Kevin M Crosby

Professor Kevin M. Crosby teaches in the Physics and Astronomy Department and Computer Science Department at Carthage, and has chaired both departments. Dr. Crosby served as Division Chair for the Division of Natural Sciences for 10 years and as Dean of the Division of Natural and Social Sciences for one year. Dr. Crosby currently directs the NASA Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium and runs the Carthage Space Sciences program.

He has taught broadly across the physics curriculum, including courses in planetary astronomy and global climate science. He is currently involved in a variety of undergraduate space science research initiatives, including suborbital payload experiments, parabolic flight experiments, and CubeSat projects.

Dr. Crosby also works as a Senior Scientist at NASA Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center, where he works on the Modal Propellant Gauging Project.

Dr. Crosby came to Carthage in 1998 from the University of Northern Colorado, where he was visiting assistant professor of physics.

Prof. Kevin Crosby CV

Media Mentions:

Carthage College Teams Up With NASA To Solve 50-Year-Old Problem 

Carthage College professor Kevin Crosby and three students are working on how to measure fuel in zero gravity for NASA program. (Wisconsin Public Radio, August 28, 2019)

Carthage research payload goes to space and back

Professor Crosby and Celestine Ananda ’20 discuss Carthage’s research payload that flew on the latest Blue Origin Launch in Texas. (Kenosha News, February 3, 2019)

Wisconsin Researchers are Closer to Finding Solutions for NASA’s Apollo era Conundrum in Space

Carthage College professor Kevin Crosby leads students to answer critical questions NASA has about failing in orbit. (Milwaukee Independent, September 3, 2019)

• Ph.D. — Physics, Colorado State University
• M.S. — Physics, University of California-Davis
• B.A. — Physics, Beloit College

• PHY 1000 Physics for Future Presidents
• PHY 2200 General Physics I
  PHY 3300 Thermodynamics
• PHY 4000 Microgravity Environments
• NAT 400V Technical Project Management

Professor Crosby’s research interests include:

• Carthage Space Sciences
 Physics students at Carthage, led by Professor Crosby, have the opportunity to conduct significant research for NASA and have flown aboard NASA’s microgravity aircraft, the Weightless Wonder. Students also participate CubeSat opportunities, in near space balloon research, and in suborbital rocket payload development through NASA’s RockSat program.  Computational Physics
At Carthage, students have applied molecular dynamics (MD) code to study a variety of problems in materials science. We use a cluster of 12 computers shared with the Computer Science Department to run both classical and quantum ab initio MD code.

Over $13M in external grants and contracts

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Propellant Refueling and On-orbit Transfer Operations. 2021-2023. $600,000. 

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Phase III MPG Re-flight and Embedded Teacher. 2020-2021. $144,795.

NASA Advanced Exploration Systems Program: MPG-ISS International Space Station Project. 2020-2021. $139,390.

NASA: Propellant Gauging in Gateway Architecture Vehicles. 2019-2021. $500,000.

NASA National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program: Lead Institution/Director, Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium, 2014-2024. $7,407,755.

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Magneto-Active Slosh Control System for Spacecraft and Launch Vehicles (2018-2019). $271,749.

NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project: Canopy Near-IR Observing Project (CaNOP), 2016-2018. $210,000.

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Modal Propellant Gauging in Microgravity Phase III. $285,000.

National Space Grant Foundation: First Nations Launch Rocket Competition program 2014-2018. $600,000+.

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Modal Propellant Gauging in Microgravity Phase II, 2016-2017. $173,134.

NASA Flight Opportunities Program: Modal Propellant Gauging in Microgravity, 2015-16. $126,000.

Midstates Math and Science Consortium: Janet Anderson Lecture Award, 2014.

NASA Cooperative Agreement STEM Persistence through Early Engagement with Balloon-Platform Research, 2014-2017.  $485,844.

NSF Noyce STEM Teacher Training Grant: Community Alliance for STEM Teaching (CAST), 2014-2016. $299,131.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Research Seed Grant: Normal Field Instability in Ferrofluids in Microgravity, 2014. $15,587.

NASA: Microgravity Propellant Gauging Using Modal Analysis, 2013. $68,000.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Parabolic Flight Campaign: De-gassing FC_72 Using Radial Membrane Filtration, 2013. $5,700.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Fluid Mass Gauging in Spacecraft Propellant Tanks Using Modal Analysis, 2012. $41,550.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Using Real-time Modal Analysis to Determine Spacecraft Propellant Tank Volume, 2011. $3,000.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Modeling Propellant Slosh in the Orion Crew Module Downstream Propellant Tanks, 2010. $2,000.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Space Sciences Capstone Curriculum – Higher Education Initiatives Program, 2009. $16,000.

