1 semester at CU Boulder for Tomohiro

After I joined the lab, I had a meeting with my supervisor every one to two weeks to discuss any problems I was encountering, and each time he gave me advice on how to solve them. We also had the CSML meeting every two weeks where the PhD students in the lab presented the progress of their work. During this lab meeting, I was able to learn about different research topics and different points of view, and received interesting and useful feedback on my work. The CSML belongs to CU Boulder’s Aerospace Engineering Department, and the department occasionally organizes seminars where it invites professors and researchers from different universities or research institutes. At one of the seminars, I had the opportunity to talk to a professor from the University of San Diego, famous for spacecraft CNG and also editor-in-chief of the academic journal Aerospace Engineering. Along with other students, we had many discussions on spacecraft guidance methodology and also on how to write a good scientific journal. It was a rare opportunity to get advice from someone who coordinates a scientific journal.

During the semester, I had time to attend two courses that were prepared for graduate students:

• The first course was on advanced astrodynamics and it was really theoretical, which I’d never taken before. So I was able to learn a lot of new things, and since I was working on astrodynamics around an asteroid at CU Boulder, the course was really useful for my work.
• The second course I took was more application than theory. It dealt with spacecraft orbital determination (OD), which essentially involves estimating the position of a spacecraft under conditions of uncertainty. Interestingly, the professor came from industry and was responsible for OD on some of the actual space missions to the asteroid and Moon. As a result, he also taught us how the space industry actually uses DO tools and techniques to fly a spacecraft on the mission. Even though the subject isn’t directly related to my research, this course helped me a lot to relate the knowledge we learn in class to real-world applications.

In February, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in a nearby town. This conference is specialized in the field of CNG spacecraft and there were many professors, PhD students and engineers from industry from all over the world. We had a very interesting discussion during the conference which could be a potential corroboration of research in the future.

What did you think of life in the United States?

This trip was my first time in the USA. So there were a lot of things that surprised me:

When I was in France, I often went to a boulangerie to buy baguettes or croissants, but in Boulder, it wasn’t easy to find a decent boulangerie. A baguette I could find at the supermarket was really hard and 5 times more expensive. What’s more, in the USA, people eat dinner around 6pm, whereas in France, the people I live with and myself eat around 8 or 9pm, so it was hard for me to adapt to this time difference every day.

In my opinion, people in the USA are friendlier: even supermarket employees would sometimes strike up a small conversation with me, and I’ve never experienced that in France or any other European country until now. So it was an interesting experience, even if I didn’t know what to say at first.

I’ve been playing football (“soccer” in the USA) since I was a kid, and I continued to play in France. But I was a little skeptical about playing soccer during my stay in Boulder, as I imagined that other sports such as American football, baseball and basketball were more popular and that nobody played soccer. Luckily, I discovered that one of the CSML PhD students played it every Sunday morning with his friends, so I could join them to play once in a while. It was great, but as Boulder’s altitude is over 1600 m, I needed a little time to adapt my cardio.

Boulder is located on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. There were many hiking trails just a 30-minute walk from my house. Since I love hiking, I went to the mountains almost every weekend to enjoy nature. In January, the Arctic storm hit the city and the temperature dropped to -25°C and it snowed a lot during the night. The next day, I went to the mountains and hiked in the snow. The trail and the trees were completely covered, everything was silver. It was really cold and beautiful at the same time. Rocky Mountain National Park is 2 hours from Boulder. During the summer, I went there several times to hike. .
Les montagnes y sont à plus de 4000m d’altitude et les vallées sont formées par des glaciers.
On peut voir de nombreux lacs le long des sentiers de randonnée et c’est un endroit parfait pour déjeuner.
La première fois que j’y suis allée en mai, il y avait encore beaucoup de neige sur le sentier et à la fin j’ai eu du mal à retrouver mon chemin.
J’ai donc suivi les autres randonneurs dans la neige qui faisait plus de 1m de haut.
Avant la dernière ligne droite, il fallait escalader un mur presque vertical recouvert de neige sur lequel j’ai dû glisser au retour.
Lorsque je suis arrivée au bout du sentier, il y avait un vent dangereux et la neige me frappait au visage.
J’ai donc dû revenir immédiatement.

