Katherine worked specifically with a professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (hosted in UC, Department of Civil Engineering, but travels to other campuses). Her final deliverables included developing a program to analyze data through charts/graphs from respondents within various demographics.
Price explains that determining the composition of the asteroids would give insight on the formation of different celestial bodies, and the minerals in asteroids could potentially be harvested for commercial use. “In order for the commercial missions to be economically viable, access to such asteroids needs to be cheaper and faster,” she shares. Previous successful asteroid exploration missions, such as the Japanese Hayabusa missions, have long development cycles, and are heavy and expensive and thus aren’t plausible for small space agencies or companies to carry out. “Dauria’s efforts in developing an inexpensive and rapidly-built exploration platform were very timely. I was excited to be a part of it.”
