Nov. 13, 2025, 3:55 p.m. Jillian Gloria ’22 stands on a balcony at Blue Origin headquarters in Cape Canaveral, Florida, her eyes fixed on the horizon at Launch Complex 36 — the very launchpad her grandfather helped construct as a NASA engineer in the 1960s.

Engines ignite. Gloria’s breath catches as she wills the rocket to climb. Then she hears those crucial words: “Liftoff detected. New Glenn has cleared the tower.”

The Blue Origin rocket scientist has just witnessed the launch of her first NASA mission. It’s a goal the Orlando native has dreamed about since childhood; one marked by visions of the space shuttle soaring upward as she commuted to school and the roar of sonic booms when it returned to Earth’s atmosphere.

What makes this milestone even more rewarding is the determination, the hard work and the relentless tenacity it took her to get here.

“Your dreams are possible,” Gloria says. “All you need is passion and persistence. As long as you keep going, you can do anything in this world. You’re always going to end up where you’re meant to be.”

“You’ll Never Graduate”

Gloria’s college journey began outside of Florida despite the numerous space-related research and partnerships available in her backyard at �鶹ӳ����ý. Like many of her peers, she thought she had to branch out from her hometown to gain the most out of her college experience.

She realized quickly she had made a mistake.

Not long after arriving at the University in Texas at Arlington, an academic advisor told her she would never graduate with an engineering degree if she started her academic career in algebra. She would need an additional 1.5 years of math and science classes alone before she could set foot in an engineering class.

Rather than catch up on the mathematics education and credits she needed to pursue engineering, he advised she’d be better off going after “something more realistic for her current path like a business degree.”

“As an impressionable 18-19 year old, you listen to your adviser, right?” she says. “I just remember dropping the business class a few weeks in because I thought, ‘This is not what I want to do, and I don’t care how long it takes me, I’m going to do get an engineering degree.’ ”

Opportunity Comes Calling

She course-corrected and enrolled in the program at Valencia College. Valencia provided her the academic resources and tutoring she needed to overcome her initial struggles in math and science.

In 2018 ahead of transferring to �鶹ӳ����ý, she applied to the Central Florida Physics Research Exchange Program, a former initiative for undergraduate students to participate in a 10-week funded research project over the summer with �鶹ӳ����ý’s physics department.

She remembers doubting her chances of acceptance. After all, she was an aspiring aerospace engineer, not a true physics major. But the program came with the promise of $5,000, and for someone who was working her way through school, what did she have to lose?

As part of her application, she wrote a compelling letter to Professor of Physics William Kaden about his space weathering effects research for NASA and how much she’d love the chance to work in his lab.

The letter worked. Kaden would go on to become Gloria’s mentor throughout her 2.5 years at �鶹ӳ����ý and kickstarted her hand in research that yielded projects on finding water on the moon, collaborations with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), work with �鶹ӳ����ý’s and a co-authorship on a NASA-funded paper published in 2021 in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology.

“The world of research at �鶹ӳ����ý really provided me the actual work experience and opportunities to turn me into an engineer and a candidate that these companies sought after.” — Jillian Gloria ’22, Blue Origin engineer

“The world of research at �鶹ӳ����ý really provided me the actual work experience and opportunities to turn me into an engineer and a candidate that these companies sought after,” says Gloria, who keeps her senior-year textbook Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Second Edition on her office desk. “I worked with industry hardware, a vacuum chamber that’s worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at NASA, flew a payload on a Masten Space Systems Xodiac rocket to track rocket plumes during launch and landing on the moon. I was a published author before I graduated. It all was such an amazing opportunity. That was the first time when I felt like I was actually doing the work I had dreamed about. The things I was exposed to at �鶹ӳ����ý really  just opened my eyes onto what’s available out there in terms of my career.”

Building a Road to Space

Since graduating in 2022, Gloria launched over a dozen successful missions across three launch-vehicle programs (Atlas V, Delta Heavy, Vulcan Centaur) at United Launch Alliance as a propulsion systems test engineer.

In January 2025, she joined the Blue Origin team as an integrated vehicle test engineer, specializing in the integration, testing, refurbishment, and optimization of complex fluid and pneumatic systems for her fourth launch vehicle, New Glenn.

In other words, she validates the build of the rocket, ensuring its integrity and functionality through every build stage before launch.

She is energized every day by the opportunities available to her to grow and learn within the company, who in addition to their rocket program is also developing a lunar lander and space station.

“This work matters. It’s the future.” — Jillian Gloria

“We’re all working together for the benefit of Earth, and you feel it every day you go to work at Blue Origin,” she says. “This work matters. It’s the future, it’s the next generation launch vehicle, and it just plays a hand in Blue’s mission statement that we want to build a road to space.”

Every milestone they hit — like the recent successful launch and first-time landing of the New Glenn rocket that ferried NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft to begin their journey to Mars — helps get them closer to that goal.

