Anirudh Tadanki’s research while affiliated with Georgia Institute of Technology and other places

... Recent work has highlighted the opportunity to leverage the significant development in CubeSat and SmallSat flight system hardware for an extremely cost-effective technology demonstration of the drag modulation system in Earth orbit [29]. A small (less than 100 kilogram) aerocapture spacecraft would use either a secondary launch opportunity or a small launch vehicle to a highly elliptical orbit to perform a single atmospheric pass at relevant conditions to planetary entry. ...

Reference:

Enabling and Enhancing Science Exploration Across the Solar System: Aerocapture Technology for SmallSat to Flagship Missions