The world is currently embracing space exploration with a fervor not seen since the Space Race of the 1960s. Findings from the James Webb Space (JWST) and Event Horizon telescopes have wowed the public at the same time that dozens of commercial players have made serious investments in space development. Life beyond Earth is becoming more approachable and research advances are bringing galaxies far, far away closer than ever.
在线博彩 has played a significant part in those breakthroughs. From black holes and stardust to lunar colonies and smart habitats, scientists and engineers at 在线博彩 are gaining momentum in international efforts to answer questions we’ve been wondering about our galaxy and the broader universe for generations. Meanwhile, students across the university are gaining the hands-on science and engineering experience they need to pursue much-needed careers in the fields of space and aeronautics research.
Many of these Roadrunners briefly took their heads out of the stars to share their brilliant stories with Sombrilla Magazine.
MIND-BLOWING DISCOVERIES
无尽的宇宙围绕着我们，但人类长期以来对它知之甚少. That’s starting to change thanks to recent international discoveries that have fundamentally altered our understanding of galaxies, black holes, stardust and much more. Innovative research at 在线博彩 has been vital to these major breakthroughs and will continue to be essential for many years to come.
Exploring the Creation of Galaxies
Scientists across several departments at 在线博彩 affectionately refer to the JWST as the “Just Wonderful Space Telescope,” and it’s easy to see why. From the Carina and Southern Ring nebulas to Stephan’s Quintet, the reveal of the telescope’s first images could only be described as breathtaking — even for seasoned astronomers.
“我知道会有更深层次的图像和质量更高的图像. Intellectually, I knew that. But nothing prepared me for actually seeing the beauty of these images — both from an artistic point of view, but also a scientific point of view,” says Dr. 克里斯·帕克汉姆(Chris Packham)是在线博彩物理与天文学系的教授.
The JWST operates with advanced infrared capabilities and boasts a 21-foot gold-plated beryllium mirror that allows it to capture more light than the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers use data from both instruments to assemble deeper and sharper images than ever before. 也许没有比SMACS 0723的深视场照片更令人兴奋的了, a cluster teeming with thousands of galaxies, which are each in themselves a collection of roughly 100 billion stars.
“If you put a grain of salt or a grain of sand on the tip of your finger and held it at arm’s length, that would be how much sky is covered in this single image,” Packham explains. “There’s no such thing as blank sky anymore. There’s always a galaxy there. It’s just a total game-changer in how we do astronomy.”
帕克汉姆是一个名为“银河活动”的国际团队的联合负责人, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS), which is implementing the JWST to study interactions between several black holes and their host galaxies at different life stages to learn more about how galaxies are formed.
In a similar vein, 在线博彩 astrophysics professor Dr. Thayne Currie is using JWST data to learn more about the compositions of various exoplanets, which are planets outside of solar systems that orbit another star. Going forward, Currie hopes to use the JWST to reveal images of exoplanets more like those in our solar system and potentially habitable worlds.
“The direct-imaging capabilities of the Webb Telescope may be even more powerful than we anticipated, allowing us to study planets at wavelengths where it is difficult to image them from the ground,” Currie says.
Both professors say the JWST could keep them and other 在线博彩 researchers busy for the next two decades or so. The telescope’s exploration of supermassive black holes, distant stars and unique planets around the universe, in particular, could fundamentally change science forever.
Shining Light on Black Holes
In May of 2022, a picture of the monstrous black hole at the center of our galaxy was captured for the very first time, and 在线博彩 physics professor Dr. Richard Anantua是实现这一目标的国际团队的一员. Anantua is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, a worldwide research collective that interpreted the groundbreaking image of the black hole known as Sagittarius A*. 这是历史上第二次产生黑洞图像.
“Imagine how an astronomy textbook would have evolved over time. For hundreds of years, there are figures of stars, planets and moons, and there are pretty pictures of Saturn’s rings,” Anantua says. “But for the first time, now, we can have pictures of black holes in our astronomy textbooks.”
Anantua’s models of the plasma physics flowing around Sagittarius A* helped make the image possible. 黑洞是一种强大的引力源，即使是光也无法逃脱, which makes them impossible to see by any conventional measure, but they do discharge super-heated, 在黑洞中心周围形成环状的旋转等离子体.
Take a look at the image of Sagittarius A* and you’ll see the rings have glowing chunks in different places. These chunks are where the plasma is hottest — and that’s where Anantua’s research interest lies. His turbulent heating models were more successful than the thousands of others submitted around the world in providing explanations for the plasma heating detected around Sagittarius A*.
