dankwon

Daniel W. Kwon
Postdoctoral Fellow, Space Systems Laboratory
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: 301-405-8562
E-mail@mit.edu:dankwon

Biography

I grew up in upstate New York, in the suburbs of Rochester in a town called Pittsford. After attending Pittsford Mendon High School, I went to MIT and studied Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering (Course 16) and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Course 6-1) with a Music Minor (Course 21M). During the summers I worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Starlight mission at the Formation Interferometer Testbed (FIT). I continued graduate studies at MIT in Aerospace Engineering at the Space Systems Laboratory and earned my Masters degree in 2005. I completed my Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at MIT in 2009.

I am spending the year at the University of Maryland, College Park as a Faculty Research Assistant for Prof. Raymond Sedwick in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the Optics Branch.

Research

I work on Electromagnetic Formation Flight and the thermal control system for cooling high temperature superconducting wire for EMFF. EMFF is a propellant-less propulsion system using electromagnets coupled with reaction wheels to control the position and attitude of formation flying spacecraft. One application is for separated spacecraft interferometry, such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF-I) mission. There exists a wiki for EMFF. Here is a good article on EMFF in New Scientist.

The title of my Ph.D. thesis was “Cryogenic Heat Pipe for Cooling High Temperature Superconductors with Application to Electromagnetic Formation Flight Satellites.” My committee consisted of Raymond Sedwick, David Miller, and John Brisson. My Ph.D. thesis is available here and abstract can be viewed here. My Masters thesis is available here and abstract can be viewed here.

Awards

Honorable Mention, 2008 Boeing Engineering Student of the Year. Award evaluates the future impact of research for aerospace engineering in areas such as new or enhanced capabilities, systems, processes or tools.

1st place, Frank J. Redd Student Scholarship Competition, 22^nd AIAA Conference on Small Satellites, Aug 11-14, 2008. Paper titled “Cryogenic Thermal Design of Small Electromagnetic Formation Flight Satellites,”[SSC08-VIII-3].

3rd place, Student paper competition at 6th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation in Berlin, Germany, April 23-26, 2007. Paper titled “Electromagnetic Formation Flight System Design,” [IAA-B6-0602]

List of Publications:

[12 - Accepted] Kwon, Daniel W., Propellant-less Formation Flight Applications using Electromagnetic Satellites Formations, 60th IAC Congress, Daejeon, Korea, Oct. 12 - 16, 2009.

[11 - Accepted] Kwon, Daniel W., Sedwick, Raymond J., Cryogenic Heat Pipe for Cooling High Temperature Supercondutors, Cryogenics, Vol. 49, Issue 9, Sept. 2009, pp. 514-523.

[10 - Accepted] Kwon, Daniel W., Sedwick, Raymond J., Cryogenic Heat Pipe for Cooling High Temperature Superconducting Coils, AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer.

[9] Kwon, Daniel W., Sedwick, Raymond J., Cryogenic Thermal Design of Electromagnetic Formation Flight Satellites, 59th IAC Congress, Glasgow, Scotland, Sept 29 - October 3, 2008.

[8] Kwon, Daniel W., Cryogenic Thermal Design of Small Electromagnetic Formation Flight Satellites, 22nd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Aug 11-14, 2008.

[7] Daniel W. Kwon, “Electromagnetic Formation Flight System Design,” 6th IAA Symposium on Small Satellites for Earth Observation, IAA-B6-0602, Berlin, Germany, April 23-26, 2007.

[6] Elias, Laila M., Kwon, Daniel W., Sedwick, Raymond J., and Miller, David W., "Electromagnetic Formation Flight Dynamics including Reaction Wheel Gyroscopic Stiffening Effects" AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol. 30, No. 2, Mar-Apr. 2007, pp. 499-511.

[5] Kwon, Daniel W., and Miller, D.W., “Electromagnetic formation flight for the Terrestrial Planet Finder,” SPIE International Symposium on Optics & Photonics, [SPIE 5905-41], San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA on July 31 – August 4, 2005, p.357-367.

[4] Kwon, D.W., Sedwick, R.J., Miller, D.W., “Electromagnetic Formation Flight,” AAS Guidance and Control 2005, Advances in the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 121, Proceedings of the 28^th Annual AAS Guidance and Control Conference [AAS 05-013], Breckenridge, CO., February 5-9, 2005, p. 163-180.

[3] Kwon, Daniel W., and Miller, David W., “Electromagnetic Formation Flight of Satellite Arrays,” S.M. Thesis, MIT SSL #02-05, January 2005.

[2] Kwon, D., Miller, D.W., and Sedwick, R., “Electromagnetic Formation Flight for Sparse Aperture Arrays,” 2^nd International Symposium on Formation Flight Missions and Technologies, Washington D.C., Sept. 14-16, 2004

[1] Kong, E. M. C., Kwon, D. W., Schweighart, S. A., Elias, L. M., Sedwick, R. J., Miller, D. W., “Electromagnetic Formation Flight for Multisatellite Arrays,” AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 659-666, July-August 2004.

Media Coverage

New Scientist Space, May 6, 2008, “Magnets help spacecraft fly in formation,”

URL: http://space.newscientist.com/channel/space-tech/dn13846-magnets-help-spacecraft-fly-in-formation.html

Technology Review, January 2006, “Electromagnetic Formation Flight: An exciting new idea for space exploration,”

URL: http://www.technologyreview.com/article/16038/

Paper appears in book titled “Small Satellites for Earth Observation,” Editors: Rainer Sandau, Hans-Peter Roeser, Arnoldo Valenzuela, Springer, May 2008.