Space Grant Success Stories

OSIRIS-REx sample site diagram over an image of asteroid Bennu's surface

UA/NASA Space Grant mentors, Dante Lauretta and Jason Davis, discuss their current work on the OSRIS-REx mission

After a year of circling close to near-Earth asteroid Bennu, the OSIRIS REx spacecraft is almost ready to dip down and collect a surface sample.

Portrait of Moriba Jah

Moriba Jah, 1999 Embry-Riddle Space Grant Intern, featured on NPR's Short Wave

Moriba Jah, the keynote speaker for this year's AZSGC Symposium, is a leader in the field of space traffic management, coordinating the movement of satellites, spent rocket bodies, debris, and other objects in space.

A grant from the Army Research Office will fund an extension of the Arizona Supersonic Wind Tunnel, making it capable of conducting experiments in transonic conditions. Stuart "Alex" Craig (left) and Jesse Little received the funding through the U.S. Department of Defense's Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority-Serving Institutions Science Program.

UA Space Grant Mentors, Stuart Craig and Jesse Little, featured in UA News discussing current research on wind tunnels

The University of Arizona College of Engineering wind tunnels are getting $1.7 million in upgrades, which will boost the capabilities of the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in high-speed aerodynamics research.

Launch countdown begins! Photo by Arsh Nadkarni.

NASA Selects Proposals for Student Aeronautics, Space Projects

Arizona Space Grant's ASCEND balloon-satellite launch program featured on NASA.gov's latest stories as National Space Grant Program celebrates its 30th Anniversary!

Credit: International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration / Georgia Tech-Schmidt / Dichek ITGC researchers Britney Schmidt and Andy Mullen retrieve the robotic submarine Icefin after its last dive to the seafloor foundations of Thwaites Glacier. Icefin was engineered in Schmidt's lab at Georgia Tech.

Check out current research by 2003 UA Space Grant Intern, Britney Schmidt, on robotic submarines!

An underwater vehicle from the Georgia Institute of Technology makes its first-ever visit to Thwaites Glacier’s grounding zone as part of the historic International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration.

Nabila Huq and Derek Vardon in research lab

2011 UA/NASA Space Grant Intern, Nabila Huq (right), now researches potential bioblendstock for diesel fuel

A novel oxygenate molecule that can be produced from biomass shows promise for use as a blend for diesel fuel, according to researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

iShowcase Demo of VR glasses

UA/NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellow, Charles Parrish, at iShowcase

UA/NASA Space Grant Graduate Fellow, Charles Parrish, demoes a component of his Space Grant Outreach Fellowship work on accessible, immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences.

An artist's conception showing spherical carbon molecules known as buckyballs coming out from a planetary nebula — material shed by a dying star. Researchers at the University of Arizona have now created these molecules under laboratory conditions thought to mimic those in their "natural" habitat in space. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

2019-20 UA/NASA Communications Intern, Rachel Abraham, discusses complex carbon molecules in nebulae with UA Researchers

Mimicking conditions thought to exist around dying stars, researchers discovered a mechanism that could explain why planetary nebulae are teeming with complex carbon molecules.

UA/NASA Space Grant Mentor, Dr. Monica Ramirez-Andreotta, leads a project to determine whether Arizona town is exposed to harmful mining toxins

UA-led project studies if Arizona town is exposed to harmful mining toxins By Alana Minkler - The Daily Wildcat "Roy Chavez, a lifelong resident of Superior, Ariz., a small mining