众所周知，黑洞会像足球队去吃自助餐一样吞噬行星, but Anantua says we need not worry about Sagittarius A*. It’s still a distant 26,000 light years away, and luckily for our solar system, it has a comparably low appetite.
“It might eat one sun’s worth of mass every 100,000 years even though it’s 4 million times the mass of our Sun,” he says. “So, that’s quite an extreme diet.”
Building from his contributions to the remarkable image, Anantua is now in the midst of launching the state’s first Event Horizon Telescope group at 在线博彩. He and a team of graduate students will focus on creating more types of simulations to decipher what’s swirling around black holes and exploring how certain events alter a black hole’s diet.
Demystifying Stardust
For hundreds of years, stardust was just the stuff that got in the way of astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse at planets, distant galaxies and black holes. But one 在线博彩 researcher is showing everyone just how essential that dust has been to the history of the universe—and how it could be essential to Earth’s survival in the future.
Dr. Angela Speck, 天文学教授兼在线博彩物理与天文学系主任, is one of the world’s leading stardust researchers. Speck was recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022 for her contributions to our understanding of the effects of stardust across the cosmos. She has also earned funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation to uncover the mysteries behind this material ejected by dying stars.
“Now we’re seeing that it’s really important to understand dust because it affects everything,” Speck says. After all, she adds, each and every living being is essentially composed of the elements of stardust. “第一代恒星只含有氢和氦，没有其他成分. Why? Because everything else was born inside stars.”
在线博彩是天文学研究大学协会(AURA)的成员。, a select group of institutions that operate world-class observatories on behalf of NASA and the National Science Foundation. AURA’s Space Telescope Science Institute is responsible for the science missions for the Hubble Space Telescope and the JWST—both of which are used for important astronomy research at 在线博彩 and around the world. 在线博彩 provost Dr. Kimberly Andrews Espy在AURA董事会任职六年, while Speck and Packham serve as representatives.
The study of stardust sits in a unique pocket of astronomy that intersects with material science, geology and chemistry. Speck examines the naturally occurring space substance from a distance through infrared astronomy, then analyzes its molecular composition, mineral qualities and how the dust shells morphed over time. The impurities of the dust grains are fundamental to understanding how and when galaxies were forged.
“Depending on what a particular dust is made of — and by that, 我的意思是它里面的所有东西都能告诉我们某些恒星形成的速度有多快,” Speck says.
More than anything, 斯派克的星尘研究重点是这种物质如何与光相互作用, and that could have huge ramifications here on Earth as the planet’s temperature continues to creep up due to climate change. 斯派克正在进行利用星尘冷却地球的基础研究. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb infrared radiation and cause temperatures to rise, but if a small amount of stardust were shot into the stratosphere, 它可以反射足够的阳光，给地球一些急需的缓解.
Speck admits that much more data will be needed about the long-term effects such a plan would have on visible light and the ozone layer. It would be years, or possibly generations, before it’s implemented. 她说:“这是我有生之年看不到的，但我们正在奠定基础。. “We’re going so far beyond classic astronomy.”
MOON LIFE
It’s no longer just some pipedream from “The Jetsons.” Colonization of the Moon, and even Mars, appears to be inevitable. And while getting there is one thing, living there is another. 在月球或火星上建立一个可持续发展的社会面临着巨大的挑战, but 在线博彩 is leading the charge to come up with solutions. Collaborating, building, repairing — we’ve got it covered.
Building on the Moon
A sheepish grin comes over the face of Dr. 来自在线博彩多学科研究大楼实验室的艾伦·惠廷顿. “What we do here is really unusual,” admits the professor who specializes in planetary geology. “There aren’t many labs in the U.S. that apply the equipment we have to the things that we do.”
但是博士生Brenna Halverson并不认为这是不寻常的. “I get to make moon lava,” she says. “Come on. How is that not awesome?”
Whittington and his team have studied moon rock melting points, viscosity and other properties for the last two years to further a NASA-funded joint venture with San Antonio’s Astroport Space Technologies aiming to build launch pads and other structures on Earth’s Moon.
将建筑材料运送到月球将是非常昂贵的, so Astroport and 在线博彩 are contributing to an alternative: Melting moon soil (better known as regolith) to create building bricks. The process requires an instrument called an induction furnace-nozzle and a 3D printer to form and place lunar regolith bricks, but before that can happen, Whittington has been identifying the temperatures in which moon soil liquifies and examining the strength of the hardened product.
