Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory’s PhD student Jehan Dastoor is the winner of the AFM Student Paper Competition. Jehan received the award for the paper “Aerothermal Analysis and Design of HyperSat: Aerobraking CubeSat with a Mechanically Deployable Heatshield”. Co-authors of the paper are Dr. Miguel Walter (Rolls-Royce, formerly ASDL), Dr. Bradford E. Robertson (ASDL), Dr. Alexis C. Noel (Earthly Dynamics, formerly GTRI), Dr. Dimitri Mavris (ASDL), and Dr. Krishan K. Ahuja (GT AE and GTRI). The paper was presented at the 2026 SciTech Forum in January.

The award is conferred annually by the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). It recognizes the student who is lead author of the paper judged to be the best of all student papers presented in an AFM session at the AIAA SciTech Forum. The review process includes an evaluation of both the written paper and the oral presentation. Evaluation categories include relevance, organization, clarity, technical content, appreciation of issues, and conclusions.

“I am thrilled to see Jehan being recognized for his excellent work on the HyperSat platform,” commented Dr. Mavris, Distinguished Regents Professor and director of ASDL. “Presenting at AIAA conferences is a great experience for our students. It is wonderful that some of the AIAA technical committees support awards to encourage students to develop their writing and presentation skills in front of a professional and highly technical audience,” he added.

Paper abstract: Low-cost hypersonic platforms have been suggested as a solution to the growing need for hypersonic test data given the limitations of existing ground test techniques. As a part of these efforts, Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute have been developing a low-cost Hypersonic 12U CubeSat platform (HyperSat) to be used as a hypersonic testbed. HyperSat begins in a GTO orbit and uses aerobraking passes to expose the vehicle to hypersonic conditions. In order to fit within a 12U footprint and survive atmospheric heating, HyperSat utilizes a mechanically deployable heatshield with a flexible thermal protection system (FTPS). This work describes the trajectory, aerothermal analysis, and subsequent geometry modifications to ensure that the FTPS remains within heat flux material limits. The expected entry environments were bounded using a Monte Carlo trajectory simulation varying aerodynamic properties, entry conditions, atmospheric properties, and mass properties. These bounds were then utilized to perform high-fidelity aerothermal CFD simulations using LAURA and FUN3D to predict heating on the FTPS. Localized hot spots were identified at the interfaces between the deployable panels, motivating design modifications, including changes to the cone angle and nose thickness, to minimize heating.

The full paper can be read here.