University of Michigan Space Institute – Page 2 – University of Michigan Space Institute

NASA Flight Surgeon Speaks to Unique Career Caring for Astronauts

Posted on March 19, 2025 (April 29, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

The University of Michigan Space Institute welcomed its first seminar speaker to Ann Arbor, Michigan during the 2024-2025 academic year to present "Caring for Astronauts, One Mission At a Time." An alumna of the University of Michigan Medical School, Dr. Natacha Chough spoke about her role as a NASA Flight Surgeon for an audience of students, alumni and guests.

SPAR Set Its Sights on the Future of the Institute

Posted on March 17, 2025 (April 29, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

The SPAR Institute was formed to develop spacecraft that can “maneuver without regret,” with funding from the U.S. Space Force, and is set to bring fast chemical rockets together with efficient electric propulsion powered by a nuclear microreactor. As the eight universities and 14 industry partners and advisers come together to tackle the initiative, the SPAR Institute is now one of the nation’s largest efforts to advance space power and propulsion.

What Industry Wants: Model-Based Systems Engineering

Posted on March 12, 2025 (April 23, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

George Halow, a professor of practice at Michigan Aerospace Engineering, launched a model-based systems engineering course that takes students from customer concept to design or prototype inside two semesters, often mentored by engineers at big name corporate sponsors.

Small, Faint and ‘Unexpected in a Lot of Different Ways’: U-M Astronomers Make Galactic Discovery

Posted on March 11, 2025 (April 30, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

A discovery made by a team led by researchers at the University of Michigan tugs at the seams of some key cosmic lessons we thought we had learned from our own galaxy. This dwarf galaxy, named Andromeda XXXV and located roughly 3 million light-years away, is forcing astronomers to rethink how galaxies evolve in different cosmic environments and survive different epochs of the universe.

U-M Astronomers Peer Deeper into Mysterious Flame Nebula

Posted on March 10, 2025 (April 23, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, a team of researchers, including astronomers from the University of Michigan, are closing in on the answer to a looming cosmic question. In probing the Flame Nebula, they’re finding out what’s the smallest celestial body that can form on its own from clouds of gas and dust in space.

U-M Awarded up to $7.5M to Bring Heat-Tolerant Semiconductors From Lab to Fab

Posted on February 21, 2025 (March 19, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

Heat-resistant sensing and computing chips made of silicon carbide could advance aircraft, electric and gas-powered vehicles, renewable energy, defense and space exploration—and University of Michigan researchers are leading a multimillion dollar collaborative effort to bring more of them to market. Funded by the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub, the project is launching with $2.4 million in initial funding, and could receive up to $7.5 million over three years.

U-M Astronomy Will Lead Its First Satellite Mission With NASA Grant

Posted on February 13, 2025 (March 19, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

The first space mission led by the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy is scheduled to launch in 2029 with the support of a NASA grant worth $10 million. The mission is called STARI—STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry—and will showcase the viability of a new technique for studying exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system.

Witnessing the Birth of Planets

Posted on February 12, 2025 (March 13, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

University of Michigan researchers contributed to an international collaboration that’s providing an unparalleled view into how planets are born using the JWST—the most powerful space telescope ever launched. In particular, the team studied PDS 70, a young star with two growing planets in its orbit. Located 370 lightyears away, this system gives scientists a rare chance to see how planets form and evolve during their earliest stages of development.

Leinweber Lab Becomes Design Hub for Moon Garden Equipment

Posted on February 5, 2025 (March 13, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

If you walk by the new Leinweber Innovation Lab inside the Climate & Space Research Building on a Wednesday evening, you might notice the BLiSS student team hard at work in each of the lab’s studios. There, members of their subteams are working in parallel to design tools that could help solve challenges in NASA’s future Artemis missions to the moon. The lab’s four open studio spaces were the perfect fit for the BLiSS student team to help future moon missions.

A Vision for Safer Space Exploration with the CLEAR Center

Posted on January 30, 2025 (February 26, 2025) by U-M Space Institute

The CLEAR Center, a Space Weather Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan, works to improve forecasting of solar energetic particles that emerge from a solar eruption, with speeds nearly reaching the speed of light, which follow the spiral shape of the solar wind’s magnetic fields into interplanetary space.