Author: Mattie McLellan | Major: Mechanical Engineering – Aerospace | Semester: Spring 2025

I am developing scientific instrumentation for small satellites that obtain atmospheric content data. Using light to measure wavelength absorption in the atmosphere, the chemical species present will be determined by a spectrometer. The laser will be emitted from one satellite and detected by another satellites. A crucial part of this separation is the communication between units, creating the need for my work to develop a laser communication system.

Discussing my poster

This development is what I presented in poster form at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in the Woodlands, TX. This conference originated after the space race and NASA had landed on the moon. It now has expanded to the entire lunar and planetary science community, covering the innovative research leading in space exploration. It was a great opportunity to expand my network and learn beyond my engineering scope. I was met with interest in my work and a wealth of knowledge about previous space missions and the use of the data I hope this instrument will collect. While my work is primarily within engineering, I was grateful to the questions and conversations I had during my poster presentation. It was very insightful. Overall, most of the feedback was positive and collaborative. Networking is not the easiest task as an outsider trying to break into a field; however, I did have the opportunity to meet so many people. Most everyone was very friendly. I feel like I walked away from this conference with some emails to send to follow up on discussions about my work. As I continue in instrumentation these connections to the planetary science community are vital in creating instrumentation that fills a need within their work. These will be people I might one day work with and in a small field, it is important people know you. I am excited to continue working with some of the students I met there as well. I did present a poster at this conference, and I learned a good bit from this experience. I have given an oral presentation on this project before and went into this presentation unsure about the differences. I liked the more casual conversation of a poster and the easy interaction with visual aids. I love to explain and point to pictures. I did find the initial elevator pitch challenging. Giving a summary of the work is not difficult, but knowing your audience is difficult. I could assume the general idea of who my audience would be at this conference, but when one person was standing across from me and I did not know anything about them or their background, it was easy to over explain or focus on the wrong details. Most people are very patient and polite about this, but I will say some people did cut me off. Navigating interactions with people who are less patient was a new experience that gave me practice in defending my work. After seeing how the scientific community presents, I also noticed some differences with what the emphasis is when compared to engineering presentations. To sum up all I learned into advice for another student, I would say, hold on to the power of knowing the most about what you are presenting on, this is your work, just explain your thoughts and actions. It should give you confidence, but let be sure to listen to others, because they are experts of their own research, that could relate to yours. Research is collaborative, even if someone might seem like they are attracting you, it comes from their passion and interest in your work. I think confidence in explaining your work will help someone understand more than finding the perfect way to explain it and everyone who has bothered to listen to you wants to understand your work. Next for me will be continuing into my senior year with this project, hopefully publishing this work. Then I plan to attend graduate school to acquire a PhD.