Alumni News

Martian dust could pose health risks to future astronauts

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:00:31 +0000

Martian dust could pose health risks to future astronauts Jeff Zehnder Tue, 04/01/2025 - 09:00

Don’t breathe in the dust on Mars.

That’s the takeaway from new research from a team of scientists, including researchers from the ��Vlog�ƽ��. The findings suggests that long-term exposure to Martian dust could create a host of health problems for future astronauts—leading to chronic respiratory problems, thyroid disease and more.

The study, published in the journal GeoHealth, is the first to take a comprehensive look at the chemical ingredients that make up Martian dust, and their possible impacts on human health. It was undertaken by a team from the worlds of medicine, geology and aerospace engineering.

“This isn't the most dangerous part about going to Mars,” said Justin Wang, lead author of the study and a student in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “But dust is a solvable problem, and it’s worth putting in the effort to develop Mars-focused technologies for preventing these health problems in the first place.”

Justin Wang (Credit: Justin Wang)

Justin Wang, left, and Brian Hynek, right, at Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica. (Credit: Justin Wang)

A dust devil swirls on the surface of Mars as seen from space. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Wang, a CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� alumnus, noted that Apollo era astronauts experienced runny eyes and irritated throats after inhaling dust from the moon. Apollo 17’s Harrison Schmitt likened the symptoms to hay fever.

But scientists know a lot less about the potential harms of Martian dust. To begin to answer that question, Wang and his colleagues drew on data from rovers on Mars and even Martian meteorites to better understand what makes up the planet’s dust. The group discovered a “laundry list” of chemical compounds that could be dangerous for people—at least when inhaled in large quantities and over long periods of time.

They include minerals rich in silicates and iron oxides, metals like beryllium and arsenic and a particularly nasty class of compounds called perchlorates.

In many cases, those ingredients are present in only trace amounts in Mars dust. But the first human explorers on Mars may spend around a year and a half on the surface, increasing their exposure, said study co-author Brian Hynek.

“You’re going to get dust on your spacesuits, and you’re going to have to deal with regular dust storms,” said Hynek, a geologist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU ��Vlog�ƽ��. “We really need to characterize this dust so that we know what the hazards are.”

Into the bloodstream

One thing is clear, he added: Mars is a dusty place.

Much of the planet is covered in a thick layer of dust rich in tiny particles of iron, which gives the planet its famous red color. Swirling dust storms are common and, in some cases, can engulf the entire globe.

“We think there could be 10 meters of dust sitting on top of the bigger volcanoes,” said Hynek, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. “If you tried to land a spacecraft there, you’re going to just sink into the dust.”

Wang found his own way to Martian dust through a unique academic path. He started medical school after earning bachelor’s degrees from CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� in astronomy and molecular, cellular and developmental biology, followed by a master’s degree in aerospace engineering sciences. He currently serves in the Navy through its Health Professions Scholarship Program.

He noted that the biggest problem with Martian dust comes down to its size. Estimates suggest that the average size of dust grains on Mars may be as little as 3 micrometers across, or roughly one-ten-thousandth of an inch.

“That’s smaller than what the mucus in our lungs can expel,” Wang said. “So after we inhale Martian dust, a lot of it could remain in our lungs and be absorbed into our blood stream.”

An ounce of prevention

In the current study, Wang and several of his fellow medical students at USC scoured research papers to unearth the potential toxicological effects of the ingredients in Martian dust.

Some of what they found resembled common health problems on Earth. Dust on Mars, for example, contains large amounts of the compound silica, which is abundant in minerals on our own planet. People who inhale a lot of silica, such as glass blowers, can develop a condition known as silicosis. Their lung tissue becomes scarred, making it hard to breath—symptoms similar to the “black lung” disease that coal miners often contract. Currently, there is no cure for silicosis.

In other cases, the potential health consequences are much less well-known.

Martian dust carries large quantities of highly oxidizing compounds called perchlorates, which are made up of one chlorine and multiple oxygen atoms. Perchlorates are rare on Earth, but some evidence suggests that they can interfere with human thyroid function, leading to severe anemia. Even inhaling a few milligrams of perchlorates in Martian dust could be dangerous for astronauts.

Wang noted that the best time to prepare for the health risks of Martian dust is before humans ever make it to the planet. Iodine supplements, for example, would boost astronauts’ thyroid function, potentially counteracting the toll of perchlorates—although taking too much iodine can also, paradoxically, lead to thyroid disease. Filters specifically designed to screen out Martian dust could also help to keep the air in living spaces clean.

“Prevention is key. We tell everyone to go see their primary care provider to check your cholesterol before it gives you a heart attack,” Wang said. “The best thing we can do on Mars is make sure the astronauts aren’t exposed to dust in the first place.”

Co-authors of the current study include USC medical students Jeremy Rosenbaum, Ajay Prasad and Robert Raad; Esther Putnam, former graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences at CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� now at SpaceX; Andrea Harrington at the NASA Johnson Space Center; and Haig Aintablian, director of the Space Medicine Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, also affiliated with SpaceX.