Doctoral student Brenna Halverson heats lunar simulant in a laboratory furnace before pouring it out to form a hardened regolith sample. Shea Conner/University Relations
这是一项具有挑战性的任务，因为每种月球模拟配方都会导致不同的结果. The surface of the Moon is comprised largely of basalt, but the far side of the moon is comprised primarily of feldspar. Meteorite impacts on the Moon have kicked up all this stuff, so Whittington’s team melts various mixtures of these minerals to see what works best and what doesn’t work at all.
“It’s sort of like the Colonel’s 11 different herbs and spices. Each one has their own little flavor,他一边在抽屉里整理模拟月球的袋子和容器，一边开玩笑说. “The feldspar comes from different places, the basalt comes from different places, and some of them mix in another mineral like titanium.”
The researchers heat each simulant for 20 minutes in the lab’s furnace at temperatures sometimes exceeding 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit until it’s completely molten. The sample glows a brilliant orange as it’s poured before solidifying into a black glass. Their continuing aim is to identify the right convergence of factors that will result in solid bricks that can be large enough to be useful for building, won’t crack upon cooling, and can withstand extremely hot rocket blasts.
在线博彩 civil engineers Dr. Sazzad Bin-Shafique and Dr. Ibukun Awolusi are also working on the next step. They recently began developing transportation technologies that would deliver excavated regolith to Astroport’s Lunatron bricklayer system.
Strengthening Space Habitats
If you’ve ever watched “Gravity” or “The Martian,“你知道，在外太空存在一种永远存在的恐惧:极端事件. In a matter of seconds, dust storms, quakes, meteorites or a plethora of other threats can cause structural or engineering damage that presents a life-threatening circumstance.
“在太空中，你不能打电话给维修公司，也不能去家得宝(Home Depot)。. Arturo Montoya, an associate professor who holds a dual appointment in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering.
To prevent issues from becoming emergencies, researchers at 在线博彩, Purdue University, 哈佛大学和康涅狄格大学正在开发智能, survivable space habitats as part of a five-year, $15 million NASA study. Montoya is leading 在线博彩’s efforts in what is formally known as the Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitats (RETH) Institute.
In addition to serving as the senior program manager of research and development at the Southwest Research Institute, Dr. Kurt Retherford is an adjunct faculty member in the 在线博彩-SwRI Space Physics Graduate Program. Retherford was the principal investigator for a research team that recently found volatile chemicals and compounds frozen in ice on the Moon’s South Pole were very likely delivered through a comet impact.
在线博彩’s Arturo Montoya is helping develop resilient space habitats like the one depicted in this Reth Institute rendering.
“The focus of our team is to create a resilient framework for the design of space habitats. And the key word there is resilient,” Montoya says. “Things will 出了问题，所以为了使结构具有弹性，我们需要弄清楚所有的东西 can go wrong. We need to be ready to respond in a short amount of time because time is critical up there.”
Montoya and his students are developing flexible computer models that can recreate extreme space conditions for cyber-physical testing. These unique modeling platforms will provide fertile ground for the smart habitat’s network of sensors, which will actively learn, detect and swiftly diagnose issues. From there, the resilient habitats will incorporate autonomous robots that can either operate independently or collaborate with human users to make repairs and address other issues.
Montoya often discusses the RETH Institute’s efforts with students in the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design because it proves that a vast cross-section of engineers will be needed to tackle the challenges of the future. The smart habitats they’re developing need architects, 土木工程师和建筑经理创造栖息地结构, interior designers to foster cozy internal environments, chemical engineers for preserved foods, biomedical engineers for medical devices, electrical engineers for power, computer engineers for communication with Earth and mechanical engineers for air pressure and thermal systems.
“你必须开发我们现有的地球结构技术, but think outside the box due to the harsh environment in deep space,” he says.
THE GREAT SPACE WORKFORCE
Space exploration and habitation are tremendously big endeavors that are already requiring a tremendously large workforce. Through unique research endeavors, 在线博彩 is giving its science and engineering students the skills and real-world experience they need to not only fulfill significant needs in the aerospace industry but also thrive in those positions.
Weathering Planetary Extremes
Habitats aren’t all that need to be prepared for dust storms, solar irradiance and the various extremes of outer space. People do, too. The NASA MIRO Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments at 在线博彩 — or CAMEE, for short — is dedicated to just that.