While current generations may not see it, she knows the work she is doing at Blue Origin is developing the infrastructure for future generations who will one day consistently travel to and live on other celestial bodies.

“The stars are the final frontier. It calls to us,” Gloria says. “You can’t really explain it, but when you look up at the sky, it kind of touches your soul. It just makes me feel more connected to something that’s so far away and so beautiful. It’s everything.”

When Alain Berinstain talks about space, he doesn’t just talk about rockets or research missions — he talks about people, partnerships and the power of doing things that haven’t been done before.

That daring mindset is exactly what he’s bringing to his new role as director of the (FSI) at �鶹ӳ����ý, which supports space research, development and education activities, along with the development of Florida’s space economy — civil, defense and commercial.

A business and research strategist, Berinstain brings more than 30 years of experience in the space industry, driving strategic growth and domestic and international partnerships. He officially stepped into the role in December of last year, ready to elevate FSI into a nationally recognized institute while strengthening �鶹ӳ����ý’s research profile, supporting Florida’s rapidly growing space economy and driving even greater global impact.

“Being bold is having ideas and doing things that nobody has ever done before,” Berinstain says. “If you do that in a collaborative way, then — pardon the pun — the sky’s the limit.”

A Career Built on Making Connections

Berinstain’s path to �鶹ӳ����ý wasn’t a straight line — and that’s by design. Trained as a chemist, he earned a bachelor’s degree in honors chemistry from Concordia University, a master’s degree in space studies from the International Space University and a doctoral degree in chemistry from the University of Ottawa. Early in his career, he saw space as a powerful platform for science, but also one that demanded collaboration across disciplines, sectors and borders.

From 1997 to 2013, Berinstain held leadership roles at the Canadian Space Agency, including director of planetary exploration and space astronomy. There, he managed annual budgets exceeding $25 million and helped negotiate Canada’s participation in major NASA missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, OSIRIS-REx and the Mars Phoenix Lander. He also co-authored the original Global Exploration Roadmap, aligning international partners around shared exploration goals.

“I aim to show people how FSI can help meet their goals … and, in the end, raise the research profile in space at �鶹ӳ����ý, in Florida and in the world.”

Berinstain later moved between public service and the private sector, advising companies such as Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada Corporation, leading global development at Moon Express Inc. and most recently serving as chief strategy officer at science-based solutions company CSS Inc. Along the way, he helped generate more than $10 million in revenue for in-space manufacturing of health and technology products and cultivated strategic partnerships with academia, government and industry stakeholders.

That cross-sector experience now shapes his vision for FSI — especially when it comes to funding. A key priority, he says, is diversifying funding beyond traditional government grants by expanding private and commercial partnerships.

“Since I’ve spent time in other sectors and made contacts, I look forward to mining those to help collaborate and redevelop those relationships,” he says. “I aim to show people how FSI can help meet their goals and come up with new opportunities that we can respond to, and, in the end, raise the research profile in space at �鶹ӳ����ý, in Florida and in the world.”

Why �鶹ӳ����ý — and Why Now

Berinstain’s appointment will fuel the momentum of space exploration and research at SpaceU — the top provider of graduates in the nation to the aerospace and defense industry — and the new Florida Space Research Consortium.

“Alain is a daring innovator internationally recognized for his leadership throughout space’s public and private sectors,” says Winston Schoenfeld, vice president for research and innovation. “His experience, bold vision and strategic pursuit of partnerships will elevate the impact of our research at America’s Space University and further strengthen Florida’s rapidly growing space economy.”

FSI’s unique position within a deeply collaborative campus and a statewide network of space researchers is what Berinstain says drew him to �鶹ӳ����ý.

“We lead our own world-class science, but we also partner with researchers across colleges and departments … There’s real strength in numbers.”

“Where FSI fits within the �鶹ӳ����ý ecosystem is really interesting. We lead our own world-class science, but we also partner with researchers across colleges and departments,” he says. “What also attracted me is the collaboration among state universities in Florida. With the new consortium for university space research, in which we’re in a leadership position, there’s real strength in numbers.”

From the Earth’s upper atmosphere to the origins of the planets and the dynamics of asteroids, FSI’s research tackles some of the biggest questions in space science. Building on those strengths, Berinstain is setting his sights on what comes next: expanding into areas shaping the future of commercial space, including microgravity research, pharmaceuticals and defense.

“I plan to grow FSI in areas that are of national and economic importance. They all need help from strong research groups,” he says. “It’s not so much about what we want to do — it’s about what they need us for. And that creates all kinds of cool opportunities for us for amazing research and mutually beneficial collaboration.”

Building on Momentum

Just weeks into the role, Berinstain says he’s already felt the energy that surrounds space at �鶹ӳ����ý.

“I participated in Space Week at �鶹ӳ����ý … and I came away [from that experience realizing] how pervasive and important space is to the culture of the institute,” he says. “So it feels like I’ve got to catch up to that momentum. It’s an honor. It’s a challenge. It’s wonderful to leverage that for FSI.”