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Smead Aerospace recognizes 2025 alumni award honorees

Jeff Zehnder — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:58:12 +0000

Smead Aerospace recognizes 2025 alumni award honorees Jeff Zehnder Thu, 03/20/2025 - 12:58

Jeff Zehnder

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is honoring eight alumni for outstanding contributions to industry, for technical achievement, and public service.

The 2025 AeroBuffs Club Alumni Academy inductees are being recognized for work in business, civil, and military aerospace spheres.

“Our outstanding graduates from Smead Aerospace are both established leaders and rising stars across aerospace engineering science," said Hanspeter Schaub, professor and chair of Smead Aerospace. "We're excited to recognize these individuals for their achievements and what they've given to our industry as a whole. They're solving big challenges and pushing the limits of what is possible in aerospace engineering sciences."

Honorees are being recognized in three categories:

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Commercial Enterprise

Under 40

Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr BS’17) - An astronaut and Senior Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, Gillis has played a key role in creating SpaceX’s astronaut training program and flew aboard the Inspiration4 Polaris Dawn, which took humans farther from Earth than any mission since the Apollo program.

Over 40

Zach Hazen (AeroEngr BS’07) – Hazen is a leader in the UAS industry, having sized, configured, and provided detailed aerodynamic designs for 10 different aircraft achieving first flight. He also directed the development of five operational aircraft serving both commercial and defense sectors.
Maciej Stachura (AeroEngr MS’10, PhD’14) – As the co-founder and CTO of Black Swift Technologies, Stachura has built a career developing uncrewed aircraft systems for extreme environments, including wildland fires, volcanoes, tornadoes, and hurricanes.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Public Service

Over 40

Michael R. Dickey (AeroEngr BS’87, MS’88) – Dickey co-founded Elara Nova, a global space consultancy, and is a career aerospace leader with two stints in public service, including as an Air Force officer and at the civilian senior executive level supporting the stand-up of the United States Space Force.
Bruce Haines (AeroEngr BS’86, MS’87, PhD’91) – A principle research technologist at NASA JPL, Haines is a leader in the fields of precise orbit determination and calibration/validation of satellite radar altimetry, with over 250 published research papers.
David B. Spencer (AeroEngr PhD’94) – Across a long career in education and research, Spencer has made major contributions to space flight dynamics, trajectory optimization, and orbital debris research. He is the lead author of the Interplanetary Astrodynamics textbook and has served in key roles in multiple industry associations.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Technical Achievement and Leadership

Under 40

Álvaro Romero-Calvo (AeroEngr PhD’22) – A professor at Georgia Tech, Romero-Calvo’s fundamental and applied engineering research is developing space technologies for reduced-gravity environments and advancing the fundamental understanding of their underlying physical principles.

Over 40

David Wiese (AeroEngr MS’07, PhD’11) – As a space geodesist at NASA JPL, Wiese has played key roles in multiple remote sensing missions, including GRACE and ICESat-2. He has conducted authoritative research into the changing state of Earth’s hydrosphere and his papers have been cited over 11,000 times.

All of the honorees will be officially recognized at the 2025 AeroBuffs Club alumni banquet and awards ceremony on April 18. Registrations are still being accepted for CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� aerospace alumni who would like to attend.

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Astronaut Sarah Gillis is the First to Play Violin in Space

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 20:08:41 +0000

Astronaut Sarah Gillis is the First to Play Violin in Space Jeff Zehnder Mon, 03/17/2025 - 14:08

At more than 870 miles above Earth, this was no ordinary violin recital.

On Sept. 13, 2024, Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) played “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars: The Force Awakens by legendary composer John Williams — from a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. As she played, Gillis firmly pressed her violin to her shoulder with her chin as she floated around the zero-gravity chamber, her hair flowing wildly.

Gillis’ three astronaut crewmembers filmed the inaugural performance as part of the Polaris Program’s Polaris Dawn mission, then transmitted the video to Earth via Starlink, a laser-based satellite communication.

Polaris Dawn posted the video, “Harmony of Resilience,” on X that day as part of a partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and El Sistema USA, which supports American music education programs. The video included Gillis’ performance and clips from orchestras playing the same piece in Los Angeles, Boston, Haiti, Sweden, Brazil, Uganda and Venezuela.

“The whole music moment was meant to inspire and show what’s possible when you can bring the world together,” Gillis said in an interview two months after returning to Earth.

“The whole music moment was meant to inspire and show what’s possible when you can bring the world together.”

Gillis reflected on the months of preparation for the performance, which included having engineers completely reconstruct her violin to survive the harsh space environment, and meeting Williams himself at the Los Angeles recording session.

“That was probably more stressful than actually going to space, if I’m completely honest,” said Gillis, who does not play violin professionally. “I was so nervous that he would show up and say, ‘No, you don’t have the rights to use this anymore.’ And instead he was so kind and supportive.”

From Training Astronauts to Becoming One

Gillis first gained interest in space as a high school student at ��Vlog�ƽ��’s Shining Mountain Waldorf School, where she attended a CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� space for nonmajors course with her brother David Levine (FilmSt, Hist’13) and met former CU instructor and NASA astronaut Joe Tanner. Tanner helped Gillis with a space-related project she had for school, and he encouraged her to consider engineering at CU ��Vlog�ƽ��.

