FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE WEBINAR

Regolith Roundtable: Best Practices and Insights for Working with Regolith in Flight Testing 

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | 10am-11:30am PT

Speakers

• Beverly W. Kemmerer, Ph.D., Research Physicist, Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations Lab, Exploration Systems and Development Office, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
• David Scarborough, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Auburn University
• Daniel Durda, Ph.D., Principal Scientist in the Department of Space Studies, Southwest Research Institute-Boulder
• Mircea Badescu, Ph.D., Mechatronics Engineer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Arjun Agarwal, Ph.D., Advanced Robotics Concepts Engineer, ProtoInnovations
• Jason Schuler, IPEx Project Manager and Principal Investigator, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
• Adrienne Dove, Ph.D., University of Central Florida 
• Philip Metzger, Ph.D., University of Central Florida 

Abstract

Let’s talk regolith! Join us on June 4 for a roundtable discussion exploring the complexities and challenges of working with regolith in various flight test environments. The Flight Opportunities team is bringing together researchers with diverse expertise and hands-on experience testing regolith-related payloads across a variety of flight platforms. The conversation will include experiment preparation, how regolith reacts to different activities like digging or plume-surface interaction, differences between simulants, and key platform-specific insights. This roundtable aims to foster valuable dialogue and knowledge exchange within the community.

Have questions or suggestions for regolith topics to include? Email us at NASA-FlightOpportunities@mail.nasa.gov.

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Speaker Bios

David Scarborough, Ph.D., leads the combustion physics lab at Auburn University. The primary focus of the lab’s research is to understand combustion instability problems that exist in a large variety of applications. Their goal is to further understand the combustion process through understanding how the acoustic and heat release processes interact with each other. The current projects are highly varied, with studies focused on topics ranging from liquid rocket engine combustion to wildland fire mitigation research.

 Dan Durda, Ph.D., is a principal scientist in the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. He has more than 20 years’ experience researching the collisional and dynamical evolution of main-belt and near-Earth asteroids, Vulcanoids, Kuiper belt comets, and interplanetary dust. Dr. Durda is one of three SwRI payload specialists who fly on multiple spaceflights on commercial reusable suborbital vehicles.

Mircea Badescu, Ph.D., is a mechatronics engineer at the Nondestructive Evaluation and Advanced Actuators (NDEAA) lab at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he has worked since 2005. His expertise spans the design and integration of advanced piezoelectric devices, planetary sampling systems, and instruments for extreme environments. He has contributed to the development of optical components for telescopes, reconfigurable robotic platforms, and haptic control systems for automotive and vehicular applications. Dr. Badescu has also led and participated in field testing campaigns in various and challenging locations, including glaciers, deserts, and Antarctica.

Arjun Agarwal, Ph.D., is a robotics engineer at ProtoInnovations, LLC, contributing to lunar rover mobility research and development under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) program. Dr. Agarwal’s work includes Python-based development for a single-wheel testbed, data analysis, and test execution. Previous experience includes research roles at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the University of Maryland’s Space Power & Propulsion Laboratory, with contributions to electric propulsion, cryogenic planetary access systems, and atomic spectroscopy.

Jason Schuler is the project manager for NASA’s ISRU Pilot Excavator (IPEx) project and principal investigator at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the Game Changing Development Program. His work focuses on the development of robotic technologies and excavation tools for lunar and Martian surface operations. Schuler has contributed to the design of hardware for the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) and the All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) rovers, supporting teams at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dr. Adrienne (Addie) Dove is a planetary scientist and associate professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She received her B.S. in physics from the University of Missouri and her Ph.D. in astrophysics and planetary science from the University of Colorado. She is passionate about space and space exploration (both human and robotic) and educating people about science and exploration. In July 2017, she was awarded the Susan Niebur Award Early Career Award by the NASA Solar System Exploration Virtual Research Institute (SSERVI) for her contributions to the science and exploration communities. Addie’s experience with Flight Opportunities began during her post-doctoral studies, and she has subsequently received multiple awards for Flight Opportunities-supported flight tests. She is also the chair of the Space (Suborbital) Applications Researchers Group (SARG), a science and researcher advocacy group with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). She guides young researchers on how to effectively leverage suborbital flight tests to advance their own research endeavors.

Dr. Philip Metzger is a planetary physicist with the Planetary Science faculty at the University of Central Florida, developing what he calls “Economic Planetary Science” to help humanity’s expansion beyond Earth. He has 30 years’ experience at NASA first as an engineer and then as a physicist, developing and operating spaceflight technologies. He co-founded the NASA KSC Swamp Works, a research and development lab modeled after the Skunkworks and implementing innovation practices borrowed from Silicon Valley. The Swamp Works focuses on technologies for planetary surfaces including mining, manufacturing, and construction using space resources. He performs research related to solar system exploration: predicting how rocket exhaust interacts with extraterrestrial soil, investigating the mechanics of soil, characterizing lunar and Martian soil simulants, modeling the migration of volatiles on airless bodies, etc.