NASA Regional Space Grant: Repose Angles of Lunar Regolith in Reduced Gravity – NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Program, 2009. $2,500.

NASA Regional Space Grant: Team Participation in Rock-On Suborbital Payload Development and Launch, 2009. $8,000.

Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium: Inertial Filtration of Lunar Dust – NASA Reduced Gravity Flight Program, 2008. $2,500.

Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction: Advancing Science Knowledge (Middle School Science Education, co-P.I.) 2007. $100,000.

NSF-STC Grant: Education and Outreach under the Center for Adaptive Optics (co-collaborator), 2000. $50,000 (Carthage Portion).

NSF-DUE (CCLI) Grant: A Computation and Visualization Laboratory at Carthage College (co-P.I.), 2000. $150,000.

NSF Travel Grant: Travel Grant to Bring Speakers to Carthage College, 1999. $1000.

Carthage College Faculty Research Grant: Seeing Science: Visualizing Complex Data, 1999. $2,000.

NSF-DUE Grant: Case Studies in the Introductory Physics Laboratory, 1998. $150,000.

40+ publications in peer-reviewed journals and proceedings.

Liquid Propellant Mass Measurement in Microgravity. Kevin M. Crosby, Rudolph J. Werlink, Eric A. Hurlbert. Gravitational and Space Research (9). 2021. 50-61. 10.2478/gsr-2021-0004.202.1

Modal Propellant Gauging: The Spectral Density Method. Kevin M. Crosby, Rudolph J. Werlink, Eric A. Hurlbert. AIAA SPACE 2020. January 2020. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2020-1443

On-Orbit Propellant Transfer and Mass Gauging. Proceedings of the International Conference on Environmental Systems 2020, Lisbon, Portugal. https://hdl.handle.net/2346/86312

The CaNOP CubeSat Mission: Updates, Results, and Applications. Andrew Santangelo, Kevin M. Crosby. Accepted for publication in AIAA ASCEND 2020. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2020-4176

Design and Testing of a Field Gradient System to Control a Hybrid Mnagneto-active Slosh Control System. Manikanda Vairamani, Kevin M. Crosby, Pedro J. Llanos, Sathya N. Gandadharan, Nagendra Somanath. Proceedings of the AIAA SCITECH 2020 Forum. 6-10 January 2020. Orlando, FL. https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2020-2051.

Preliminary Results from the Modal Propellant Gauging Experiment on New Shepard P9. Kevin M. Crosby, Taylor Peterson, Cassi Bossong, Celestine Ananda, Nicholas Bartel, Megan Janiak, Sheila Franklin, and Rudy Werlink. Proceedings of the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. March 2020. Broomfield, CO. https://www.boulder.swri.edu/NSRC2020/Site5/PDF/Crosby.pdf

Modal Propellant Gauging: High-resolution and non-invasive gauging of both settled and unsettled liquids in reduced gravity, Crosby, K.M., Williams, N.J., Werlink, R.J., Hurlbert, E.A. Acta Astronautica (2019). ISSN 0094-5765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2019.01.050.

Modal Propellant Gauging: High-resolution and non-invasive gauging of both settled and unsettled liquids in reduced gravity, Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Williams, N., Hurlbert, E. (2018). Proceedings of the 69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Bremen, Germany, 1-5 October 2018.

Non-Intrusive Zero-G and Settled Mass Gauging System using Piezoelectric Actuation and Sensing of Modal Response for Spacecraft Cryogenic or Earth Storable Propellants, Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Williams, N., Hurlbert, E. (2018). Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force Interagency Propulsion Committee, In-Space Chemical Propulsion Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM), Huntsville, AL, 29-30, August 2018.

Modal Propellant Gauging in Low Gravity
Crosby, K.M., Rundle, T., LeCaptain, K., and Werlink, R., AIAA SPACE 2016, AIAA SPACE Forum, (AIAA 2016-5533).

Book Review: The Physics of War, Physics Today 67(9), September (2014).

Degassing of FC-72 in Microgravity
Weiland, D., Crosby, K.M., Hall, N., Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (2013).

Experimental modal analysis of fluid volume in spacecraft propellant tanks in microgravity Mathe, S., Lubick, K., Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (2013).

Zero Gravity Fuel Gauging Using Modal Analysis (Proceedings Abstract)
Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Mathe, S., Lubick, L., Proceedings of the 2013 Next-generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, June 3-5, Broomfield, CO (2013).

Modal Evaluation of Fluid Volume in Spacecraft Propellant Tanks: Part II
Mathe, S., Anderson, K., Bakkum, A., Lubick, Robinson, J., Weiland, D., Werlink, R., Crosby, K. M., Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (2012).