“He really planted that seed,” she said. “I honestly don’t know that I would’ve considered engineering if that hadn’t happened.”

After Gillis returned to Earth, Tanner — who flew on four NASA space shuttle flights from 1994 to 2006 — was eager to swap space stories with her.

“Being a friend to Sarah was perhaps my greatest joy during my eight years at CU,” said Tanner. “I may have helped open a few doors for her, but she made everything happen. I couldn’t be more proud of her, even if she were my own daughter.”

During her junior year at CU, Gillis took an internship at SpaceX that lasted more than two years. She helped develop and test displays and interfaces on the interior of the company’s Dragon spacecraft, the first private spacecraft to take humans to and from the International Space Station.

“I got to see some of those design decisions in space on my mission,” she said. She joined SpaceX full time in August 2017 as a space operations engineer, training astronauts on the interfaces she’d already worked on.

Several years later, her boss called a surprise meeting with her. Jared Isaacman, Polaris Dawn’s mission commander, was there to invite her to become part of the crew as a mission specialist, joining himself, Scott Poteet (mission pilot) and Anna Menon (medical officer and mission specialist).

“My response was, ‘Hell yes, but I’ll need to talk to some people first,” she said. “I immediately walked out of the room and straight downstairs to my husband, who worked at SpaceX with me. He had his headphones on at his desk. I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘I need to talk to you.’ … It was very special to share that exciting news.”

Five Record-Breaking Days

Two and a half years later, on Sept. 10, 2024, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One of the crew’s main objectives on the mission was to conduct research to help better understand the human effects of space flight and space radiation. This included the first spacewalk from Dragon.

On the third day of the mission, Gillis and Isaacman exited the spacecraft in SpaceX’s newly designed and developed extravehicular activity spacesuits. For 10 minutes, she tested different components of the suit and became, at 30 years old, the youngest astronaut to complete a spacewalk.

When asked to describe the feat in one word, she settled on “dark.”

“I was emerging into the total blackness of space. It’s this immense void where you realize how close to Earth we are and how much is still left to explore out there, but it’s also this overwhelming dark blanket that is surrounding you.”

"It’s this immense void where you realize how close to Earth we are and how much is still left to explore out there."

The next day was her violin performance, which was planned to test the connectivity of SpaceX’s Starlink laser-based internet from space. The data may help improve communications for future missions to the Moon and Mars.

The crew also conducted other experiments — including gathering data on space radiation — that could help advance human health for future long-duration space flights.

Gillis noted one surprising aspect of being in space she hadn’t prepared for: how easily things got lost without the presence of gravity.

“It was always a constant treasure hunt of, ‘Has anybody seen this? Has anybody seen that?’” she said, adding that a missing camera SD card was found in the spacecraft weeks after landing. “You’d stick something with Velcro, then turn around and it would be gone.”

The historic mission lasted five days and ended with a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida.

“I hope that it is inspiring to people to see what the future of human spaceflight could be and where we’re going — that it is a possibility that more and more people are going to go to space.”

“I hope that it is inspiring to people to see what the future of human spaceflight could be and where we’re going — that it is a possibility that more and more people are going to go to space,” Gillis said.

The Next Step

Gillis’ husband, Lewis Gillis (Aero Engr’17; MS’17), formerly a SpaceX senior propulsion engineer, reflected on his wife’s extraordinary career to date when the couple visited campus this past November.

“With some curiosity and passion and connecting to all the humans around her, Sarah’s made it quite a long way,” he said. “I’m excited to see what she builds next and who she meets along the way.”

Gillis said she would reconsider another spaceflight if given the opportunity, but she is eager for others to experience space first. She remains in her astronaut training position at SpaceX.

Reflecting on her historic mission, she said: “I think the more people we can get into space to see the world from that perspective, the better off humanity will be.

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Aerospace grad wins CU Engineering alumni award

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:08:23 +0000

Aerospace grad wins CU Engineering alumni award Jeff Zehnder Mon, 02/17/2025 - 12:08

Jack Elston (ElCompEngr’03; MElEngr’05; MAeroEngr’07; PhD’11) is the 2025 recipient of the Alumni Engagement Medal from the College of Engineering and Applied Science...

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Life in space from a CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� alumna who has been there

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:07:41 +0000

Life in space from a CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� alumna who has been there Jeff Zehnder Tue, 11/12/2024 - 12:07

Jeff Zehnder

Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) is a lead space operations engineer and astronaut trainer at SpaceX with literal out of this world experience.

The ��Vlog�ƽ�� alumna recently returned from a five day orbital mission aboard Polaris Dawn, which took astronauts further from Earth than any have traveled since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.

On Nov. 11, she spoke to students and community members in a special event at Fiske Planetarium.

A ��Vlog�ƽ�� native, Gillis shared what life was like in space for the four-member crew and details of the science and engineering that brought them to orbit and safely home.

What it is like experiencing launch for the first time.