Ask Berinstain about his leadership style, and don’t be surprised if he starts with a pop culture reference.

“Do you watch The Big Bang Theory?” he says. “Sheldon Cooper has that line: ‘I’m not crazy. My mom got me tested.’ Well, I’ve been tested for my leadership style.”

According to that assessment, Berinstain falls into what’s known as a “parental” leadership style — a label he’s quick to unpack.

“It sounds funny,” he says, “but what it really means is guided leadership. I’m very team-oriented. I’m resilient. I deal with situations head-on.”

At the core of that approach is trust — trusting people to do their best work when they feel supported and empowered.

“There are people here who’ve been doing amazing work for a long time. I want to build on that,” he says.

A Bigger Picture of Impact

For Berinstain, success at FSI isn’t just about dollars raised — it’s about alignment and purpose.

“I prefer to think of research funding as impact,” he says, “as contributions to �鶹ӳ����ý, to Florida and to our country. Let’s meet our own priorities and help others meet theirs. That’ll help in our growth.”

With a strong space legacy, a collaborative spirit and a rapidly expanding frontier ahead, Berinstain sees FSI entering a new era of possibility as a leader in space research.

Simply put, “it’s a dream job,” he says.

Their discovery in the Cygnus X region sheds new light on and deepens a long-standing mystery about the ionization state of the interstellar medium — the sparse material that fills the space between stars within a galaxy. This is crucial to understanding galactic evolution.

Using the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the team detected radio spectral lines from helium in diffuse ionized gas in the Cygnus X region, a massive star-forming complex located about 25,000 light-years from the galactic center.

“We are still investigating. This can provide a better understanding of how energy flows from stars to the interstellar medium in the inner region of the galaxy works,” says Roshi, who has served in a few of the world’s most advanced observatories over his 20-year career.

A Decades-Old Galactic Puzzle

According to the Big Bang theory, hydrogen and most of the helium in the universe were created in the moments after the initial cosmic event.

Ionization is the process where energetic radiation (like UV light or cosmic rays) or extreme heat strips electrons from neutral atoms or molecules, turning them into charged particles. This ultimately is what makes nebulae visible and is fundamental to understanding stellar life cycles and galactic structure.

For more than 30 years, astronomers have struggled to explain why specific wavelengths of light known as helium spectral lines are faint or missing in the diffuse ionized gas in the inner Milky Way, even though massive stars there produce more than enough high-energy radiation to ionize both hydrogen and helium.

“This has been a persistent mystery,” says Pooja Priyatharsheni, second author of the study and a doctoral student at India’s Lady Doak College, whom Roshi connected with two years ago while promoting astronomy to collegiate students in India. “We know the galaxy contains plenty of massive stars capable of ionizing helium, yet in many inner regions, we simply don’t see the helium signal we expect.”

Cygnus X Provides a Clue — and a Challenge

The new detection in Cygnus X demonstrates that helium within the diffuse gas associated with this region is fully ionized.

“This result confirms that when the radiation field is strong enough, helium becomes fully ionized and visible in radio observations,” Priyatharsheni explains. “But it also raises new questions about why the same doesn’t occur in the inner galaxy.”

What’s Next

Led by Roshi of the , researchers from the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, West Virginia University and Lady Doak College are now analyzing new high-sensitivity data from the Green Bank Telescope targeting the inner galaxy.

Their goal: to determine whether unusual  radiation sources, interstellar dust absorption, or unknown processes might explain the missing helium emission in the inner galaxy.

Their findings will better inform other astrophysicists and aerospace scientists about the energy flow through the interstellar medium and physical conditions of the galaxy, allowing them to refine their research and observational strategies.

They hope to retrieve most of the data for  their next findings by the end of 2026.

�鶹ӳ����ý’s expertise will help drive the success of DUSTER, a payload designed specifically to capture and measure dust behavior during spacecraft and human operations on the moon. Lunar Outpost’s Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) rover will support NASA’s DUSTER (Dust and plaSma environmenT survEyoR) investigation, selected for development through the Artemis IV Deployed Instruments program. The instruments will be built at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder.

DUSTER represents the best opportunity to date to evaluate the theory on the physics of dust erosion, with implications for the activities being planned on the moon’s surface. The Artemis IV mission is due to launch in 2028.

Testing Rocket Exhaust and Dust Erosion

This theory introduces a fundamentally new understanding of the behavior of gas in the boundary layer, the thin region where rocket exhaust meets the moon’s surface. This new physics shows how the gas flow in that layer lifts dust grains —something no previous model could adequately explain. Before this breakthrough, NASA lacked a method to reliably predict how much lunar dust erosion a landing or departing spacecraft would generate, and therefore could not fully estimate how much sandblasting damage would occur to hardware on the moon.