Modal Evaluation of Fluid Volume in Spacecraft Propellant Tanks (Proceeding Abstract),
Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Mathe, S., Lubick, K., Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, held October 22-24, 2012 in Greenbelt, MD.

Modal Evaluation of Fluid Volume in Spacecraft Propellant Tanks: Part I
Finnvik, S., Metallo, S., Robinson, J., Crosby, K.M., Werlink, R., Proceedings of the 21 ^th Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (2011).

Slosh Dynamics in the Orion Downstream Propellant Tank (Proceedings Abstract)
Crosby, K.M., Bakkum, A., Finnvik, S., Fritz, I., Frye, B., Grove, C., Hartstern, K., Kreppel, S., Schultz, K., Braun, J.P., Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, held September 14-17, 2010 in Washington, D. C.

A Space Sciences Capstone Curriculum at Carthage College
Crosby, K. M., Dawn of a New Age:Proceedings of the 20th Annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (2010).

Reduced Pressure Cyclone Separation Studies using Synthetic Lunar Regolith
(Mackey, J. R., Agui, J. H., Crosby, K. M., Frye, B., Sietz, T.), Symposium Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Environmental Systems, Barcelona, Spain, July, (2010).

Scaling Relations for Repose Angles of Lunar Mare Simulants (Proceedings Abstract)
(Crosby, K. M.; Fritz, I.; Kreppel, S.; Martin, E.; Pennington, C.; Frye, B.; Agui, J.), Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, held November 16-19, 2009 in Houston, Texas.

Repose Angles of Lunar Mare Simulants in Microgravity
(Isa Fritz, ’10; Samantha Kreppel, ’10; Kevin Crosby; Erin Martin, ’09; Caitlin Pennington, ’09; Brad Frye, ’10; Jose Monegato, ’09; and Agui, J.), Proceedings of the 19th Annual Wisconsin Space Grant (2009).

Computational Fluid Dynamical Model of a Cyclone Separator in Microgravity
(Crosby, K. M., Frye, B.), Proceedings of the 18th Annual Wisconsin Space Grant: Hubble and Beyond (2008).

Measurements of the Collection Efficiency of an Air Cyclone in Lunar Gravity
(Crosby, K. M., Agui, J., Pennington, C., Sorensen, E., Martin, E., Fritz, I., Frye, B.), Proceedings of the Wisconsin Space Grant (2008).

Inertial Filtration of Lunar Dust in Reduced Gravity(Proceedings Abstract)
(Crosby, K. M., et al.), Report of the Joint Annual Meeting of LEAG-ICEUM-SRR (2008).

Grain Boundary Diffusion in Nanocrystalline Copper under Tensile Stress
(Crosby, K. M.) (2003).

Hands-on Demonstrations and Teaching Tools for Optics and Adaptive Optics
(Arion, D. N., Crosby, K. M., Lyons, D., Rand, K., and Randolph, A.), Proceedings of the Optical Society of America (2003).

New Physics in an Old Machine: Mechanics of the Trebuchet
(Crosby, K. M., Lyons, D., Pinter, C., and Randolph, A.) distributed with curriculum kits, Arbor Scientific (2001).

Case Study Experiments in the Introductory Physics Curriculum
(Arion, D. N., Crosby, K. M., and Murphy, E. A.), Physics Teacher, September (2000).

Reinventing the Physics Major at a Small College
(Crosby, K. M., Arion, D. N., and Quashnock, J. M.), AAPT Announcer 30 (4), 121 (2000).

Pattern formation during delamination and buckling of thin films
(Crosby, K. M. and Bradley, R. M.), Phys. Rev. E 59, R2542 (1999).

Pattern Formation in Thin Film Failure
(Crosby, K. M. and Bradley, R. M.), Philos. Mag. B 78, 143 (1998).

Electromigration-induced void drift and coalescence: Simulations and a dynamic scaling theory
(Crosby, K. M., Bradley, R. M and Boularot, H.), Phys. Rev. B 56, 8743 (1997).

Fragmentation of Thin Films Bonded to Solid Substrates: Simulations and a Mean Field Theory
(Crosby, K. M. and Bradley, R. M.), Physical Review E 55 (1997).

Simulations of Tensile Fracture in Thin Films Bonded to Solid Substrates
(Crosby, K. M. and Bradley, R. M.), Philos. Mag. B 76, 91 (1997).

A Mean Field Theory of Athermal Martensite Growth
(Crosby, K. M. and Bradley, R. M.), Philos. Mag. Lett. 75, 131 (1997).

Optical Properties and Laser Damage Measurements of Inorganic Polymer Films (Exarhos, G. H. and Crosby, K. M.), Laser Induced Damage in Optical Materials (1989).