Intellectually, I had studied all the physical changes you go through going to space, but actually going through them is fascinating. For this one moment, you’re defying gravity as the rocket lifts off the pad and you start accelerating and accelerating. You get pushed into your seat. The Gs get to about 4.5. When you get to second engine cutoff and you’re just floating; you no longer have pressure pushing you into the seat, you have fluid in your face. You suddenly feel like when you’re a kid and you’re laying upside down off the bed.

There’s an adjustment period once you are in orbit.

Every crew member goes through this time on board where you’re adapting. The first two days are pretty hard in space. You’re figuring it out. You’re going through all the physiological changes. You have this brain fog; you have elevated fluid. You can have space motion sickness.

You’re probably not feeling your best, in all honestly. How you setup a timeline for crew members in space should account for that. You could not possibly have talked our crew into doing any less on our mission, but hindsight is definitely helpful, and it’s just a reality that it takes a bit of time for crew members to adapt.

Keep an eye on space while following your passions.

I always knew how unlikely it was to ever become an astronaut. The statistics are not in your favor right now at our point in human history. I do think that’s going to change in the very near future if SpaceX is successful in bringing Starship online. You go from having four people in a spacecraft to 100 people in a spacecraft. As you change those numbers, cost of access to space will go down, so the opportunities that will exist will look much different in next 10-15 years.

For me, knowing how unlikely it was, it was super important to find things I was genuinely interested in. That way, no matter what happening in life, I couldn’t be disappointed because I was doing things that were interesting and engaging and things I wanted to be pursuing. Follow your curiosity and it will take you to extraordinary places.

The incredible complexity of designing a space suit from scratch.

It was about a 2.5 year development program where one day we would show up and we’d have the left shoulder rebuilt in a certain way. The next Monday we’d show up and they’d have a whole new elbow for us to try and then we’d go and get in the simulator and understand what worked and what didn’t and really fed that into the design process of these suits. It was a pretty extraordinary development effort.

There were times that we were learning stuff that went against industry knowledge. One of the things we discovered pretty late was the risk of electrostatic discharge in the suits. That led to an entire deep dive into understanding material testing.

One of the last tests we did still on Earth was once the suit had gone through all sorts of iterations, we actually took them to a vacuum chamber at Johnson Space Center and we wore them in the vacuum chamber and ran through the entire depress and repress sequence. It was just an extraordinary test of competence into the suit, understanding what the pressure changes and temperature changes would feel like.

Moving in space without gravity to weigh you down creates challenges.

What’s so cool about moving in a pressurized suit is it’s really almost physical problem solving. You can only rotate your shoulder so many degrees, or you can only extend your arm so far in the suit. What that means is you have to make sure that a person of a certain stature can perform everything they need to in that pressurized environment. It was a really cool development process with SpaceX to figure out what new mobility aids we needed in the spacecraft. What additional handholds and footholds would be required to make sure we could accomplish all the tasks we needed to.

On flight day two we got pressurized in the suits and did a dry run (of the EVA). It was really fun to actually see how things worked, and what were the things we hadn’t accounted for. As soon as I went to the controls and interfaced with them, based on where my center of mass was, my feet would suddenly start rotating up, and so I had to find a whole new strategy for how to secure myself when I was at the displays and how to transition out from the displays.

Train for the worst day so you can experience the best day.

In training we had really prepared for every possible scenario we could come up with for the EVA. Really as much as we could use the imagination to prepare bad day scenarios, we had trained for them, and it was so smooth. You train for the worst day so you can actually experience the best day. The spacewalk went exactly as we had hoped.

There is so much we do not know about life in space.

We partnered with 31 institutions on 36 research experiments, a lot of which came from CU, which I was really excited about. Some of my former professors actually contributed experiments to the mission.

Overall, the research was really focused on experiments that needed human involvement, things that could benefit future life as we try and look toward Mars. There’s a lot of health issues that astronauts encounter over long duration, and this includes space motion sickness, and spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome.

Many astronauts do have degraded vision over time and we don’t actually understand the mechanism at this point. It’s often associated with the fluid shift that happens where you suddenly have more fluid in your brain, but if we’re going to actually mitigate that and fix it in the future, we need to get to the heart of the cause, so we did a whole slew of experiments looking at different eye pressure and vision change data.

Re-entry is awesome.

It’s so, so cool to reenter Earth’s atmosphere. We start seeing a glow around the spacecraft at around 100 km. Then as you start to get lower you start to see these neon colors, pinks and oranges, and you actually see some of the sparks flying past the window. As you get lower in the atmosphere you start encountering turbulence with the different layers of the atmosphere. The thrusters are firing all around and it really feels like Dragon is clawing its way back into the atmosphere.

The mission does not end at splashdown.

We were picked up by the recovery vessel and about 30 minutes later we climbed out of the spacecraft and we were checked out by the doctors before being flown by helicopter back to Kennedy Space Center where we met our families. From there the mission wasn’t over, we had about a week of science and research and data collection post flight. We traveled to Houston pretty immediately for some high density bone scans.

Trusting others with your life -- teamwork is critical.

