Ben Corbin

Ben Corbin has always had a passion for space exploration. Even as a child, building rockets and learning about the cosmos were always more interesting for him than anything else. Ben graduated from the University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy. At UCF, he worked in both the Gas Dynamics Laboratory and the Department of Astronomy as a research assistant. Ben was also one of the youngest-ever participants at the International Space University’s 2007 Space Studies Program.

Currently, Ben is Ph.D. student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics program at MIT, where he recently completed dual Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Planetary Science. His master's thesis work was on hydrogen Lyman-alpha measurements in the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter. He is serving as the payload specialist for Project VeSpR, a sounding rocket experiment that will launch an ultraviolet telescope into space to study water loss and runaway greenhouse heating on Venus. He is also analyzing Hubble data to better understand the anomalous Lyman-alpha bulge along the magnetic equator of Jupiter.

Ben is also involved with a number of space-related extracurricular activities. He designed and built three scientific experiments on microgravity flights and had the opportunity to fly with two of them. He served as the Chief Engineer at the Mars Desert Research Station on Crew 53, where he planned and executed the first ever in-sim construction project and wrote the ATV training guidelines for the NASA Spaceward Bound curriculum. He is very active in the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), and he has served as President at both the UCF and MIT chapters. In 2007, he won the SEDS-USA Todd B. Hawley award for leadership excellence. Ben has also written publications on a variety of subjects, including analog spacesuit design, human missions to a near-Earth object and to Mars orbit, flame speed gas dynamics, and planetary hoppers.

Outside of his space activities, Ben also enjoys heavy metal music, video games, ballroom dancing, ice hockey, and snow skiing.
Location: Cambridge, MA, USA

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