However, several key parameters in this new model cannot be measured accurately using existing lunar data or Earth-based experiments. On Earth, large-scale testing is limited: rocket exhaust cannot be blasted into a vacuum chamber without destroying the vacuum, and gravity cannot be reduced to lunar levels for the necessary full-scale trials.

DUSTER will change that. By collecting data during actual Starship Human Landing System operations on the moon, DUSTER will allow scientists to measure these long-elusive parameters directly in the lunar environment — providing the highest-fidelity test yet of Metzger’s theory.

“One of DUSTER’s capabilities is measuring the dust blown by rocket exhaust as the Starship Human Landing System lifts off and departs from the moon,” Metzger says.

In this project, University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics senior researcher Xu Wang, who serves as principal investigator, will analyze upstream plasma conditions. �鶹ӳ����ý will interpret measurements of dust ejected during the Human Landing System liftoff.

“�鶹ӳ����ý brings to this project its expertise in the science of how rocket exhaust blows soil and dust.” — Phil Metzger ’00MS ’05PhD, �鶹ӳ����ý planetary scientist

“�鶹ӳ����ý brings to this project its expertise in the science of how rocket exhaust blows soil and dust,” says Metzger.

The findings generated by DUSTER will directly inform NASA’s long-term plans for sustained lunar operations, providing critical insights to protect habitats, instruments, and other assets as human presence on the moon grows. As NASA plans to deliver major infrastructure to the lunar surface, Artemis IV presents a new opportunity to address this outstanding engineering challenge of lunar exploration.

In a new study published in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers from �鶹ӳ����ý, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and other institutions explored a unique, spider-like feature in Manannán Crater on Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons.

First observed by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, the feature may have formed from briny water eruptions beneath the ice, offering clues about subsurface liquid water and potential habitability on Europa.

“Europa is a fascinating moon to study because its subsurface ocean may have the conditions to support life.” — Lauren Mc Keown, assistant professor at �鶹ӳ����ý

“By understanding surface expressions, we can learn more about processes and conditions where liquid water may exist below the surface,” says Lauren Mc Keown, assistant professor at �鶹ӳ����ý’s .

Using Earth’s lake stars as analogs, combined with field observations, lab experiments and modeling, the researchers hope to gain valuable insights into how these icy features form, which could have implications for future missions that might land on Europa and other icy airless worlds.

Originally from Ireland, Mc Keown’s interest in space began as a teenager when she first learned about the Cassini spacecraft, which explored Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn.

“I was fascinated by the animations showing a water plume shooting miles above the moon’s surface and the possibility that liquid water, or even an ocean, might exist there,” she says. “It encouraged me to explore NASA’s website to learn more about icy planetary surfaces and eventually pursue a career in planetary science at Trinity College Dublin.”

As an icy planetary geomorphologist, Mc Keown studies surface features and processes on icy planets, moons and small bodies.

“My research includes analyzing Martian ‘spiders,’ which are dendritic — branching, tree-like — features that form in the regolith near Mars’ south pole,” she says. “Now, I’m applying that knowledge to other planetary surfaces, including Europa.”

While Martian spiders form when dust and sand are eroded by escaping gas below a seasonal dry ice layer, Mc Keown believes Europa’s “asterisk-shaped” feature may have formed after impact, when liquid brine within the icy shell extruded through broken-up ice from impact to form a pattern similar to Earth’s lake stars.

“Lake stars are radial, branching patterns that form when snow falls on frozen lakes, and the weight of the snow creates holes in the ice, allowing water to flow through the snow, melting it and spreading in a way that is energetically favorable,” she says.

Dendritic patterns like these are common in nature, appearing in Lichtenberg figures created by lightning strikes, in beach rilles where tides flow through sand, and in many other systems where fluid flows through porous surfaces.

“I’m fascinated by these beautiful features on Earth, and there is very little research on how lake stars are formed”, Mc Keown says. “This inspired my team to explore whether similar processes could explain the pattern on Europa, albeit under different pressure and temperature conditions.”

In the study, researchers proposed a new explanation for the feature, informally naming it Damhán Alla, Irish for “spider,” to distinguish it from Martian spider formations. They suggest it may have formed in a way similar to lake stars on frozen Earth lakes, under locally temporary elevated temperatures and pressures caused by an impact that created Europa’s Manannán crater.

“Lake stars on Earth are star-shaped or branched melt patterns that form when warmer water rises through thin ice and spreads through overlying slush or snow before freezing,” Mc Keown says. “On Europa, we believe a subsurface brine reservoir could have erupted and spread through porous surface ice, producing a similar pattern.”

To test this hypothesis, Mc Keown and colleagues conducted field and lab experiments, observing lake stars in Breckenridge, Colorado, and recreating the process in a cryogenic glovebox at JPL, using Europa ice simulants cooled with liquid nitrogen.

“We flowed water through these simulants under different temperatures and found that similar star-like patterns formed even under extremely cold temperatures (-100°C), supporting the idea that the same mechanism could occur on Europa after impact,” Mc Keown says.

