NASA Tours AME's Mini-Labs for Studying Asteroids

AME assistant professor Jekan Thanga, who serves as head of the SpaceTREx Laboratory, is leading a three-year, $3 million project that uses mini-laboratories in space to study surface conditions of asteroids. The project, which began in 2019, is funded by NASA’s Institutional Research Opportunity program under MUREP, the NASA Minority University Research and Education Project, or MIRO.

Recently, NASA attended a virtual site visit where researchers and students presented their research progress. Several university leaders praised the team’s resilience and determination. 

“I’m extremely excited about what this lab will mean for the university, and especially for our students,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “It’s about the university students and faculty working on the frontiers of space exploration, making new discoveries, inventing new space technologies and paving the way for a future where humanity lives and works in space."

The UA's project lab has been dubbed "Asteroid Science, Technology and Exploration Research Organized by Inclusive eDucation Systems," or ASTEROIDS. The central mission of the project is to develop asteroids origins satellites, or AOSATS – small CubeSat laboratories that operate in low-Earth orbit and contain asteroid material, which came to Earth in the form of meteorites.

Even with the challenges of a pandemic, the group has far surpassed project goals. Researchers already have published 10 journal and 36 conference papers about the project.

“This is a project we’re really enthusiastic about,” said David W. Hahn, Craig M. Berge Dean of the College of Engineering. “It touches on all aspects we value: advancing our education mission, our research mission and our mission of accessibility. Our students and faculty are hard at work advancing the technology of space exploration, and this project is really key.”

Thanga also highlighted the dozens of partnerships involved in the MIRO project and other university space programs – between departments and colleges across campus, and academic, governmental and commercial institutions. For example, Space TREx was one of the only university units invited to present at EngageSpace, hosted by AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force. Space TREx showcased its AI solution for on-orbit spacecraft maintenance and repair.