B.S. Student
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Elizabeth Hoerber is a senior Aerospace Engineering undergraduate student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). Her experience lies in astrodynamics, systems engineering, and software development, with an interdisciplinary focus on space exploration and the life sciences. In 2021, she participated in an internship at Nichols, Melburg and Rossetto Architects and Engineers, where she analyzed, drafted, and modeled medical facilities. Elizabeth then assisted in planning the 2022 CubeSat Developer’s Workshop, which invites field experts to discuss small satellite technologies. She became a project manager in the Cal Poly ETOILES laboratory working on PowerSat–a 3U CubeSat designed to demonstrate space-based renewable energy. This opportunity laid the groundwork for co-authoring a paper on F Prime, which addresses issues regarding the dissemination of flight software knowledge across an educational small satellite team. In 2022, Elizabeth also interned at Kirtland Air Force Base, where she studied the three-body problem in the context of an Earth-moon-satellite system. She interned at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2023, working on mission planning for the Europa Clipper–a spacecraft that will investigate if one of Jupiter’s moons could possibly support life. At the 2023 BMES Annual Meeting, Elizabeth is presenting on her research regarding the effects of space travel on astronaut spines, comparing the accuracy of head-down tilt bed rest and dry immersion to actual spine symptoms in microgravity.