Planetary Surfaces and Spacecraft Lab

Dr. Christine Hartzell

hartzell at umd.edu
Office: 3178 Martin Hall
Phone: 301-405-4647
Christine Hartzell joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland as Assistant Professor in February 2014 and was promoted to Professor in July 2025. Dr. Hartzell is also the founding director of ASTRA-UMD, UMD's center for Advanced Space Technology Research. She completed her PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, under the direction of Dan Scheeres. Her thesis research topic was electrostatic dust levitation above asteroids and the Moon. Prior to coming to UMD, she was a Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech, where she studied granular mechanics. She completed her undergraduate work in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. In her spare time, Dr. Hartzell enjoys riding/caring for her horses, downhill skiing (on the West coast), gardening, cooking and spending time with her cats.

Dr. Adnan Mansour

Bio: Adnan completed his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University in 2024, where his research was focused on the development and implementation of fluid models for low temperature plasmas. He received his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Sharjah. His current research focus is electromagnetic plasma fluid modeling for soliton detection in orbital debris. In his free time, Adnan enjoys cooking and baking, mapmaking, calligraphy and the outdoors.

Dr. Mary Pat Reiter

Bio: Mary Pat earned her Ph.D. and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University, where her dissertation focused on triboelectric patterns on separated surfaces visualized with charged powders. Before her Ph.D., she worked on the mechanical evaluation of osteoarthritis and connective tissue treatments and designing a 3D-printed prosthesis. In her current role, she combines her knowledge of biomechanics and tribocharged powders to develop a reusable biomimetic technology for removing lunar dust from equipment. Mary Pat enjoys video games, caring for over 100 houseplants, singing, and making spreadsheets.

Melissa Buys

4th Year PhD Student
Awards: Fulbright Fellow, South Africa
Bio: Melissa completed her B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Pretoria. Her current research focuses on understanding triboelectric charging of rovers on the Moon. Melissa enjoys hiking, writing poetry and finding obscure coffee shops in her free time.

Anmol Sikka

5th Year PhD Student
Bio: Anmol completed his B.Tech and M.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay, India, where he also led the student satellite team. He uses LIGGGHTS (an open-source DEM code) to make predictions about the effect of magnetic forces in avalanching of granular materials. In his spare time, Anmol likes writing his blog, reading fiction and watching movies.

Jonathan Wrieden

2nd Year PhD Student
Bio: Jonathan completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Aeronautics at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2010. After graduating, Jonathan served on active duty for six years in the Army as an Infantry Officer. Then he worked for Otis Elevator Company as a Construction Superintendent for six years. Now Jonathan is pursuing his PhD and is researching plasma soliton generation as a method of orbital debris detection. In his spare time, he enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, kayaking, skydiving, boxing, and playing the drums.

Yun Zhang

Cecily Sunday

Nick Limparis

Charles Pett

PhD, Nov 2024, NASA FINESST Fellowship, NASA Pathways Program
Thesis Title: Measuring and Modeling Electromagnetic Forces that Influence Granular Behavior

Ian DesJardin

PhD, July 2024, DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, UMD Flagship Fellowship
Thesis Title: Signal Processing and Forward Modeling of Space Debris Detection via Plasma Solitons
Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Eric Frizzell

PhD, May 2024, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2017 SSPI Award, Clark Fellowship
Thesis Title: Investigating a Possible Lunar Cold Spot Formation Mechanism: Modeling granular waves in surface regolith using soft sphere discrete element method
Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Politecnico di Milano

Thomas Leps

PhD, Dec 2021, Defended from the South Pole
Thesis Title: Simulation of Magnetic Granular Media Using Open Source Soft Sphere Discrete Element Method
Current Position: NSF Overwinter Lead for BICEP Array at South Pole

Jackson Shannon

PhD, May 2021, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
Thesis Title: Selected Problems in Many-Revolution Trajectory Optimization Using Q-Law
Current Position: Trajectory Design Engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Alexis Truitt

PhD, May 2020, Director of National Intelligence Science and Technology Fellowship
Thesis Title: Characteristics of Plasma Solitons Produced by Small Orbital Debris
Current Position: Department of Defense

Dylan Carter

PhD, Dec 2019, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
Thesis Title: Modeling and Experimental Measurement of Triboelectric Charging in Dielectric Granular Mixtures
Current Position: Systems Engineer, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Anthony DeCicco

PhD, July 2018, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship
Thesis Title: Asteroid Control via Neutral Beam Emitting Spacecraft
Current Position: Future Technical Leaders Program, Northrup Grumman

Connor Wilson

MS, May 2023
Thesis Title: An Investigation of the Observability of Plasma Solitons Generated by Cubesats Using Incoherent Scatter Radar Arrays
Current Position: MIT- Lincoln Lab

Grace Zimmerman

MS, May 2023
Thesis Title: An Assessment of Aerogravity-Assisted Trajectories for Aerocapture at the Ice Giants
Current Position: Spacecraft Navigation Engineer, JHU-APL

Anand Patel

MS, May 2020
Thesis Title: A Model to Predict the Size of 3D Regolith Clumps on Planetary Bodies
Current Position: Lunar Gateway Spacecraft Autonomous Systems - Planning and Optimization Engineer, CACI (NASA Johnson)

Teddy Levine

MS, Dec 2016
Thesis Title: The Effects of Tidal Forces on the Minimum Energy Configurations of the Full Three-Body Problem Link to Thesis
Current Position: Controls Engineer, Relative Dynamics (NASA Goddard)