Dezell Turner slips on a set of sleek augmented reality goggles in the lobby of the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building. Behind him stretches a floor-to-ceiling mural of space鈥攁 deep blue sky dotted with constellations and the cloudy shape of the Milky Way.

In his Microsoft HoloLens headset, however, Turner is experiencing a different kind of outer space.

Turner, a graduate student in aerospace engineering sciences, waives his hands in front of him and pinches his fingers. Inside the headset, which only he can see, curving red and yellow lines appear. They join two dots, one representing Earth and the other the moon. With a few swipes, the lines shift, transforming from a relatively simple arc to more complicated curls and loop-de-loops.

It looks like a more dizzying version of directions you might follow on your phone during a road trip.

鈥淭his is like a holographic Google Maps for planning space missions,鈥� he said.

The new tool, which Turner developed working under advisor Jay McMahon, projects various paths a spacecraft could take to get to the moon through what scientists call 鈥渃islunar鈥� space. He named the software ASTROMECH, a nod to a class of droids in the Star Wars franchise.

Turner鈥檚 work arrives as the moon is having a moment. NASA鈥檚 plans to land humans on the lunar surface sometime this decade. Other entities, including a growing number of private companies, have their eyes set on space. Turner hopes that his AR tool will help some of those groups plan out their missions鈥攑icking routes and weighing factors like speed versus fuel cost.

For the budding aerospace engineer, the project is a chance to make the technology from some of his favorite movies a reality. Picture the scene in 2015鈥檚 Star Wars: The Force Awakens in which a droid projects a holographic map that will lead the characters to the location of a missing hero.

鈥淲hen R2D2 projects the map to Luke Skywalker, we鈥檙e creating a real-world version of that that鈥檚 hopefully just as intuitive to use,鈥� Turner said.

Dezell Turner in the lobby of the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building. (Credit: Dezell Turner)

According to ASTROMECH, this route from Earth to the moon would take a little over 15 days. The display also includes an estimate for delta-V, essentially how much fuel the spacecraft will need to burn. (Credit: Dezell Turner)

Miniature planetarium

Turner, who鈥檚 24, has loved space for as long as he can remember. When he was 4 years old, his parents bought him a projector that displayed a star map on the ceiling of his bedroom. He spent so long staring at the projection that he memorized many of the constellations.

But space is a lot more complicated than movies or his bedroom planetarium might make it seem. In Star Wars, if Han Solo needs to get somewhere, he just points the Millennium Falcon in the right direction and goes. In reality, spacecraft leaving Earth鈥檚 orbit are caught in the push and pull between the planet and its moon.

鈥淵our trajectories aren鈥檛 always going to be traditional shapes like ellipses and circles,鈥� Turner said. 鈥淪pacecraft may take all sorts of weird paths, and that can become very mathematically complicated.鈥�

In 1969, for example, Apollo 11 took a relatively direct route to the moon, arriving in an orbit close to the lunar surface in about three days. More recently, NASA鈥檚 Artemis 1 mission, which launched in 2022 with no humans aboard, made a more circuitous pass. The mission鈥檚 Orion space capsule first circled the moon, using its gravity to slingshot roughly 40,000 miles past the moon. That trip took five days.

Turner explained that some small aerospace companies may not have employees versed in those kinds of gravitational intricacies. ASTROMECH does the math for them.

鈥淭he ways in which Dezell is leveraging AR in designing ASTROMECH has the potential to make cislunar trajectory design much more understandable for most people in the industry,鈥� said McMahon, associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. 鈥淭his could be hugely beneficial for training new employees and increasing small companies' ability to operate spacecraft in cislunar space.鈥�

Alternate routes available

Back in the aerospace lobby, Turner demonstrates how he can pinch and swipe to compare those different routes.

Currently, the tool only tabulates fairly simple trajectories, similar to the direct path Apollo 11 took to the moon. But Turner would like to eventually add in more complicated routes. They include ones that take advantage of 鈥淟agrange points,鈥� or special spots in space where gravitational forces allow spacecraft to, essentially, park. The tool also includes an estimate for what aerospace engineers call delta-V, a calculation that roughly captures how much fuel a spacecraft will need to burn making maneuvers. Do you want to get to the moon fast and spend a bit more money or take your time and save on fuel?

