Low-Gravity Science and Technology Laboratory

Diamagnetic phase separation in microgravity (L: non-magnetic, C: right magnet, R: left magnet)
Celebrating New Shepard 24!
Droplet sitting on a perfectly non-wetting substrate
One of the LGST Lab experiments being launched at ZARM’s drop tower
Experimental setup of LiMo
Launching the Magnetically Enhanced Electrolysis experiment!
Experimental setup of StELIUM

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

August 9^th, 2024: Congrats to Theo St. Francis for winning the ARCS Scholars Award!
July 29^th, 2024: Fun YouTube podcast on low-gravity with Fraser Cain! See more at https://youtu.be/fnKwzi7nvOU?si=wZrknt_HrPXvlCIT
July 21^st, 2024: Fun LGST Lab field trip to the 53^rd International Conference on Environmental Systems in Louisville, KY. Sam Hart, Theo St. Francis, and Shay Vitale presented multiple papers on heat transfer, life support, and phase separation in low gravity.
July 23^rd, 2024: Romain Fonteyne gave a presentation on our lunar dust mitigation work at the NASA Exploration Science Forum in St. Louis, MO.
July 13^th, 2024: Our group gave four presentations this week at the 2024 COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Busan, South Korea, in collaboration with Prof. Katharina Brinkert’s group at the ZARM Institute in Bremen.
June 16^th, 2024: This week we presented several papers at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Yokohama! They are the first publications resulting from our DARPA Zenith grant with Honeywell Aerospace.
May 15^th, 2024: Tatsuyoshi Kurumiya has joined the LGST Lab to support our NASA NIAC project on low-gravity magnetohydrodynamic water electrolysis over the summer. He will be working with Theo St. Francis as part of the Georgia Tech SURE program. Welcome to the lab, Tatsu!
May 1^st, 2023: Today, Dr. Romero-Calvo was elected vice-chair of the AIAA Microgravity and Space Processes Technical Committee (MSPTC).
April 25^th, 2024: Congrats to Taylor Hampson and Spencer Baird for being selected to join the CREATE-X Startup Launch 2024 summer program! They will initiate the commercialization of the magnetohydrodynamic liquid metal technology developed by the LGST lab.
April 23^rd, 2024: R. Fonteyne is presenting the LGST Lab’s work on lunar dust mitigation today at the LSIC Spring Meeting in Laurel, MD, also on behalf of F. Isidori-Pacelli and L. Scifoni.
April 4^th, 2024: Congratulations to Eric Comstock and Theo St. Francis for receiving the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship! The program will support their research in magnetohydrodynamic Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) and multiphase mass transport in low-gravity water electrolysis.
April 4^th, 2024: New conference paper at the 2024 Region II AIAA Student Conference at Kennedy Space Center. The publication, named “Magnetic Field Mapper Using Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) Components“, is led by our undergraduate student Yubo Fu.
April 1^st, 2024: Read more about Francesco Isidori Pacelli’s journey in this post from the Georgia Tech Europe campus!
March 27^th, 2024: Dr. Romero-Calvo is presenting our NASA NIAC magnetohydrodynamic electrolysis work today at the Georgia Tech Energy Materials Day.
February 26^th, 2024: NASA has selected our SmallSat magnetic positive positioning technology as part of the TechFlights 2023 cohort! Excited to fly our demonstrators onboard Zero Gravity Corp.’s parabolic plane.
February 8^th, 2024: Our grad students R. Fonteyne, F. Isidori-Pacelli, and L. Scifoni are presenting their work on lunar dust mitigation through electrodynamic dust shielding at the ExplOrigins 2024 Colloquium in Atlanta.
February 6^th, 2024: New conference paper at the 2024 AAS Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference in Breckenridge, CO. The publication, named “Open-Source Propellant Sloshing Modeling and Simulation“, is led by our undergraduate student Brian González.
January 19^th, 2024: 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 11^th, 2024: Congrats to Samuel T. Hart for winning the Best Small Satellite Student Paper Award at the 2024 AIAA SciTech Conference! He presented his paper “Leveraging Phase Change for CubeSat Propellant Positioning“. Interview here.
January 5^th, 2024: 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 4^th, 2024: 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!

For older entries, check our News Log!