Did you get to travel a bit too?

During my stay in the United States, I also had time to travel. In March, I went to Mexico to visit my friends. During the trip, I spent time with my friends and family, visited the archaeological museum and the pyramids, and ate different types of street food. What’s more, I was able to visit two colonial towns by bus. These towns are colorful, lively and full of music and delicious food. I returned to Mexico in June because a friend of mine was getting married and had invited me to the ceremony, which took place in the mountains: it was magnificent. After the ceremony, we danced a lot. I learned Mexican country dancing, which has its own specific steps. It was hard to follow at first, but I managed to dance by the end.

In early April, I flew to Indiana to see friends who work at Purdue University. It was really interesting to see the aerospace engineering department of different universities and I had the opportunity to meet professors and their students there. Even though I wanted to meet my friends in Indiana, my main goal was to see the total solar eclipse there. We drove to Indianapolis and stayed on the Indianapolis Expressway where NASA was holding the eclipse event. It was the first time I’d ever seen a total solar eclipse and I was so excited. About 10 minutes before the total eclipse, the sky became progressively darker and the air colder. Then finally, the Sun was completely covered by the Moon. Everyone was clapping and the eclipse didn’t seem real. It was the most exciting and bizarre 4 minutes of my life. Then, at the beginning of May, a huge solar storm hit the earth and the news announced that aurora borealis had been observed even in Europe. My friends showed me photos of the northern lights from Paris and Toulouse. That night, I drove north of Boulder to avoid the city lights, and at midnight the sky suddenly started to turn white and I could see a curtain-like movement. When I took a few photos, I could see bright green, red and purple colors in the sky and the shape was changing rapidly. After 10 or 20 minutes, the light disappeared. In the end, I stayed there until 3 a.m. and was able to see the huge light three times. As the light covered the whole sky, I was very happy.

What do you take away from this experience?

During my PhD at ISAE-SUPAERO, I worked on the spacecraft’s CNG and how it works around asteroids. However, there aren’t many researchers in my lab working on asteroids. At CU Boulder, many researchers, including my supervisor, are specialists in asteroids and astrodynamics, so I was able to receive more detailed feedback and advice. This experience enabled me to broaden my knowledge and skills for research into asteroid exploration by spacecraft. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, I met a lot of professors, graduate students and engineers in the field of space engineering, which enabled me to broaden my contacts in this field, particularly in the United States. These contacts will be really useful for my future career, as I’d like to continue working in the field of space engineering. For example, they may be able to help me find a wide range of job opportunities, and research collaborations with them between different institutes may be proposed in the future. My current plan for the near future is, initially, to get my PhD at ISAE-SUPAERO next March. After that, I’ll probably start working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute to pursue mission analysis for the asteroid exploration project we’re currently working on.

And what about research?

I think my time at CU Boulder has been invaluable for both ISAE-SUPAERO and myself. The work I did during this stay will be presented at the Astrodynamics Conference in Denver this August, and we plan to publish an academic journal based on it. As a result, the School’s name will gain greater recognition in the asteroid exploration community. In my laboratory at ISAE-SUPAERO, many PhD students visit institutes and universities in France and other European countries. However, I’m one of the first students to go to the USA and CU Boulder to complete my PhD. Before coming to CU Boulder, my supervisors from ISAE-SUPAERO, CU Boulder and I had a lot of discussions to make this stay happen, and we learned all about the process we have to go through. This means that more students can be encouraged to visit CU Boulder in the future for their research, and that the knowledge will be useful to them in preparing for their stay: not only will ISAE-SUPAERO students be able to visit CU Boulder, but CU Boulder students will also be able to come to ISAE-SUPAERO for their research. In fact, one of the CSML PhD students told me that he would be interested in coming to ISAE-SUPAERO next year to continue his research with us. So this will be an excellent opportunity to encourage students to come to CU Boulder for their research.

Any final words?

I would like to thank all the donors for giving me this wonderful opportunity to go to CU Boulder for my research. I can assure you that this stay has enriched my research and strengthened the quality of research at ISAE-SUPAERO.