Elodie Lesage, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and co-author of the study, modeled how a brine pool might behave beneath Europa’s surface after this impact, and the team created an animation illustrating the process.

Observations of Europa’s icy features have been limited to images from the Galileo spacecraft.

Mc Keown’s team hopes to resolve this question with higher-resolution imagery from the Europa Clipper mission, a NASA spacecraft scheduled to arrive at the Jupiter system in April 2030.

“The significance of our research is really exciting,” Mc Keown says. “Surface features like these can tell us a lot about what’s happening beneath the ice. If we see more of them with Europa Clipper, they could point to local brine pools below the surface.”

The findings provide insights for possible patterns on Europa; however, researchers caution against relying solely on Earth analogs to understand other planetary surfaces.

“While lake stars have provided valuable insight, Earth’s conditions are very different from Europa’s,” Mc Keown says. “Earth has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, while Europa’s environment is extremely low in pressure and temperature. In this study, we combined field observations with lab experiments to better simulate Europa’s surface conditions.”

Mc Keown is also proud of the collaborative nature of the work.

“This study came together organically and reflects a value that’s important to me: community,” she says. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with an incredible group of scientists — including JPL Planetary Geologist Jennifer Scully, with whom I collaborated to name the feature — whose multidisciplinary expertise was essential to this research. There are not many Irish planetary scientists, so working together has been rewarding, particularly because many of Europa’s features have Irish and Celtic names.”

Looking ahead, Mc Keown plans to investigate how low pressure affects the formation of these features and whether they could form beneath an icy crust, similar to how lava flows on Earth to create smooth, ropy textures called pahoehoe.

“I’m setting up a new lab at �鶹ӳ����ý, called the FROSTIE (Facility for Research Observing Simulated Topography of Icy Environments) Lab, where I’m designing a chamber specifically for these experiments. I am currently involving students to create icy simulants for this work while continuing to collaborate with JPL,” she says.

Although geomorphology was the main focus of this study, the findings offer important clues about subsurface activity and habitability, which are crucial for future astrobiology research.

“I’ve spoken with astrobiologists interested in these patterns, including how microbes might inhabit lakes on Earth,” Mc Keown says. “There’s great potential for collaboration across disciplines with this research, and I look forward to connecting with colleagues and students at �鶹ӳ����ý who are as passionate and excited about this work as I am.”

Lunar dust particles are sharp and abrasive due to the lack of atmosphere gradually dulling their surfaces, leading them to potentially damaging critical lunar equipment or causing respiratory issues for astronauts. Managing lunar dust (also known as regolith) and safeguarding astronauts or sensitive equipment on the moon isn’t as simple as sweeping it up with a broom and pan.

That’s why a team of NASA-funded �鶹ӳ����ý researchers is pioneering a new nanocoating to passively mitigate the effects of lunar dust, protect equipment and ultimately extend future lunar missions.

“The dust particles on the moon are very sharp, very sticky and very toxic,” says Lei Zhai, director of the NanoScience Technology Center and project lead. “Right now, the efforts we have seen are based on studies here on Earth, and so we want to have a more complete picture of the interactions and guide the design on how to mitigate dust using a simulated lunar environment.”

�鶹ӳ����ý’s research team aims to conduct testing as true to a lunar environment as possible through modeling and the use of a simulated regolith in a vacuum chamber to mimic lunar conditions and exclude the effects of Earth’s atmosphere. The goal is to understand how lunar dust interacts with surfaces and which surface properties, such as surface structures, polarity and electrical conductivity, are key to repelling the dust, even in complex lunar charged particle and light radiation environments.

“It’s a really new, novel way to approach this. Lunar dust is one of the most significant problems that we have for going to the moon, especially for long duration stays.” — Adrienne Dove, professor of physics

“We’ll put our engineered coatings or surfaces into the vacuum chamber with lunar simulants and study how the dust interacts with the surfaces in the simulated lunar surface environment,” Zhai says. “There is also strong irradiation on the moon, so we will also introduce irradiation sources in the setup. We also will use a specific instrument called an atomic force microscope to study these specific interactions at the dust particle level.”

Repeated experimentation will allow Zhai and his team to adjust surface structure, hardness, conductivity and other properties to further fine tune the surface coatings.

“With that data, we can design specific surface structures for effective dust mitigation,” he says. “My role is to provide the surface. Then I’ll give this surface to Dr. [Laurene] Tetard who will carry out the atomic force microscope studies and also Dr. [Adrienne] Dove who has a vacuum chamber and irradiation sources.”

Dove, who is a professor of physics and the department chair, says she’s excited to work on this project.

“It’s a really new, novel way to approach this,” she says. “Lunar dust is one of the most significant problems that we have for going to the moon, especially for long duration stays. So, it’s really exciting to be working on this, and to be doing this as an applied way to look at lunar dust problems.”

