: Congratulations to team LOTUS for winning the Best Technical Paper award at the RASC-AL competition! Full story here.
  • May 30th, 2023: Dr. Romero-Calvo has received the Young Author’s Award for Excellent Paper for his invited talk “Leveraging Magnetohydrodynamic Mechanisms for Stable and Efficient Microgravity Electrolysis” at the 243rd Electrochemical Society Meeting in Boston, MA.
  • May 26th, 2023: The LGST Lab is looking for a PostDoc for a research project on ferrohydrodynamics. More details are in our Opportunities section!
  • May 14th, 2023: Dr. Romero-Calvo received an honorable mention for his Ph.D. thesis work “Novel Electromagnetic Space Applications: Electron-Based Touchless Potential Sensing & Low-Gravity Magnetohydrodynamics” at the International Contest of Ph.D. theses in the field of Magnetic Fluids awarded by the International Steering Committee on Magnetic Fluids.
  • April 21st, 2023: Congrats to Eric Comstock for winning the Goizueta Foundation Fellowship! Fellowship recipients bring exemplary levels of scholarship and innovation to the academic departments that host their study and research.
  • April 11th, 2023: Our AE-4342 Space Systems Design students just became finalists in the NASA RASC-AL competition! Read the full announcement here.
  • April 8th, 2023: Thanks to ASGSR Students for their kind invitation to present our work at their webinar series! The recording is available on their Youtube channel.
  • March 27th, 2023: Macià Monfort-Castillo presented today his conference paper “Magnetohydrodynamic Drive for Water-Based CubeSat Propulsion” at the AIAA Region II Student Conference in Knoxville, TN. You can watch his presentation here.
  • February 28th, 2023: Fantastic day at the 2023 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) at Broomfield, CO! You can take a look at our abstract on magnetically enhanced electrolysis here.
  • February 7th, 2023: Today, Sam Hart presented his conference paper “Capillary and Electromagnetic SmallSat Propellant Positioning” at the 45th Rocky Mountain AAS GN&C Conference at Breckenridge, CO. You can listen to his presentation here and take a look at his work here!
  • February 1st, 2023: New guest article by Dr. Romero-Calvo at AAS Space Times on the future of the field of low-gravity fluid mechanics and the opportunities brought by Artemis.
  • January 9th, 2023: The LGST Lab is partnering with Prof. Katharina Brinkert’s Group at the University of Warwick in the development of next-generation oxygen and hydrogen production devices. Our ESA-sponsored suborbital rocket experiment will test an autonomously operating, efficient, and monolithic solar water-splitting device for oxygen and hydrogen production in microgravity. More info here.
  • January 3rd, 2023: We welcome Eric Comstock to the LGST Lab as our latest Ph.D. student! Eric will research the application of magnetohydrodynamic forces to a variety of entry, descent, and landing problems.
  • December 1st, 2022: Our research on magnetic phase separation in microgravity was highlighted today in Aerospace America’s 2022 year-in-review! More info here.
  • November 15th, 2022: Dr. Romero-Calvo has won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the College of Engineering of the University of Colorado Boulder. This award recognizes the best dissertation (excellence of research, topical importance, and presentation in the written dissertation) among students completing Ph.D. degree requirements during a calendar year. More info here.
  • November 10th, 2022: Today, Dr. Romero-Calvo was elected as a member of the ASGSR Board for a 3-year term at the ASGSR Meeting 2022 in Houston, TX. More info here.
  • October 27th, 2022: Congratulations to the LGST Lab undergraduate researchers working on the design of the Georgia Tech Microgravity Drop Tower!! This afternoon they delivered an amazing poster presentation and won 1st place in the hardware and devices division of the VIP Innovation Showcase. More info here.
  • October 26th, 2022: Our research on magnetic phase separation was featured today on the website of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers! More info here.
  • October 13th, 2022: Our article “Novel Propellant Settling Strategies for Liquid Rocket Engine Restart in Microgravity” has been published today in Acta Astronautica! doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.10.012
  • October 4th, 2022: This week, Dr. Romero-Calvo was appointed as Vice-Chair of the COSPAR Scientific Commission G: Material and Fluid Sciences in Space Conditions. More info here.
  • October 3rd, 2022: Listen here to a fireside chat on our last paper on magnetic phase separation in microgravity at Quantum Photonics Club. Link to the paper.
  • September 14th, 2022: Coming back from a launch campaign in the desert today. We had a blast!
  • August 18th, 2022: Our latest journal article on magnetic phase separation in microgravity has been featured in numerous media outlets this last week. Read the full story in Popular Science!
  • August 13th, 2022: Press releases for our recent npj Microgravity article have been published by the University of Warwick and ZARM (in German), triggering a significant response in mass media. Thanks to both of them for their amazing support!
  • August 8th, 2022: Our article “Magnetic Phase Separation in Microgravity” has been published this morning in npj Microgravity! Read this nice press release by Jeff Zehnder at CU Boulder for further details. doi: 10.1038/s41526-022-00212-9
  • August 6th, 2022: Our article “Fully Coupled Interface-Tracking Model For Axisymmetric Ferrohydrodynamic Flows” has been published this morning in Applied Mathematical Modeling! Read it for free here until September 25. doi: 10.1016/j.apm.2022.06.046
  • August 4th, 2022: The LGST Lab is looking for two new Ph.D. students to lead research projects in low-gravity electrolysis and low-gravity positive positioning. More details are in our Opportunities section!
  • August 1st, 2022: Today the Low-Gravity Science and Technology Lab is born! We will keep this website updated with the latest news and events. Stay tuned 🚀