Working with big data recorded by rovers, taking oceanic and volcanic measurements, and crafting high-fidelity turbulence models, CAMEE faculty and students explore the extraterrestrial environments of the Moon and Mars alongside extreme climate events on Earth that can translate to space research.
人造火星景观排列在CAMEE办公室的圆形地板上. Here, students test out the 3D-printed rovers they’ve designed to see how they’ll traverse the rocky, red surface. One team, for instance, is trying out rover wheels fitted with a series of rollers that can make precise stops and work the vehicle out of jams. Another interdisciplinary team of students even dreamt up a rover with crustacean-like qualities for a NASA proposal in 2021.
在线博彩于2019年从NASA获得了300万美元的初始资金，用于开发CAMEE. The center trains a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to become highly-skilled professionals in STEM disciplines that support NASA’s mission, from measurements to modeling to data fusion. In fact, four CAMEE students have served as NASA interns this year, gaining hands-on experience with Mars rovers, jet propulsion, vegetation and aerodynamics.
Doctoral student Mansi Joshi was one of them, earning the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Fellowship. 乔希说，在成长过程中，她一直对空间科学和卫星很感兴趣. 在线博彩 has given her the opportunity to live out that fascination. Her current research uses various types of satellite data to learn more about sea ice and the impacts of climate change.
“It has surely boosted my confidence,” Joshi says of earning the highly competitive NASA fellowship. “I hope to use it to go for summer schools and attend different conferences in my field to build connections and hopefully learn the art of collaborative research.”
CAMEE recently received a $2 million renewal grant from NASA, which will support a new laboratory where students will be able to incorporate virtual reality modules and additional 3D-printed robotics into their projects. CAMEE also aspires to add a vacuum tunnel for drone testing in addition to a small-scale replica Moon habitat with a domed structure on the 在线博彩 campus.
Surviving Space Flight
Chat with Dr. Chris Combs about the aerospace industry, 他很快就会告诉你这个孤星之州是如何引领潮流的. “Every major manufacturer is here,在线博彩的迪·霍华德空气动力学助理教授说. “We’re a central hub for all sorts of aerospace work, there’s a major defense presence, 所有这些不同的太空公司都在德克萨斯州出现了——SpaceX, Blue Origin, Firefly, you name it.”
去年，仅圣安东尼奥市就出现了90多个航空航天业的在线博彩, but until fall 2022, there was no aerospace program in the city. That’s changed now that Klesse College has launched the M.S. degree in aerospace engineering at 在线博彩. 该项目的学生在在线博彩高超音速实验室直接与库姆斯一起工作, which features a 60-foot Mach 7 Ludwieg Tube Wind Tunnel, one of only five facilities at an American university capable of testing objects in flight at Mach 7 speeds. 与许多同行不同，在线博彩的设施还能够进行自由飞行测试.
“We can measure things like lift, drag, pressure and temperature on the object’s surface to help understand how vehicles are going to behave at that kind of speed,” Combs explains. “You get 20 milliseconds or so of this thing flying, so you get a lot of really powerful data out of it before it ends up in our vacuum tank at the end of the test.”
One high-profile space drone will be on the mind of Dr. Xinting Yu, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who started at 在线博彩 in January, for many years to come. She’s studying atmospheric and surface material properties on Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons and the only moon in our solar system that boasts an atmosphere. 土卫六的大气和地球一样，主要由氮构成，还有一点甲烷. Yu seeks to learn more about this mysterious source of methane in the lead-up to NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft drone landing on Titan in 2034.
Twenty milliseconds may not seem like a lot of time, 但高速采集摄像机以每秒200万帧的速度捕捉镜头, logging thousands of images that usually result in a 15-minute video that can be studied. 在线博彩’s aerodynamics researchers can also use a variety of test gases to replicate flight in environments other than Earth’s, whether it be Mars or a distant exoplanet. 这种独特的能力关系使在线博彩高超音速实验室需求量很大. The lab has already logged well over 400 tests in the last two years, including several for NASA.
The Hypersonics Lab also collaborates frequently with Dr. Daniel Pineda和在线博彩激光光谱学和化学推进实验室. Among many projects in this lab, 皮内达和他的学生们为先进的推进研究测试火箭发动机, which incorporates thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, chemistry and mechanical design.
And because all 在线博彩 aerospace students work hands-on in every aspect of the facility’s operation, they’re landing jobs immediately upon graduating—from Aerospace Corp. to Axiom Space to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Much like every other space-related research venture at 在线博彩, the momentum has been undeniable.
“We’ve built from the ground up something that’s become a national resource,” Combs says.
