Christine M. Hartzell
Minta Martin Professor
Affiliate, Department of Astronomy
EDUCATION
- Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2012
- B.S. Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008
BACKGROUND
Christine Hartzell is a Minta Martin Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland and the director of ASTRA-UMD, UMD’s newly started center for space exploration research. Her research seeks to elucidate the fundamental physics of granular systems that will enable key space exploration technologies. She is particularly interested in the evolution of the surfaces of airless planetary bodies (like asteroids and the Moon), the behavior of granular materials, and the detection of sub-cm orbital debris. She is a Participating Scientist on the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, and was involved with the OSIRIS-REx mission and the Janus mission. Asteroid 9319 was named “Hartzell” in recognition of her contributions to the field of asteroid science. Prior joining the faculty at UMD, Dr. Hartzell was a Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech. She completed her PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder and received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech.
HONORS AND AWARDS
- NASA Planetary Science Division Early Career Award
- Asteroid 9319 named "Hartzell" in recognition of contributions to asteroid science
- Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
- Amelia Earhart Fellowship
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
- Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
- American Astronautical Society (AAS) Division for Planetary Science (DPS)
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Planetary science
- Orbital mechanics
- Plasma physics
- Granular mechanics
- Spacecraft design
- ENAE 404: Space Flight Dynamics
- ENAE 601: Astrodynamics
SELECT REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
- Ian Desjardin, Christine Hartzell, Jonathan Wrieden. “Multifluid Simulation of Ion Acoustic Solitons Arising from a Charged Source and Comparison to the Forced Korteweg - de Vries Model” Physical Review E, 2025, 111, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.111.025204.
- Eric Frizzell and Christine Hartzell. “Wave transmission through the megaregolith as a mechanism for lunar cold spot formation” Icarus, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2025.116461
- Cecily Sunday, Charles Pett, Adam Ben Youssef, Daisy Achiriloaie, Connor Churko, Dan Lathrop, Christine Hartzell. “Avalanching behavior of magnetic granular mixtures”, Physical Reviews E, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.110.044901.
- A. Truitt and C. Hartzell, “3D Kadomtsev-Petviashvili Damped Forced Ion Acoustic Solitary Waves from Orbital Debris”, J. of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2020, https://doi.org/10.2514/1.A34805.
- D.S. Lauretta, C.W. Hergenrother, C.M. Hartzell (author #27 of 58) et al. “Episodes of Particle Ejection from the Surface of the Active Asteroid (101955) Bennu”, Science. 2019. Vol 366, eaay3544. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3544
- D. Carter and C. Hartzell “Effect of Mixture Properties on Size-Dependent Charging of Same-Material Dielectric Grains”, J. Electrostatics. 2020. Vol 107, 103475, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elstat.2020.103475.
- C.M. Hartzell, “Dynamics of 2D Electrostatic Dust Levitation at Asteroids”, Icarus. 2019. Vol 333, pp. 234-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2019.05.013
- Hartzell, X. Wang, D. Scheeres, M. Horanyi. “Experimental Demonstration of the Role of Cohesion in Electrostatic Dust Lofting” Geophysical Research Letters. 2013. Vol 40, doi: 10.1002/grl.50230.
- Hartzell, D. Scheeres. “Dynamics of Levitating Dust Particles Near Asteroids and the Moon” Journal of Geophysical Research. 2013. Vol 118, pp 116-125.
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
› Associate Fellow