Dove has been studying lunar dust physics for many years, and this project extends her existing knowledge and outcomes to how they may directly affect exploration. For this project, she studies how the dust particles interact with the new coatings during the experiments in the vacuum chamber to better inform the prototype coatings Zhai will develop.

“A lot of the work I do is to implement different ways to measure the sticking forces of dust grains and other materials,” Dove says. “So, one way to do that is to put a lot of dust on a surface and then to spin the surface really fast with a centrifuge and see at what speed the grains come off — we use that to measure the force.”

The research team hopes that their new understandings of lunar dust can inform more efficient ways to reduce the dust’s harmful interactions with surfaces by minimizing efforts to physically remove the dust and instead use passive methods such as relying on solar wind or radiation.

“When astronauts are hopping around the surface or rovers are driving around, they’re going to stir up dust, and that dust naturally gets all over the place,” she says. “We think of it like when we get sand on us at the beach, you can mostly just wipe it off. Sometimes you get a little scratched, though. That same thing can happen with lunar dust, but it’s much worse than beach sand – much harder to get clean and its scratchier.”

The researchers are opting to explore passive methods to mitigate the dust to avoid potentially scratching technologies such as sensors or cameras by wiping away dust. Passive dust mitigation may rely on solar wind, radiation or other passive forces distinct from an active approach such as applying an electric field to remove the dust.

“This project is really focusing on passive ways to change the surface so that dust just doesn’t stick as well in the first place,” Dove says. “So, if we do things like shake it off or blow some air on it the dust comes off more easily.”

The idea for the project progressed as the team continually discussed dust and surface interactions over the years.

Laurene Tetard, a professor of physics, specializes in atomic force microscopy. Atomic force microscopes (AFM) are powerful enough to examine challenges at the nanoscale, and they are critical to further understanding the dust experiments in the vacuum chamber and the effectiveness of the surfaces engineered by Zhai.

“We are hoping to develop a new platform that links nanoscience and space research in a new way.” —Laurene Tetard, professor of physics

“We are hoping to develop a new platform that links nanoscience and space research in a new way,” Tetard says. “We will design a platform that can perform these measurements under conditions that mimic space conditions. The information obtained from these measurements will provide important feedback to optimize the engineered surface.”

She says expanding the frontiers of AFM to space research is particularly unique, and that the future opportunities to build on this research are equally gratifying.

“It will be great to train students in this new direction for future applications of interest of NASA and other space-related industries,” Tetard says. “And it’s especially exciting to do that with experts in these fields who know a lot about the complementary aspects of this work.”

Tarek Elgohary, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is collaborating with other team members to create simulations that will help them understand how the particles interact with each other and with different surfaces.

“We’ve got particle-to-particle and particle to surface interactions,” he says. “We want to simulate those on the computers and then match what we know from the experiments, such as the physical properties, with what we get from the simulation. So essentially, we’re trying to close the loop between simulations and experiments to better understand the physical phenomenon.”

Understanding how electrical charges may move amongst dust particles and how the dust maintains charges or discharges through simulated environments is an important aspect of the research component that Elgohary is studying.

“That will essentially help us with the design process of the passive mitigation techniques that Lei, Addie and Laurene are looking into,” he says.

The interdisciplinary nature of the project and the longstanding desire to tackle the elusive challenge of lunar dust are some of what Elgohary says are most rewarding aspects of the research process.

“I started talking to Addie many years ago, and we have had several efforts to try to understand how the dust moves and interacts,” he says. “It’s a fascinating problem, and it requires understanding the physics and connecting that to an engineering application to allow us to have a greater presence on the lunar surface. The fact that there are four of us covering each piece of this problem is one of the of the most exciting things about this project.”

Researchers’ Credentials:

Dove received her doctorate in astrophysical and planetary sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Missouri. She joined �鶹ӳ����ý’s Department of Physics in 2012. In 2017, Dove was awarded the Susan Niebur Early Career Award by the NASA Solar System Exploration Virtual Research Institute for her contributions to the science and exploration communities. She is the deputy-principal investigator of the Lunar-VISE mission to the moon’s Gruithuisen Domes to examine lunar rocks and regolith, slated to launch in 2027.

Elgohary joined �鶹ӳ����ý in 2016 as an assistant professor. He manages the Astrodynamics, Space and Robotics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the American University in Cairo and a master’s degree and doctoral degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M University. Elgohary’s research interests are developing analytical & computational techniques for multi-body dynamics problems, astrodynamics, space domain awareness and space flight guidance, navigation, and control problems. His research has been funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Space Force.

Tetard received her doctorate in physics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and joined �鶹ӳ����ý’s NanoScience Technology Center and Department of Physics in 2013. She is a U.S. National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program awardee and Moore Experimental Physics Investigator awardee. Her team’s research focuses on developments of Scanning Probe Microscopy to study complex systems with applications in life sciences, materials, energy, catalysis and more.

