University of Maryland, College Park¶
Type: Academia | Location: College Park, MD | SST projects: 1
SST Portfolio¶
| Project | Title | Period | TRL | Status | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91330 | Propellantless Attitude Control via Reflective Control Devices | 2015-10 → 2017-10 | 3→4 | Completed | no-visible-outcome |
What Was Developed¶
PDLC (Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal) film for solar sail attitude control: Electrically switchable thin film that toggles between transparent and diffusely reflective states. Applied to solar sail surfaces, this enables propellantless attitude control by locally modulating radiation pressure — no reaction wheels, no propellant, unlimited mission lifetime.
MSFC co-organization (Marshall Space Flight Center). TRL advanced 3→4 only.
Key People¶
Jeremy Munday — PI¶
Photonics and metamaterials researcher. PhD Physics, Harvard (2008). Postdoc Caltech (2008–2011).
- Career: UMD (2011–2019) → UC Davis (2019–present). Moved after the SST project.
- TechPort footprint: 2 projects across 2 programs:
- 91770 — Radiation Pressure on Tunable Optical Metamaterials (STRG, UMD, 2012–2016, TRL 2→3)
- 91330 — Propellantless Attitude Control RCD (SST, UMD, 2015–2017, TRL 3→4)
- Publications: Nature Scientific Reports (2018) on anomalous metasurface reflections for solar sail control. Nature Communications (2024) on dynamically stable lightsail propulsion for interstellar exploration.
Upstream Lineage¶
| Source | Program | Connection | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 91770 Radiation Pressure on Metamaterials | STRG | Same PI (Munday), same org (UMD). TechPort Advanced_To link to [91330]. Fundamental radiation pressure physics → applied solar sail PDLC control |
confirmed (TechPort outcome record) |
Clean STRG→SST pipeline: STRG funded the basic science (metamaterial radiation pressure measurement, TRL 2→3), SST funded the application (solar sail attitude control, TRL 3→4).
Downstream Impact¶
No Direct Flight or Commercial Outcome¶
The PDLC technology did not advance beyond TRL 4. No follow-on TechPort projects. No evidence of integration into ACS3 (the major SST-funded solar sail that deployed Aug 2024) or any other solar sail mission.
However: Broader Solar Sail Ecosystem Connection¶
Munday's metamaterial solar sail work feeds into a broader NASA ecosystem: - ACS3 95595: SST-funded solar sail that successfully deployed Aug 2024. Uses reflective control devices (RCDs) — conceptually related but developed separately (NASA Langley/NanoAvionics) - NIAC Phase II (Davoyan, UCLA): "Extreme Metamaterial Solar Sails for Breakthrough Space Exploration" — directly extends Munday-style metamaterial concepts to diffractive lightsails - Munday continued publishing at UC Davis: Nature Communications 2024 paper on dynamically stable lightsail propulsion — the research thread continued after SST funding ended, just not through TechPort
Publications¶
1 NTRS citation found: "Design and Validation of High Data Rate Ka-Band Software Defined Radio for Small Satellite" (20160007909) — this appears to be a catalog error; actual Munday pubs are in Nature/Scientific Reports.
Key external publications: - Ma, Murray, Munday. "Strong Solar Radiation Forces from Anomalously Reflecting Metasurfaces for Solar Sail Attitude Control." Scientific Reports 8, 10694 (2018). - "Dynamically stable radiation pressure propulsion of flexible lightsails for interstellar exploration." Nature Communications (2024).
Assessment¶
Outcome category: no-visible-outcome
Pattern: "Academic TRL Ceiling" — the classic university pattern where TRL advances 1–2 levels but doesn't reach flight. The interesting wrinkle is that Munday continued the research at UC Davis without further NASA funding, publishing in top journals. The knowledge transferred via the researcher, not the project.
Distinctive: One of the cleanest STRG→SST pipelines in the portfolio, with TechPort's own Advanced_To outcome record confirming the link. The solar sail metamaterial concept has legs (NIAC Phase II, Nature Communications 2024) — it just didn't advance through SST.
Cross-reference: ACS3, Propulsion topic
Last updated: 2026-04-14 (session 20)