Satellites
I am currently the project manager for a student satellite project called Explorer-1 [Prime] working under the Space Science and Engineering Lab. E1P is a science reflight of America's first satellite. It will measure the van Allen radiation belts and radio its results to radio amateurs around the world.
As project manager I have performed much of the mission analysis, including some rudimentary simulations as well as scenario planning. The world of space operations is complex, and full of bizarre elements carried over from the days of the first explorer satellites.
In this capacity one comes in contact with all kinds of people who drive the space science efforts on this planet as well as learn the practical limitations and kinds of technology required to get a science mission accomplished on time and on budget.
Some of the actual (non management) work I've done:
Power budgeting
Mission planning
Ground station development
GPS system engineering
Radio system design\testing
Balloon electronics platform development
Orbitial dynamics\tether physics
Ham radio experimentation (Call sign : KE7DHQ)
Primary mission software
Satellite Operations
FSK Modem Development
Amplifier Development\testing
Gravitational Wave Astrophysics
Astronomers have found black holes a million times the mass of our sun in the center of most galaxies, including our own. While the evidence for these monstrous holes is solid, their origins remains a mystery. A good clue to their origins is that the mass of the black hole is well correlated with the properties of the galaxy; fat galaxy fat hole, anemic hole wimpy galaxy.
The process that makes these Massive Black Holes must somehow be tied to the formation of galaxies. One hypothesis for galaxy formation is that the galaxies we see today are formed by repeated mergers with similar galaxies. There is ample evidence for galaxy mergers and much evidence for many more occurring much earlier in the evolution of the universe. If the black holes grow through mergers in the same way, we should be able to make a snapshot of black hole evolution by looking out back in time and counting mergers taking place at different epochs. Different models of black hole merging have been hypothesized but testing requires the ability to unambiguously detect mergers of massive black holes.
This is the task of a Gravitational Wave detector. In particular the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna will be able to detect mergers between black holes in this mass range during the first few hundred million years of cosmological time. However LISA will be somewhat flawed (as all instruments are) and will be subject to complicated variations in many parameters. By modelling the errors and the way they statistically vary we are finding ways to precisely predict the accuracy to which LISA (and any similar detector) will be able answer the question of the origin of the Massive Black Holes.