Human spaceflight is the ultimate team sport. It’s not only you have to have an extreme working relationship with the people on that mission -- you are absolutely trusting them with your life to keep you safe. That extends to the people on the ground team as well, you have this entire team supporting you, and even more people behind the scenes beyond that.

As a trainer, I knew the technical side of Dragon and what you need to do to live and work in space, and what I found most interesting was in one of our early sims, the four of us go in the spacecraft, and we did terribly. We completely messed up the scenario. We were all going in different directions, chasing rabbit holes and ultimately just failed the simulation in so many ways. You have to learn how to work as a team.

It doesn’t matter what you bring to the team, you have to learn when to lead, when to follow, how you bring what you can contribute through a different lens because ultimately the success of the crew is what’s most important versus your own knowledge.

Seeing Earth from space changes you.

Seeing the Earth from that perspective cannot not change someone. All of our time here on Earth is so precious, your life is only so many hours overall. I have this immense appreciation for maximizing what we are here to do in this world. I think you certainly take calculated risks when you put yourself on a rocket and launch to space, or reenter the atmosphere. Those are all things that you have to believe that the risk is worth it for the benefit. It’s shifted my perspective a little bit on how cherished our time is with our family and our friends and what we’re here to do on this Earth. I’m still reflecting on it. I think it will continue to change me.

Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr’17) is a lead space operations engineer and astronaut trainer at SpaceX with literal out of this world experience. The ��Vlog�ƽ�� alumna recently returned from a...

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Retired Astronaut Marsha Ivins Reflects on Her Time in Space

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:50:37 +0000

Retired Astronaut Marsha Ivins Reflects on Her Time in Space Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/30/2024 - 14:50

Marsha Ivins (AeroEngr’73) is a retired astronaut who has participated in five missions to space. Over the course of her career, Ivins spent a total of 55 days in space handling various responsibilities, from monitoring systems as a flight engineer to managing photography. This year, she was selected as a 2024 inductee for the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame, one of the highest honors in the industry.

As a child, did you imagine life as an astronaut?

I have wanted to work in the space business in some capacity since I was 10 years old. Imagining opens the door to trying, and trying is step one in achieving. I wasn’t solely focused on just flying in space, although of course that was a dream. Everyone I knew, family, teachers and friends said it could never happen.

Of your career missions, are there any that you feel especially passionate about or regard as your favorite?

There is no such thing as a bad spaceflight. They all had shining moments for me.

Can you describe the feeling of looking out at the Earth for the first time from space?

I cannot adequately express the visceral feeling of realizing you are no longer on the planet. What you see is only a sliver of the feeling.

What were some of your career goals when you were studying aerospace engineering at CU ��Vlog�ƽ��?

NASA was not hiring astronauts when I graduated from college. I applied as an engineer to the Johnson Space Center (JSC), but 1974 was a severe downtime for aerospace engineers in all industries. I also applied for 27 other jobs around the country that were not hiring at the time. I was offered and accepted a job with Abbott Laboratories, and shortly after I got a call from the JSC saying I’d been offered an engineering position in a new class — which I then accepted.

How does it feel to be selected for the Astronaut Hall of Fame?

I am honored to have been considered and selected for induction. There have been 106 men and women inducted into the AHOF since 1990, covering the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs. It is overseen by the Astronaut Scholarship Fund which, to date, has given over $8 million in scholarships to more than 790 students in STEM fields at partner universities across the country.

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Out in Space

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:35:58 +0000

Out in Space Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/30/2024 - 10:35

Jason Reimuller (MAeroEngr’07, PhD’11) didn’t necessarily set out to be a groundbreaker.

He likes to say he “herds the cats and tells the stories,” but his activism is more than that. Reimuller is breaking barriers, both for astronauts and for the LGBTQ+ community.

“You grow a movement, and it grows organically. And then there’s so many people that come in and bring their own expertise and expand this in ways you never thought possible,” Reimuller said. “We’re addressing gaps that need to be addressed. The questions are being asked that were far too long ignored.”

Reimuller is the founder and executive director of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and of Out Astronaut, a nonprofit organization intended to increase LGBTQ+ visibility within the aerospace industry, particularly spaceflight.

Reimuller earned his PhD in aerospace engineering sciences at CU ��Vlog�ƽ��. He said the IIAS really grew from his dissertation research.

It started with clouds — noctilucent ones, to be precise. These high-altitude clouds can be seen on clear summer nights at high latitude. Reimuller’s advisor, Professor Emeritus Jeff Thayer, got him interested in the phenomena, which then led to Reimuller piloting a small instrumented plane in northern Alberta, Canada, to image the clouds at a high altitude.

“It was a bit of an adventure, being in such remote places and in an unpressurized plane at 25,000 feet,” Reimuller said.

This research led to conference presentations, which then unfolded into discussions about encouraging citizen research that would leverage a new generation of suborbital space vehicles, thereby making spaceflight research more accessible to the general public.

“Over the years, I’ve led [the IIAS] to make sure we can eliminate barriers of access so that more people can become professionals in the industry and demand a seat at the table over what the future of space will look like,” Reimuller said.

