A sophomore aeronautical engineering student captures Purdue from a scientific perspective

When Trevor Mahlmann sees a dot pass through the sky, he doesn’t wish upon a star — because it’s not happenstance that he is looking up. He knows the dot is not a shooting star or other object soaring through space. He is standing at the right place at the exact right time to see the International Space Station (ISS) pass by. The dot in the air serves as a reminder of Mahlmann’s dream to become an astronaut. And maybe even to become one of the select few to have the opportunity to live and work on the ISS.

Just over a year ago, Mahlmann was among a group of people selected to attend a NASA Social event for the SpaceX CRS-4 cargo resupply launch to the ISS in exchange for social media coverage. He borrowed a friend’s camera to take along on the trip and his return coincided with the 2014 lunar eclipse. He decided to hold on to the camera and possibly capture the eclipse. 

“The eclipse was very early in the morning and I was debating whether or not I wanted to get up and shoot it the night before. I’m glad I did because I discovered a love for photography I never knew I had. That experience definitely gave me the bug.”

Soon after, he purchased his first DSLR camera and began capturing the ISS as it flies by in the night sky. He tracks the orbit of the station on heavens-above.com and receives push notifications a few minutes before it will be passing by. 

“My favorite thing to shoot is the space station as it passes because although it looks like a dot in the sky, it is actually the temporary home of three to six astronauts,” he says. “Plus it appears in different parts of the sky depending on its orbit.”

Mahlmann has shot the space station from various spots on campus and really enjoys the challenge of picking out the subject to put in the foreground of each photo. However, his favorite shot was taken from the seat of an airplane. While traveling back from New York in June 2015, Mahlmann tracked the orbit of the station using the in-flight Wi-Fi and determined that the ISS was going to pass by while he was 40,000 ft. in the air. 

“I used a GoPro and suction-cupped it to the window and then held my hoodie over the camera to avoid glare from the cabin lights. My fellow passengers thought it was a little strange but then couldn’t believe the shot I captured once I showed it to them.”

The shot impressed others as well. It was posted by the ISS Facebook and Twitter accounts and retweeted by a few astronauts. Just the mention of an astronaut being impressed by his photo makes Mahlmann smile. 

“My hobby is as close I can get to space for now.”