Zhai is a �鶹ӳ����ý professor who received his doctorate in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. He joined �鶹ӳ����ý’s NanoScience Technology Center and Department of Chemistry in 2005. Zhai is a Scialog Fellow at Research Corporation for Science Advancement and received an NSF CAREER award in 2008. He was the faculty advisor of a �鶹ӳ����ý team that won the Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing Idea Challenge in 2021.

The material is based upon work supported by NASA ESI Program Award 80NSSC25K7282. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the principal investigators and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists analyzed far-away bodies — known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) — and found varying traces of methanol. The discoveries are helping them better classify different TNOs and understand the complex chemical reactions in space that may relate to the formation of our solar system and the origin of life.

The findings, recently published in by the American Astronomical Society, reveal two distinct groups of TNOs with surface ice methanol presence: one with a depleted amount of surface methanol and a large reservoir beneath the surface, and another — furthest from the Sun — with an overall weaker methanol presence. The study suggests that cosmic irradiation over billions of years may have played a role in the first group’s varying methanol distribution, while raising new questions about the second group’s muted signatures.

Reaching Back in Time and Space

TNOs are important to our understanding of our solar system’s origins because they are incredibly well-preserved remnants of the protoplanetary disk — or disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star such as the Sun — and can give scientists a thorough glimpse into the past.

�鶹ӳ����ý Department of Physics Research Professor Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, who now works at the University of Oviedo in Spain, co-led the research as part of the �鶹ӳ����ý-led Discovering the Surface Compositions of Trans-Neptunian Objects (DiSCo) program which includes Associate Professor Ana Carolina de Souza-Feliciano.

Pinilla-Alonso says the research helps piece together the history of the solar system’s chemistry and gain insights into exoplanets, where methanol and methane play a crucial role in shaping atmospheres and hinting at the conditions of potentially habitable worlds.

“Methanol, a simple alcohol, has been found on comets and distant TNOs, hinting that it may be a primitive ingredient inherited from the early days of our solar system — or even from interstellar space,” Pinilla-Alonso says. “But methanol is more than just a leftover from the past. When exposed to radiation, it transforms into new compounds, acting as a chemical time capsule that reveals how these icy worlds have evolved over billions of years.”

Methanol ice is a key precursor that may lead to organic molecules such as sugars, and its discovery in TNOs paves the way for so much more, she says.

These spectral differences reveal that not all TNOs formed from the same molecular ingredients, Pinilla-Alonso says. Instead, their compositions reflect their origins — where and how they formed — and their transformations over time.

“What excited me the most was realizing that these differences were linked to the behavior of methanol — a key ingredient that had long been elusive on TNOs from earth-based observations,” she says. “Our findings suggest that methanol is being destroyed on the surface of TNOs by irradiation, but remains more abundant in the subsurface, protected from this exposure.”

Pinilla-Alonso worked alongside �鶹ӳ����ý FSI researchers, including de Souza-Feliciano, who synthesized the laboratory data with modeling to better explain the behavior of methanol.

De Souza-Feliciano helped to better visualize the findings by reproducing some of the spectral features the scientists were seeing and could provide mathematical support for the data in the study.

“One of the biggest surprises came from the methanol behavior,” de Souza-Feliciano says. “From laboratory data, its signatures at shorter wavelengths differ from the fundamental ones in longer wavelengths.”

De Souza-Feliciano collaborated on prior DiSCo research projects using JWST that characterized binary objects and other distant TNOs.

“The main DiSCo paper addressed the main characteristics of the three groups of TNOs,” she says. “This paper goes into detail about one of them, known as the cliff group, which is the nickname for the spectral group where the reflectance did not increase after approximately 3.3 microns.”

Not only are these cliff group TNOs time capsules for our solar system, but the group houses cold-classical TNOs which have largely stayed in place since their formation, de Souza-Feliciano says.

“One of the reasons why this group is a key for the outer solar system understanding is [because] it contains all the cold-classical TNOs,” she says. “The cold-classical TNOs are the only dynamic group that probably stayed in the place where they formed from the formation of the solar system to today.”

International Collaboration

Rosario Brunetto, an astronomer at the Université Paris-Saclay, led the research with fellow scientists Elsa Hénault and Sasha Cryan.

He says he believes this collaborative discovery will provide foundational knowledge of our solar system and ignite interest in planetary science.

“This discovery not only reshapes our understanding of TNOs but also provides a crucial reference for interpreting JWST’s observations of other distant objects, such as Neptune Trojans, Centaurs and asteroids, as well as for future missions exploring the outer solar system,” Brunetto says. “Beyond its scientific significance, the search for methanol in the solar system also fuels curiosity and inspires new generations to explore the cosmos and understand the chemical evolutions in space.”

�鶹ӳ����ý FSI Assistant Scientist Charles Schambeau and �鶹ӳ����ý physics graduate student Brittany Harvison also contributed to the research.