This idea of removing obstacles is also one of the driving missions of Out Astronaut. As a gay man who was twice selected by NASA as a highly qualified astronaut candidate, Reimuller knows how important LGBTQ+ representation in the science community is.

There has never been an astronaut who has openly identified with the LGBTQ+ community at the time of their selection. But Reimuller wants young people to be able to look at astronauts, scientists, researchers and others in the STEM world and see themselves, no matter their gender or sexual identity.

“Our heroes can be STEM professionals, not just actors and entertainers,” he said. “I want them to see astronauts as someone who is the best version of themselves, someone they could aspire to become. That image is so important, because it shows someone that succeeds on their merit. They’re a truly global-minded person that puts world humanity above everything else. They are someone who assumes great risks because of the importance of what they set out to do.”

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Designing autonomous robots for use on Mars and closer to home

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:54:08 +0000

Designing autonomous robots for use on Mars and closer to home Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/15/2024 - 08:54

Jeff Zehnder

Preparing to engage the robot during the MDRS mission.

Pawel Sawicki (BioMedEngr MS’22, AeroEngr PhD’23) is exploring the barren landscape of Mars and testing out critical new technologies through a one-of-a-kind experience here on Earth.

Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station, an “analog” astronaut research facility in the remote Utah desert. Operated by the Mars Society, the center gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to test out future space experiments without a long space journey.

Sawicki, a ��Vlog�ƽ�� master’s and PhD alumnus, recently returned from the base, where he spent two weeks as a mission commander with a six-member crew. The team lived and worked under conditions remarkably similar to what NASA astronauts will face on the red planet.

“It was pretty exciting. We lived in the station and to go outside we had to wear EVA suits,” Sawicki said. “We’re simulating life on Mars so we can learn how to design experiments, equipment, and operations for when astronauts really go and face that challenge.”

Along with a series of geological and nuclear experiments was a 30 lb., four-wheel, ground robot provided by Nisar Ahmed, an associate professor of aerospace at the ��Vlog�ƽ��.

Robots will be important on future Mars missions, but only if users can easily understand their capabilities and limitations, said Nick Conlon, one of Ahmed’s PhD students in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.

Ahmed’s lab is focused on developing methods so a robot can accurately tell operators how well it will be able to do a task. Called Factorized Machine Self-Confidence, the system will give users an easy way to grasp how competent the robot is.

“The objective was to use the robot to take video autonomously in different areas to create a 360 view of the environment, like Google Maps Street View,” Conlon said. “Before the robot starts as task, it analyzes its internal models to report if it can achieve the goal. Can it drive to a certain area, does it have enough battery to get back, can it avoid obstacles? Things like that.”

Conlon delivered the robot to MDRS and demonstrated the technology prior to the analog mission beginning.

While astronauts are likely to be highly trained on their equipment, the goal of this robotics research is to make it possible for regular users to utilize the technology with little trouble.

“People have different ideas of what a robot might be capable of,” Conlon said. “We don’t want them to over trust a piece of equipment and break it or get hurt or drive off a cliff. We also don’t want people to under trust and have it sit and collect dust in a corner. We want people to use it within its limits and want to use it.”

Conlon said much of the research with the robot thus far has been in controlled environments, making Sawicki’s MDRS mission a unique deployment opportunity.

“We’ll be writing a paper from all we’ve learned from this experience,” Sawicki said. “One of the key findings is just how to make the system super robust for a field study, taking it on an EVA, and wearing a spacesuit in the process.”

Although there were some early diagnostic issues, the robot was able to complete all of the requested site surveys, and both Conlon and Sawicki are hopeful the data will be helpful for subsequent MDRS missions.

One unique challenge that will face future Mars astronauts is communicating with home. Due to the massive distance between the red planet and Earth, one way transmissions have a minimum delay of 8-10 minutes. That makes any live calls impossible. The same restrictions are imposed on the analogue astronauts.

“The isolation was definitely a mental challenge. Nick was back in Colorado and when I had to work with him on an issue with the robot, there are no phone calls and you can’t exchange messages quickly. You send an email and wait,” Sawicki said.

Participating in an MDRS mission fulfilled a goal Sawicki had held since his time as a grad student. CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� offers a course called Medicine in Space and Surface Environments that takes students to MDRS, but during his PhD program Sawicki was unable to make it work with his schedule.

He reached out to MDRS after graduating to sign up for a mission on his own and they offered the opportunity to be mission commander.

“My PhD was in hypersonics but I had taken all of these bioastronautics classes and they said you’re a great fit for this mission,” Sawicki said. “I learned the trials and tribulations of what goes into an isolated mission like this, maintaining crew stability, scheduling. It was a great learning experience for me, and a unique opportunity for Ahmed and Conlon to learn about how future astronauts may one day work with, and alongside, autonomous robots.”

The MDRS 297 mission patch, with the team member names and the robot in lower left.

Pawel Sawicki is exploring the barren landscape of Mars and testing out critical new technologies through a one-of-a-kind experience here on Earth. Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station, an...