Turner has a lot more work to do before aerospace companies can begin using ASTROMECH. One day, he envisions laying out trajectories for undertaking journeys even deeper into the solar system.

For now, he鈥檚 happy to have space at his fingerprints鈥攋ust like Rey gazing at R2D2鈥檚 map.

鈥淕etting to wear the headset really makes my day, especially when I鈥檝e been fighting bugs in my code,鈥� Turner said. 鈥淕etting to play with holograms makes me feel like a little kid.鈥�

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That ordinary smartphone in your pocket could be a powerful tool for investigating outer space.

In a new study, researchers at Google and 欧美口爆视频 Boulder have transformed millions of Android phones across the globe into a fleet of nimble scientific instruments鈥攇enerating one of the most detailed maps to date of the uppermost layer of Earth鈥檚 atmosphere.

The group鈥檚 findings, , might help to improve the accuracy of GPS technology worldwide several-fold. The research was led by Brian Williams of Google Research and included Jade Morton, professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

鈥淭hese phones can literally fit in your palm,鈥� Morton said. 鈥淏ut through crowdsourcing, we can use them to change the way we understand the space environment.鈥�

She and her colleagues used the GPS sensors that come standard in every smartphone to collect data on how Earth鈥檚 atmosphere warped signals coming from satellites. In the process, they were able to view phenomena in the atmosphere, such as blobs high above the planet known as 鈥減lasma bubbles,鈥� in never-before-seen detail.

The group released its data publicly so that anyone can watch how the atmosphere swirled and shifted over about eight months.鈥淐ollaboration is central to scientific progress and to our scientific research at Google,鈥� said Lizzie Dorfman, product lead for Science AI in Google Research. 鈥淒r. Morton鈥檚 expertise was essential to this research, and it has been an absolute pleasure working with her as a visiting researcher and collaborator.鈥�

Eye on the ionosphere

The study puts new focus on the ionosphere, a wispy layer of the atmosphere that stretches more than 350 miles above Earth鈥檚 surface.

It鈥檚 a volatile arena: Here, rays from the sun constantly beat down on the atmosphere, splitting its molecules and atoms into a soupy mix of charged particles鈥攚hat scientists call a plasma. It also never stays still.

鈥淎t 2 o'clock in afternoon, there are a lot more charged particles in the ionosphere because the sun is at its strongest,鈥� Morton said. 鈥淏ut at night, the sun is on the other side of the planet, so we have very few charged particles.鈥�

That fluctuation can play havoc with GPS technology.

Morton explained that the technology works through a sort of stopwatch in space: Satellites thousands of miles from Earth first beam radio waves to the planet. Your phone then pinpoints your location by measuring how long it takes those signals to reach the ground.

Scientists try to account for how the ionosphere might shift that timing by mapping this region of space using radar dishes on the ground. Currently, however, they can only observe about 14% of the ionosphere at any one time. As a result, GPS devices may miss your exact location by anywhere from a few to several dozen feet.

鈥淭here are a lot of applications that require a lot of accuracy鈥攆or example, landing aircraft,鈥� Morton said.

Bubbling up

In the current study, the researchers landed on an unusual idea: Rather than rely on expensive radar dishes, they could map the ionosphere using a suite of sensors that already existed in every country on Earth: Android phones.

The ionosphere maps are created using aggregated measurements of the radio signals between satellites and the receivers in some Android devices. ensure these measurements do not identify any contributing individual devices.           

In particular, the group used the phones to track in real time how the ionosphere stretches out radio waves coming from satellites.

The team reported that, on its own, this worldwide fleet could observe roughly 21% of the ionosphere鈥攑otentially doubling the accuracy of GPS devices worldwide.

鈥淢illions of phones together can do a much better job of monitoring the atmosphere than our ground network,鈥� Morton said.

The group鈥檚 maps also capture the ionosphere in brilliant detail.

