Chloe Gentgen

Chloe Gentgen is a PhD candidate whose research lies at the convergence of planetary exploration, propulsion and trajectory design, and space sustainability. Her ambition is to lead robotic exploration missions to the outer solar systems as a space mission architect, and she has already designed and launched hardware that has flown in space. With the support of a MathWorks Fellowship, Chloe will expand her work to optimize hybrid propulsion for small satellites and design planetary exploration missions and concepts. Specifically, she plans to demonstrate through modeling and simulation that small satellites, known as CubeSats, would benefit from hybrid chemical-electric propulsion. Plans are underway for a demonstration mission that could enable Chloe to assemble and test a CubeSat with a hybrid propulsion payload. She has participated in several NASA and California Institute of Technology competitions, contributing to mission concepts for the dwarf planet Ceres and Saturn’s moon Titan. Currently, she leads an MIT team developing in-situ resource utilization for Mars. MathWorks tools, including Simulink, Optimization Toolbox, and Matlab-Astrodynamics-Library, as well as the MATLAB community itself, play a central role in Chloe’s work.