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Atmospheric research in the most extreme place on Earth: Antarctica

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 15:10:10 +0000

Atmospheric research in the most extreme place on Earth: Antarctica Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/24/2024 - 09:10

Jeff Zehnder

Above: Doddi aboard the Shirase amid the Antarctic icepack.
Header Video: Adelie penguins traveling across the frozen tundra.

Abhi Doddi (PhDAeroEngr’21) is collecting scientific data outdoors in a 70 mph whiteout blizzard. It is just another day of life in Antarctica.

Doddi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the ��Vlog�ƽ��, is leading a major study involving high-altitude balloons to improve weather forecasting on the Antarctic continent.

He endured years of planning and an ocean voyage aboard an icebreaker ship to reach this remote and dangerous corner of the Earth, and despite the weather, he is excited to be here.

“This sort of data has never been collected before,” Doddi said. “We want to gather small-scale turbulence data over the polar vortex using complimentary observations from radar and balloon-based instruments. This data is very important to improve the representation of turbulence due to the atmospheric gravity waves and the polar jet stream in the current numerical weather prediction models.”

Ship Journey

Most U.S.-based researchers who study the Antarctic weather do so from McMurdo Station, a United States-run base that is surprisingly accessible, with daily flights aboard military cargo planes during the Antarctic summer.

Doddi’s research required a much more arduous journey. He needed access to a specialized mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar, and there is just one on the continent – at Syowa Station, a Japanese base only accessible by ship. Japan’s naval icebreaker Shirase makes one trip there each year. Doddi boarded in Australia. From there, it took 20 days to reach Syowa and 38 to return.

“I don’t get seasick, but it gets uncomfortable when swells are 7-8 meters tall, and you’re being tossed in all directions, even while you sleep,” Doddi said.

Breaking the Ice

The ship could travel at 30 knots on the open ocean, but when they reached the Antarctic ice pack, travel slowed considerably as the vessel needed to repeatedly back up and accelerate forward to break through the ice.

The Shirase carried roughly 180 crew plus 100 scientists and engineers. Doddi and his research partner, Tyler Mixa (MAeroEngr’14, PhD’19), were the first non-Japanese researchers to visit Syowa station.

Timelapse video of the Shirase reversing and accelerating forward to break through the Antarctic icepack.

“The language barrier was the hardest thing. Of the entire crew, there were only about 10 people who spoke conversational English,” Doddi said.

With no option for quick departure in the event of a medical emergency, every person on the trip needed to be in perfect health.

“They want you to be bulletproof. If you get a cavity before the trip, until your dentist provides proof that it’s been filled, and your doctor has signed off on your health, and the Japanese medical team has reviewed the records, you’re not getting on the ship,” he said.

Research Variety

Doddi’s work focused on Antarctic atmospheric conditions, but there were a litany of other teams conducting studies across scientific disciplines. There were multiple oceanographers and aquatic life experts, as well as people doing bird studies, ice core samples, and geological surveys.

“One of the teams discovered 3-4 new species of microorganisms on the trip, which was fascinating. No one had ever laid eyes on those organisms before,” he said.

Even after reaching Antarctica, there was more travel – by air. Due to shallow water, the Shirase must anchor 10 miles off shore and ferry the crew and supplies to the base via helicopter.

Blizzard Balloon Launches

Once they landed at Syowa, Doddi’s research got underway in earnest – readying dozens of balloon payloads that would fly to 20 km in altitude while drifting up to 100 km laterally and relay turbulence measurements back in real time.

The work paired broad measurements from the MST radar with precision instruments aboard the balloon-borne instrument systems developed at CU ��Vlog�ƽ��. As a major goal is improving weather forecasting, Doddi spent plenty of time outdoors in less-than-ideal weather.

“We experienced three different blizzards, each lasting up to three days, with winds in excess of 60-70 mph,” he said. “Those conditions were hands down some of the best experiences of my life. That’s the data we want, even if it meant we were staying up for 48 hours. My sleep cycle was totally messed up,” he said.

It did not help that during the Antarctic summer, the sun never sets.

When it was not snowing, the temperature typically hovered just below freezing – practically balmy for an Antarctic summer – with the warmest days topping out at 5°C (41°F).

Abhi Doddi and Tyler Mixa launching a balloon payload on a very windy day at Syowa Station

Syowa Station, which is spread across 60 buildings, offered few comforts during down time.

“The bunks on the ship were larger and more comfortable than those on the base. It was four people to a room, with no doors on any room, just curtains, and communal baths, like a gym locker room,” Doddi said.

What's a Vegetarian?

He also faced a unique obstacle with food. Doddi is a life-long vegetarian, but base meals were via a single Navy cafeteria cooking everyone the same food.

“I’m a vegetarian from birth, and the concept of vegetarianism doesn’t exist in Japanese culture. They don’t even have a word for it. So I brought 240 shelf-stable meals as part of my personal supplies,” he said.

Although Antarctica is frozen year round, there is still plenty of local wildlife. Doddi saw hundreds of emperor penguins and over 1,000 adelie penguins, in addition to seals, petrel seabirds, and albatross. He was able to do some hiking, but safety precautions were necessary.