In May 2024, for example, a powerful solar storm struck Earth just as the group鈥檚 cell phones were looking up. In the hours that followed, huge regions of atmosphere, or 鈥減lasma bubbles,鈥� containing low concentrations of charged particles formed above parts of South America. Those bubbles then rose through the ionosphere like wax in a lava lamp.

Morton, for her part, says the study shows the untapped potential of the everyday technologies that many people take for granted.

鈥淚 have spent my lifetime building dedicated instruments to do scientific research,鈥� Morton said. 鈥淏ut as technology advances in our society, we see all these sensors at our disposal that have a lot more power than we ever imagined.鈥�

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Hanspeter Schaub, Ph.D., Professor and Department Chair, Schaden Leadership Chair, Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering, University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder

Schaub is a visionary leader in the field of astrodynamics and spacecraft control whose innovative research has advanced the theoretical and practical understanding of spacecraft operations. His pioneering contributions to spacecraft formation flying, proximity operations, autonomous spacecraft scheduling and charged astrodynamics have transformed how we model and manage spacecraft motion, particularly through his work in electrostatic charging. These advancements are reshaping space mission proximity and rendezvous concepts, enabling new capabilities in spacecraft control without physical contact.

Schaub鈥檚 research has been instrumental in high-profile space projects, including the development of key components for the UAE Hope mission to Mars and the creation of the widely used Basilisk simulation environment. His work also explores the integration of machine learning into spacecraft command and control, opening new avenues for the future of space operations. His leadership in these cutting-edge fields is reflected in his recognition as a Fellow of both the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Astronautical Society (AAS), alongside prestigious awards like the AAS Dirk Brouwer Award and the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award. He won the University of 欧美口爆视频 Hazel Barnes prize for integrating his research into multiple graduate courses.

As an educator, Schaub has had a profound impact on aerospace engineering. His co-authored textbook is a cornerstone in universities worldwide, and his groundbreaking aerospace MOOC has brought advanced learning to tens of thousands of students. His commitment to education has been recognized with numerous awards, and his mentorship has guided the careers of dozens of Ph.D. students, fostering the next generation of leaders in the field. In his role as Department Chair and through his editorial leadership at the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Schaub continues to shape the future of aerospace engineering research and education, leaving a lasting legacy in academia and industry.

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The National Science Foundation is highlighting the SWARM-EX CubeSats.

The three cube satellite project, formally titled Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX), is an initiative of six universities, led by the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

"The thermosphere and ionosphere system 鈥� the start of what we often think of as 'outer space' 鈥� is a highly variable and complex region of our atmosphere contributing to space weather," said Scott Palo, a professor in Smead Aerospace and principal investigator for SWARM-EX.

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Inspecting a RAAVEN drone.

Members of the team in the human centrifuge lab.

Personnel from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Human Effectiveness Directorate (RH) at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base, Dayton, Ohio visited Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences October 7, 2024. 

AFRL members met with faculty, researchers, and students pursuing human factors and space research in the department. 

The Co-Learning team, led by Dr. Lorraine Borghetti, is pursuing novel methods for developing effective human-machine teaming systems in space domain awareness (SDA). The interdisciplinary team consists of experts from a wide range of backgrounds, including cognitive engineering, psychology, computer science, and data analysts. 

The visit day was hosted by Prof. Marcus Holzinger鈥檚 Vision, Autonomy, and Decision Research (VADeR) Lab. Researchers in the VADeR Lab are developing a comprehensive SDA virtual reality (VR) wargaming environment to train Space Force cadets to operate spacecraft in cislunar space 鈥� the area between the Earth and Moon. 

The partnership also includes subject matter experts from the 欧美口爆视频 Center for National Security Initiatives (NSI) and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). AFRL/RH and the VADeR Lab have plans to conduct joint human subject experiments related to space wargaming on campus.

The AFRL RH team and the VADeR lab also discussed space workforce development. Dr. Marcus Holzinger serves as the Principal Investigator on the STARLIT award; STARLIT focuses on advancing SDA research and expanding the space talent pipeline. The discussion encompassed student recruitment strategies for AFRL internships, as well as information dissemination on AFRL鈥檚 postdoctoral opportunities through the National Academy of Sciences.