The findings were made possible through an international collaboration with researchers from Northern Arizona University, the Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon in France, NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute, the Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik in Germany, the Lowell Observatory, the Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal, INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania in Italy, the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain, the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain, Fundación Galileo Galilei-INAF in Spain and Observatório Nacional do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Researchers’ Credentials:

De Souza-Feliciano is an associate professor at FSI. She received a doctoral degree in astronomy from Observatório Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her main scientific interest is the characterization of the surface properties of small bodies in the solar system through an observational perspective. She’s been deeply involved in the study of the surface composition of TNOS to better understand the variety of the entire population using both ground-based and space-based facilities. Because of this, de Souza-Felicano is involved in several projects using the JWST.

Pinilla-Alonso is a former FSI professor who joined �鶹ӳ����ý in 2015. Most of her work on this project was conducted while she was at �鶹ӳ����ý. Pinilla-Alonso also holds a joint appointment as a research professor in �鶹ӳ����ý’s , and has led numerous international observational campaigns supporting NASA missions such as New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx and Lucy. Pinilla-Alonso is a distinguished researcher at the Institute for Space Sciences and Technologies in Asturias, within the Universidad de Oviedo. She received a doctoral degree in astrophysics and planetary sciences from the Universidad de La Laguna in Spain.

This strategic collaboration combines Operator Solutions’ hands-on operational expertise with �鶹ӳ����ý’s academic and research excellence to develop cutting-edge training programs, pioneer medical research and enhance real-world response capabilities in high-risk environments.

Key Initiatives of the Partnership

The collaboration will drive multiple initiatives aimed at improving medical preparedness in spaceflight and extreme environments.

• Developing Medical Training Modules for Commercial Spaceflight

Operator Solutions and �鶹ӳ����ý will provide specialized training for physicians, paramedics, flight nurses, medical students and resident physicians. The focus will be on triage procedures, in-flight patient care using helicopters and managing mass casualty incidents at sea. Operator Solutions is also developing a medical skills lab at �鶹ӳ����ý, where paramedics can master critical techniques such as wound care, fluid resuscitation and stabilization under high-stress conditions. Additionally, trainees will gain hands-on experience in the College of Medicine’s Anatomy Lab, learning life-saving procedures like chest tube insertion and evisceration treatment.

• Enhancing In-flight Medical Care for Space Travelers

With the number of space travelers increasing and missions lasting longer, Operator Solutions and �鶹ӳ����ý aim to develop new technologies to improve point-of-care medical treatment in space. Their research will focus on ultrasound and telemedicine systems for treating conditions such as kidney stones and blood clots, as well as real-time health monitoring solutions for astronauts — critical for long-duration missions, including those planned for Mars.

Advancing the Future of Aerospace Medicine

As America’s Space University, �鶹ӳ����ý is the ideal academic partner for this endeavor. The university was founded to provide talent to fuel the nation’s space program and today is a national leader in many areas of space research, including developing new technologies for space missions and advancing the health and well-being of space travelers.

This partnership strengthens an unrivaled opportunity for �鶹ӳ����ý students to prepare for careers in this rapidly growing field. �鶹ӳ����ý is creating a new space medicine curriculum that will involve students from many disciplines, including medicine, nursing, engineering, computer science, optics and photonics — and establishing what will be the nation’s first master’s degree in space medicine.

Located in Melbourne, Florida, Operator Solutions combines decades of military, spaceflight and medical expertise to offer operational, rescue and recovery services to government and private companies. Its pararescuers are qualified to offer paramedic-level care anywhere in the world, including parachuting into remote rescue sites. The company specializes in open-ocean rescue of boaters and astronauts and helped develop procedures for astronaut rescue and retrieval for the commercial space program. Its workforce is 100% military veterans.

“This partnership represents a significant leap forward in aerospace medical training,” says Christopher Lais of Operator Solutions. “By combining our hands-on operational expertise with �鶹ӳ����ý’s world-class academic research, we are creating a framework that will shape the future of spaceflight medical preparedness and emergency response.”

Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chair of at �鶹ӳ����ý’s College of Medicine, emphasized the growing importance of aerospace medical training.

“As commercial space travel expands, ensuring that astronauts, spaceflight crews and emergency responders are equipped with essential medical knowledge and skills is critical,” Urquieta says. “This collaboration will push the boundaries of medical science and training, helping us ensure safety and preparedness in extreme environments.”

Urquieta is one of the world’s foremost leaders in space medicine. He came to �鶹ӳ����ý after serving as chief medical officer of the NASA-funded Translational Institute for Space Health led by the Baylor College of Medicine. His goal is to make �鶹ӳ����ý a model of interdisciplinary medical research focused on improving the health of space travelers and also those on Earth.

Setting the Standard for Space Mission Readiness

By leveraging their combined expertise, Operator Solutions and �鶹ӳ����ý’s College of Medicine are establishing new benchmarks in medical education, research and operational readiness for both spaceflight and emergency response. This partnership is poised to transform aerospace medicine, delivering life-saving solutions for the next generation of space missions.