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Abby Graf
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Abby Graf
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Abby Graf
4 min read
Each year, researchers nationwide embark on journeys of discovery facilitated by funding from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) program. They uncover innovations that benefit future research and their careers after graduation.
In 2023, STRG hit a significant milestone, making its thousandth award through the most recent cohort of NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunity (NSTRGO) selections.
The STRG program supports academic researchers – graduate students to senior faculty – through five unique solicitations to examine ideas and approaches critical to making science and space exploration more effective, affordable, and sustainable. The vast majority of STRG awards go to graduate students through NSTGRO, resulting in the development of innovative technology while enriching the careers of students and the aerospace workforce.
The next 2024 NSTGRO opportunity is open for proposals through Nov. 1, 2023. It marks the 14th consecutive year that STMD has sponsored U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation’s science, exploration, and economic future.
This space technology research investment milestone prompted NASA to reflect on three grantees inspiring and developing a diverse U.S. aerospace technology community.
Eliad Peretz wanted to apply before becoming a graduate student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Growing up in Israel, working on his grandfather’s olive grove taught him the value of planning and working hard at a young age.
“I knew NASA was the place for me,” said Peretz. He viewed STRG as a way in the door, to work directly with NASA and, maybe, one day for NASA.
Funded by a 2015 grant, Peretz used artificial intelligence to design lightweight spacecraft solar cells. He spent summers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. There, he had direct access to agency experts who helped advance the research while discovering something along the way.
“I realized that I didn’t want to be a person who can only solve a single problem; I wanted to solve many problems for spaceflight,” said Peretz. “For me, it was a life-changing program and experience.”
Today, Peretz works in the Heliophysics Division mission at NASA Goddard. He asks scientists and engineers for their most challenging problems and comes up with concepts, unlike anything that’s been done before.
Monique McClain, a 2017 grant recipient, embarked on a different path after graduating from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is an assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering, using the NSTRF experience to help her students.
“I was hooked on science fiction as a kid and thought the chief engineer in ‘Star Trek’ was the coolest job,” said McClain. “They got to solve all the challenging problems.”
The “problem” of her research was to improve control over how a solid rocket motor burns by creating complex propellant shapes using a new 3D printing technology.
“Space Tech Research Grants stood out because it was more than just a stipend,” said McClain. “It allowed me to make research decisions, visit government labs, and develop professionally.”
McClain tested her 3D-printed components at NASA Marshall and the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, California.
Her current work focuses on understanding multi-material properties and improving 3D printer designs, while other researchers continue to build on her graduate project and are exploring technology commercialization opportunities.
MONIQUE McClain
Space Technology Research Grant recipient
In graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, Kaci Madden worked on robotic exoskeletons. Her uncle is an amputee; growing up, she saw how prosthetic technology evolved. Madden wanted to design devices that helped people.
Funded by a 2015 NASA grant, she learned how to evaluate fatigue using robots to monitor astronaut health and performance more accurately. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Madden tested Robo-Glove, collected data, and built her professional network.
“NASA has a sense of comradery, vision and mission,” said Madden. “Everyone I met was willing to help or introduce me to someone who could further my research and support theirs.”
Madden said the opportunity propelled her career forward. She found a different mechanism for helping people and currently works for a healthcare start-up that empowers researchers to study rare diseases.
“I have a lot of gratitude to the STRG program itself for offering these funds and the people I got to work with,” said Madden. “They deserve a lot of credit – they are the shoulders I stood on to complete my dissertation under this fellowship.”
NASA Space Technology Research Grants are part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). This program is one of many early-stage funding opportunities for researchers in academia. To browse other funding opportunities, visit:
https://techport.nasa.gov/opportunities
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Anyah Dembling
As a result of the ongoing review by NASA managers and engineers after a coolant leak from a backup radiator on the International Space Station’s Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, a spacewalk that was targeted for no earlier than Thursday, Oct. 19 now is deferred until later this year.
The spacewalk date was adjusted to allow engineers additional time to complete analysis of the coolant leak, which occurred and stopped on Oct. 9. The coolant is not toxic or hazardous for the crew, but experts are discussing how to best keep small traces of the substance from getting into some internal systems to avoid equipment degradation over time. The tasks planned for this spacewalk are not time-sensitive and the schedule adjustment has no impact on space station operations.
A spacewalk scheduled for Monday, Oct. 30, now becomes U.S. Spacewalk 89. During that spacewalk, NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli will exit the station’s Quest airlock to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box, called a Radio Frequency Group, from a communications antenna bracket and replace one of twelve Trundle Bearing Assemblies on the port truss Solar Alpha Rotary Joint. The bearings enable the station’s solar arrays to rotate properly to track the Sun as the station orbits the Earth. During this spacewalk, Moghbeli will serve as EVA crew member 1 and O’Hara will serve as EVA crew member 2. This will be the first spacewalk for both O’Hara and Moghbeli.
Later this year, O’Hara and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen will conduct what will become U.S. Spacewalk 90, to collect samples for analysis to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex. They also will replace a high-definition camera on the port truss of the station and conduct other maintenance work to prepare for future spacewalks.
Meanwhile, a spacewalk by Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub remains scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 25. During that spacewalk, Kononenko and Chub will install a synthetic radar communications system on the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory and deploy a nanosatellite to test solar sail technology. In addition, they plan to inspect and photograph the backup radiator that leaked on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.
Spacewalk preparations continued aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 70 astronauts and cosmonauts serviced their individual spacesuits on Monday. Cargo operations are also underway as the orbital residents work inside the Cygnus space freighter and look ahead to the next SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.
Mogensen began Monday emptying and refilling water tanks and cleaning cooling loops inside a pair of spacesuits. Moghbeli completed the maintenance in the afternoon terminating the cooling loop work then deconfiguring the spacesuits.
Mogensen then spent the rest of the afternoon partnering with O’Hara unpacking supplies and loading trash inside Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft. Moghbeli joined Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) pre-packing cargo bags that will be loaded aboard the next SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft to visit the orbiting lab. Furukawa began his day processing samples and swapping gas bottles inside the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace, a high temperature thermophysics research device.
Kononenko and Chub spent Monday morning preparing for their upcoming spacewalk as they charged batteries and inspected life support components inside their Orlan spacesuits. Following that, Kononenko moved on to cardiac research while Chub checked and closed hatches between the Poisk airlock and the Roscosmos Progress 84 resupply ship.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Konstantin Borisov began his day working on the Elektron oxygen generator and other life support components. In the afternoon, he assisted Kononenko with his cardiac work and inspected portions of the Zvezda service module.
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Mark Garcia