For more information on the AFRL Human Effectiveness Directorate,

For more information on Dr. Marcus Holzinger and the VADeR Lab, please visit their website.

Contributing authors: Casey R. Heidrich, Meaghan Allyn

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An instrument aboard the CIRBE CubeSat is using advanced detection techniques and leveraging an orbit with specific characteristics to increase our understanding of the Van Allen belts

Designed and built by Smead Aerospace and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, CIRBE launched in 2023 and is conducting sophisticated, fine-grain measurements of the Van Allen radiation belts. CIRBE is managed by Professors Xinlin Li and Scott Palo.

NASA is highlighting the research in a new article on an intense magnetic storm in May 2024.

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Marcus Holzinger spoke to PBS News Hour about the growing problem of derelict satellites and other debris orbiting our planet: space junk.

"So these are defunct satellites, rocket bodies that have been expended and left up in orbit, as well as parts of spacecraft or parts of rocket bodies that have been up there now for an excess of 50 years, and even all the way up to the current time. There are about 40,000 objects that we're tracking right now on orbit," Holzinger said.

Holzinger, an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, is an expert on space domain awareness -- the study and monitoring of satellites orbiting the Earth.

During the interview, he discussed the importance of systems to track orbital material and policy solutions to ensure old satellites are de-orbited or moved to graveyard orbits to ensure they do not cause problems in the future.

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Dan Scheeres has been named a NASA participating scientist on the European Space Agency鈥檚 Hera mission.

Scheeres, a distinguished professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, is to join the space probe mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024.

Hera will study the binary asteroid system Didymos, including the moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by NASA鈥檚 DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022. The objectives of DART and Hera collectively aim to validate the kinetic impact method as a technology to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, if one is ever discovered, and to learn more about the near-Earth asteroids that are the source of this natural hazard.

鈥淭he Smead Department was heavily involved with the DART mission, and Hera is really the culmination of that project. My overall focus will be on interpreting the pictures we obtain of the Didymos binary asteroid system to better understand the orbit and spins of the two bodies about each other, and to understand what the surface environment is like,鈥� Scheeres said.

Scheeres is a National Academy of Engineering member, recognized for pioneering work on the motion of bodies in strongly perturbed environments such as near asteroids and comets.

Hera is scheduled to arrive at the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid system at the end of 2026, where it will gather otherwise unobtainable data about the mass and makeup of both bodies and assess the changes caused by the DART spacecraft鈥檚 kinetic impact. 

鈥淭here are many aspects of this system that don't seem to make sense, so puzzling out these different issues will be an exciting and exhilarating experience,鈥� Scheeres said. 鈥淭he Hera mission will be able to take crucial measurements that will determine how effective the DART impact was in moving the secondary asteroid Dimorphos.鈥�

The goal of NASA鈥檚 Hera Participating Scientist Program is to support scientists at U.S. institutions to participate on the Hera mission and address outstanding questions in planetary defense and near-Earth asteroid science. The participating scientists will become Hera science team members during their 5-year tenure with the mission.

DART was the first flight mission from NASA鈥檚which oversees the agency鈥檚 ongoing efforts in planetary defense. International participation in DART and Hera, including the Hera Participating Scientist Program, has been enabled by an ongoing worldwide collaboration in the planetary defense research community known as the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment.

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Sean Peters is leading a major multi-institutional initiative to develop power efficient passive radar systems that could peek under the surface of Mars.

Peters has earned a $2.45 million, three-year NASA grant to create a drone-based system to map subsurface areas. The project includes field-testing on Earth with an eye toward potential future deployments on missions to the red planet. The work will be carried out in collaboration with NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Arizona, and the Reykjavik University in Iceland.

鈥淭his will allow us to understand the properties of the surface, the depth of ice deposits, and areas that have potential for astro-biological studies on indicators that may support life鈥� said Peters, an assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

Utilizing radar on a drone presents unique challenges, and Peters鈥� team has ideas how to solve this challenging problem.

Most radar technology actively transmits signals, sending out pings and tracking the response to map nearby terrain or objects. This technology has been applied to various industries, such as military, air traffic control, and the geosciences.

Aboard a drone, such systems are not always practical, as they are large and power hungry.