“If you were going beyond the perimeter of the base or to access a restricted portion, one of the Navy personnel had to go ahead of you to assess the conditions of the ice for cracks and crevasses,” he said.

Analysis Back Home

With the Antarctic field campaign complete and Doddi back in Colorado, phase two of the project begins – complex and lengthy analysis.

“This was a two-month data collection project followed by a three-year modeling program,” Doddi said. “We need massive super computers to do this modeling. The overarching goal is to provide guidance to improve the weather forecasts for people in Antarctica, so this will help researchers for years to come.”

In addition to Doddi, collaborators on the project are Dale Lawrence, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� and director of the Research & Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles; Mixa from Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences (GATS) in ��Vlog�ƽ��; the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo; and Kyoto University.

Map of the Shirase's 20 day journey from Australia, to Syowa Station.
On the 38 day trip back, the ship hugged the Antarctic coast for additional research and to stop at an automated ionospheric measuring station that needed service.

Abhi Doddi (PhDAeroEngr’21) is collecting scientific data outdoors in a 70 mph whiteout blizzard. It is just another day of life in Antarctica. Doddi, a postdoctoral researcher at the ��Vlog�ƽ��, is leading a major study involving high-altitude balloons to improve weather forecasting on the Antarctic continent.

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Alumni, faculty honored at 2024 Smead Aerospace banquet

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:44:10 +0000

Alumni, faculty honored at 2024 Smead Aerospace banquet Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/26/2024 - 13:44

Jeff Zehnder

Header Image: Attendees at the banquet, including 2024 honoree Jack Elston (in blue tie).
Above: Prof. Hanspeter Schaub and Jen Uchida with her alumni award.

Full Photo Gallery at Flickr

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences has honored nine alumni for outstanding contributions to industry, for technical achievement, and public service.

The 2024 AeroBuffs Club Alumni Academy inductees were recognized during a banquet April 19 for work in business, civil, and military aerospace spheres.

“Smead Aerospace has outstanding graduates serving as leaders across the aerospace industry," said Hanspeter Schaub, professor and chair of Smead Aerospace. "We're excited to recognize these individuals for their personal achievements and what they've given to our industry as a whole. They're solving big challenges and pushing the limits of what is possible in aerospace engineering sciences."

Honorees were recognized in three categories:

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Commercial Enterprise

Derek Lerner (AeroEngr BS'04) (Over 40 Category) – As senior director within the Corporate Chief Technology Office at Northrop Grumman, Lerner leads the engineering and systems engineering capabilities for the corporation, with previous key roles at both Orbital ATK and Orbital Sciences.
Dave Murrow (AeroEngr BS'84) (Over 40 Category) – Murrow has served in major roles designing deep space exploration missions for Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, retiring in 2023 after a 36 year career. He now operates his own consulting business, Space Connections.
Todd Mosher (AeroEngr MS'95, PhD'00) (Over 40 Category) – Mosher is a director at Blue Origin with more than 30 years of experience working in human and robotic spaceflight systems as a technical authority and manager, and is currently a Presidential Leadership Scholar.
Chris Ellerhorst (AeroEngr BS'08) (Under 40 Category) – Ellerhorst has served in leading roles at United Launch Alliance and Lockheed Martin, and is currently vice president of the Kuiper Program at ULA, overseeing financial, technical and operational activities of the multi-billion dollar program.
Ryan Slabaugh (AeroEngr BS'15, MS'15) (Under 40 Category) – A Marine Corps combat veteran with software engineering leadership experience at Lockheed Martin and Boeing, Slabaugh has garnered recognition for his strategic leadership in delivering mission-critical software and fostering cultural change.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Public Service

Patrick Binning (AeroEngr MS'94, PhD'97) (Over 40 Category) – Binning is an aerospace defense leader and educator, directing teams that have made ground-breaking contributions to projects at the Naval Research Lab, National Reconnaissance Office, Missile Defense Agency, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Outstanding Alumni for Excellence in Technical Achievement

Jack Elston (ElCompEngr’03, MS’05, AeroEngr MS’07 PhD’11) (Over 40 Category) – As CEO and co-founder of Black Swift Technologies, Elston has built a startup developing uncrewed aircraft systems for extreme environments, including wildland fires, volcanoes, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
Jen Uchida (AeroEngr BS'05, MS'05) (Over 40 Category) – Uchida is a senior test program manager at Boeing with a career spanning the flight test industry from military aircraft, to civil type certification, to electric aviation. She is a former NASA Astronaut finalist, and volunteers time with CU ��Vlog�ƽ��, professional societies, and scholarship foundations for women in STEM.
Laura Stiles (AeroEngr MS'11, PhD'13) (Under 40 Category) – Stiles has served more than 10 years an aerospace engineer at Blue Origin, holding multiple design, test, and launch positions advancing private human spaceflight. She is now a Blue Origin astronaut trainer and leads multiple technical evaluation committees at the company.

The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences has honored nine alumni for outstanding contributions to industry, for technical achievement, and public service. The 2024 AeroBuffs Club Alumni Academy inductees were recognized during a...

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