Key Takeaways
- The Flight Opportunities Community of Practice webinar will explore flying externally mounted payloads on suborbital rockets.
- The webinar will discuss the benefits of exterior mounting, including access to a microgravity environment, exposure to vacuum, and unobstructed mounting of cameras and other instruments.
- Researchers from Purdue University and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will share their experiences with externally mounted payloads, including the FEMTA and JANUS technologies.
- The webinar aims to provide valuable insights for attendees to guide their future efforts in preparing externally mounted payloads for suborbital flight tests.
Introduction to Flight Opportunities
The Flight Opportunities program, offered by NASA, provides a platform for researchers to test and validate their technologies in a suborbital environment. The program allows for the flight testing of payloads on suborbital rockets, providing access to a microgravity environment, exposure to vacuum, and other benefits. The Community of Practice webinar series is designed to share lessons learned by suborbital researchers and provide insights on best practices for preparing for suborbital flight tests. The upcoming webinar, scheduled for February 4, 2026, will focus on flying externally mounted payloads on suborbital rockets, with speakers from Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and Blue Origin.
Benefits of Externally Mounted Payloads
Mounting a payload externally on a suborbital rocket provides several benefits, including access to a microgravity environment, exposure to vacuum, and unobstructed mounting of cameras, spectrometers, and other instruments. This configuration also allows for a downward-looking view of a re-entry flight profile, enabling researchers to collect valuable data on the environment and conditions during re-entry. The external mounting of payloads can also provide a unique opportunity for in-situ testing and sampling, allowing researchers to directly measure conditions in the region where Earth’s atmosphere transitions to space.
FEMTA and JANUS Technologies
The webinar will feature two researchers who have successfully flight tested externally mounted payloads. Alina Alexeenko, Ph.D., from Purdue University, will discuss the FEMTA (Film Evaporation MEMS Tunable Array) technology, a non-toxic micropropulsion alternative for precision attitude control for small spacecraft missions. The FEMTA technology uses water surface tension to provide highly tunable low-power attitude and thermal control, enabling in-situ resource utilization for propellant and reducing overall small spacecraft mission costs. H. Todd Smith, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, will present the JANUS (Integrated Universal Suborbital) platform, which allows payloads to access the harsh external space environment and enables rare in-situ testing and sampling.
Speaker Bios and Expertise
The speakers for the webinar are renowned experts in their respective fields. Alina Alexeenko, Ph.D., studies computational and experimental examinations of rarefied gas flow phenomena, with a focus on small satellite propulsion, spacecraft contamination, and high-altitude aerothermodynamics. Todd Smith, Ph.D., is a space physicist with expertise in magnetospheric science and instrumentation, and has led the Applied Physics Laboratory’s efforts to exploit commercial spacecraft. Laki Vlachos, a senior payload mission manager at Blue Origin, will provide insights on the integration and execution of customer payloads on the New Shepard system.
Get Involved and Learn More
The Flight Opportunities program offers a range of resources and opportunities for researchers to get involved and learn more about suborbital flight testing. The Community of Practice webinar series provides a platform for subject matter experts to share their experiences and best practices, while the program’s newsletter and website offer updates and information on upcoming webinars, solicitations, and other activities. Researchers can also contact the program directly to learn more about the opportunities and resources available. By participating in the webinar and engaging with the Flight Opportunities program, researchers can gain valuable insights and expertise to guide their future efforts in preparing externally mounted payloads for suborbital flight tests.