Peters has proposed a much smaller passive radar system that, instead of emitting its own signals, would pick up natural electromagnetic waves emitted by the sun and Jupiter to conduct measurements.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e listening for radio noise, essentially the unwanted part in a traditional active radar, to implement this low-resource technology onboard an uncrewed aerial system for altimetry and sounding,鈥� Peters said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done preliminary tests with the sun, and we know this is possible. It should be possible for Jupiter too.鈥�

Taking advantage of ambient radio waves from radio-astronomical bodies was a focus of Peters鈥� PhD thesis and has been an area of active work for nearly a decade at NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a partner on the grant.

鈥淛upiter produces radio bursts at the same frequencies as traditional ground penetrating radars, and we can measure them here on Earth. They penetrate into the ground, and our goal is to pick up and analyze the reflected signals to observe what鈥檚 below the surface,鈥� Peters said.

Peters鈥� PhD student, Thorsteinn Kristinsson, is conducting early work on the grant.

鈥淲e feel electromagnetic waves coming from the sun just going outside. You wouldn鈥檛 think looking at the sky that there are waves hitting your body from Jupiter too, but at certain times there are.鈥�

The project is incorporating both the sun and Jupiter because their electromagnetic waves cover different areas of the frequency spectrum. Jupiter鈥檚 waves are lower frequency and penetrate deeper into the ground, allowing the team to conduct additional subsurface analysis.

The team will design and build the radar system and conduct initial field-testing on the ground in California within the next year. By the third year of the grant, the radar system will be incorporated into a drone for flight tests in Iceland, which has terrain analogous to Martian volcanoes.

The Iceland portion of the grant is particularly exciting for Kristinsson, who grew up there and has conducted previous research in the same area.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing. It gives me the opportunity to do work in my home country and field testing in an environment I know, and that is also so beautiful to be in,鈥� Kristinsson said.

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DYNAMIC targets the Lower Thermosphere Ionosphere (LTI) altitude region where the thermosphere鈥檚 neutral gas interacts with the coexisting plasma population of the ionosphere, influenced by forcing from above and below. Poorly understood multiscale ripples in this area, as depicted in the gray-scale ground track, are a result of atmospheric wave forcing from below. (Image Credit: University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder, Johns Hopkins APL)

A joint proposal of the University of 欧美口爆视频 Boulder and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland has earned a $2 million award for a NASA mission concept study.

The team is competing to develop Phase-A proposals to enact the space agency鈥檚 Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (DYNAMIC) mission. Each of the three winning teams will receive funding for a Phase-A, nine-month concept study, after which NASA will select a single winning proposal.

The mission will ultimately design and build a satellite with science payloads to explore fundamental gaps in our understanding of how changes in the lower atmosphere influence the upper atmosphere and low Earth orbit.

鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful and overjoyed for this opportunity to work together to make our vision of DYNAMIC a reality. With these measurements, we can finally gain an understanding of the critical link between Earth鈥檚 atmosphere and space,鈥� said Tomoko Matsuo, principal investigator (PI) on the project and an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at 欧美口爆视频 Boulder.

Additional partners joining 欧美口爆视频 Boulder and APL include NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology鈥檚 Haystack Observatory in Westford, Massachusetts, Clemson University in South Carolina, Arizona State University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 欧美口爆视频.

The team鈥檚 project will fulfill science goals recommended by published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

When launched, DYNAMIC is expected to provide comprehensive measurements of the upper atmosphere in the very low Earth orbit (VLEO, below 300 km) range 鈥� the new frontier for spacecraft operation. This will provide a deeper understanding into how space weather 鈥� events generated by activity on the Sun and the Earth鈥檚 weather 鈥� can interfere with satellites, navigation systems and other technology.

鈥淲e have been looking forward to a mission such as DYNAMIC for many years, and are grateful for the NASA step 1 selection,鈥� said Jason Kalirai, APL鈥檚 mission area executive for Space Formulation.  鈥淥ur PI, team at the Lab, and partners across the nation are excited to push forward on a new Heliophysics mission that will answer fundamental questions about how space weather affects our planet.鈥�

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