{"id":42,"date":"2025-10-02T20:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T20:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2025-10-03T13:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:37:11","slug":"nasa-flight-programs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/nasa-flight-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nasa Flight Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">INTERNATION SPACE STATION EXPERIMENTS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UCCS students have the opportunity to fly an experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) each year. This opportunity is part of an extremely selective international program, with fewer than 25 student-designed experiments selected globally each year. UCCS has already proven itself as a top-tier contender in this area. Our previous ISS flight experiment \u201cCalcium Sulfate Crystal Growth in Microgravity\u201c not only generated meaningful scientific results; it also brought much media attention and community excitement to our campus. A second mission,\u00a0<strong>\u201c<\/strong>Fungal Bioleaching in Microgravity<strong>,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0is already scheduled to launch in Spring 2026.<br>      This program is far more than another student project; it\u2019s an opportunity to market the College of Engineering and Applied Science on a national stage. Each mission elevates UCCS\u2019s profile as a hub for undergraduate research and innovation, and the benefits are lasting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>High-impact student engagement in aerospace, biotechnology, and engineering\u2014fields essential to Colorado Springs\u2019 economy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Unmatched undergraduate research experiences that shape careers and boost graduate school and job placement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consistent, widespread media coverage that highlights UCCS\u2019s leadership in student-driven space exploration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And most importantly: a powerful recruitment tool. Programs like this draw attention from prospective students across the country, showcasing the hands-on, high-profile opportunities that set EAS apart.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Recent visibility includes features by KRDO, KOAA, Fox21, KRCC, The Gazette, and multiple articles in the UCCS Communique and The Scribe. Projects like ours\u2014focusing on cutting-edge topics such as fungi in microgravity and sustainable agriculture in space\u2014are rare nationally, and they position EAS as a program that delivers on bold, real-world learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recent articles about UCCS\u2019 ISS experiments.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">May 20, 2025 KRDO News 13 Morning Show<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/krdo.com\/news\/2025\/05\/20\/space-mold-uccs-and-pikes-peak-state-college-students-sending-experiment-to-space\/\">Space mold! UCCS and Pikes Peak State College students sending experiment to space | KRDO<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KOAA News 5. (2024, May 15).&nbsp;<em>Three students will have their science experiment flown in space on the ISS<\/em>. KOAA News 5.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.koaa.com\/news\/covering-colorado\/three-students-will-have-their-science-experiment-flown-in-space-on-the-iss\">https:\/\/www.koaa.com\/news\/covering-colorado\/three-students-will-have-their-science-experiment-flown-in-space-on-the-iss<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">May 12, 2025 UCCS Scribe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scribe.uccs.edu\/uccs-students-to-send-an-experiment-to-space\/\">UCCS students to send an experiment to space &#8211; The Scribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">February 12, 2025 UCCS Communique&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/app.uccs.edu\/welcome\/communique\/detail?filter=2024&amp;feed=communique&amp;id=e6969d2b-186a-5a15-aba7-b0cabde1d663\">Mushroom in space! UCCS and PPSC multi-disciplinary student team sends new experiment to space<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carr, K. (2024, November 26).&nbsp;<em>UCCS and Pikes Peak State College Students\u2019 experiment orbits on the International Space Station<\/em>. Colorado Public Radio.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2024\/11\/26\/uccs-ppsc-student-experiment-international-space-station\/\">https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2024\/11\/26\/uccs-ppsc-student-experiment-international-space-station\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From campus to space: UCCS students launch experiment to the ISS \u2013 UCCS communique. (2024, November 11).&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=160064\">https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=160064<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">November 2, 2024, Gazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gazette.com\/news\/education\/blast-off-colorado-springs-college-students-experiment-to-launch-to-iss\/article_480217b6-96d8-11ef-90cc-8b567431265a.html\">Colorado Springs college experiment to launch to ISS | Education | gazette.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">October 25, 2024 Fox 21 News<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox21news.com\/news\/local-students-to-send-experiment-into-space\/\">Local students to send experiment into space | FOX21 News Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UCCS students prepare experiment for International Space Station Flight \u2013 UCCS Communique. (2024, October 30).&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=159680\">https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=159680<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">November 11, 2024 UCCS Communique<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=160064\">From Campus to Space: UCCS students launch experiment to the ISS \u2013 UCCS Communique<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">May 14, 2024 KOAA News&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.koaa.com\/news\/covering-colorado\/three-students-will-have-their-science-experiment-flown-in-space-on-the-iss\">Three students will have their science experiment flown in space on the ISS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blake MacDonald, Noah Grebe, and Luke Davis are hoping to learn more about effective low-cost fertilizers that could grow food on other planets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">April 24, 2024 UC News&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cu.edu\/cu-careers\/news\/uccs-pikes-peak-state-college-experiment-fly-international-space-station\">UCCS, Pikes Peak State College experiment to fly on the International Space Station | University of Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VIDEOS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISS Launch Highlights.&nbsp;&nbsp;(2024, November 13).&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/1029393352?share=copy#t=0\">ISS Launch Highlight (1.5min) on Vimeo<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>NASA\u2019s ROCKSAT SOUNDING ROCKET PROGRAM<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Funding Crickets in Space:&nbsp;&nbsp;Tackling a Big Question with a Tiny Payload (2025, May 21).&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.uccs.edu\/2025\/05\/21\/crickets-in-space-tackling-big-questions-with-a-tiny-payload\/\">https:\/\/news.uccs.edu\/2025\/05\/21\/crickets-in-space-tackling-big-questions-with-a-tiny-payload\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>NASA RASC-AL COMPETITION<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><strong>Long-range Unmanned New Artemis Rover Electric Mining Unit (LUNAR EMU)<\/strong> <strong>2024<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The UCCS NASA RASC-AL senior design team worked in collaboration with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) from Sydney, Australia, to create LUNAR EMU, a dual rover architecture created to find and analyze substances in the south lunar craters to help bring a sustained human presence to the NASA Artemis missions. Conforming to NASA and self created guidelines and requirements, LUNAR EMU can travel 464.8km on hydrogen fuel cell technology with an operating lifetime cost of $212.6 million, ready to launch by August of 2032 due to its high technical readiness level (TRL). If it travelled at the same speed of an average Martian rover, it can travel continuously for 56 years. It has an array of scientific equipment from cameras to mass spectrometery to identify the materials of interest, and the dual rover architecture allows it to explore two areas of interest at once making it an efficient exploration vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"649\" src=\"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/10\/image-1-1024x649.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43\" srcset=\"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/10\/image-1-1024x649.png 1024w, https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/10\/image-1-300x190.png 300w, https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/10\/image-1-768x487.png 768w, https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2025\/10\/image-1.png 1356w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George, L. and J. Lonsky (2023) A Multi-Use Resupply Platform at L1.&nbsp;&nbsp;AIAA Ascend Conference, Las Vegas, NV 23 \u2013 25 Oct 2023.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/arc.aiaa.org\/doi\/10.2514\/6.2023-4657\">https:\/\/arc.aiaa.org\/doi\/10.2514\/6.2023-4657<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INTERNATION SPACE STATION EXPERIMENTS UCCS students have the opportunity to fly an experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) each year. This opportunity is part of an extremely selective international program, with fewer than 25 student-designed experiments selected globally each year. UCCS has already proven itself as a top-tier contender in this area. Our previous [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.uccs.edu\/space-systems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}