Sydney Menne, a UND senior and one of the University’s most honored current students, has landed yet another prestigious fellowship.

The 2023 Marshall Scholar and Rhodes Scholarship finalist from Shoreview, Minn., has been awarded the 2023 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship. She’ll intern this summer at the space launch company Astra in Alameda, Calif.

Menne is one of only 30 students among more than 250 applicants from 90-plus colleges to be selected for a paid internship at one of several leading commercial space companies.

Read the full article on UND Today.

Author Credit: Janelle Vonasek

Image Credit: Virgin Orbit

Image Description: Sydney Menne, a UND senior and double-major in Physics and Mathematics, has earned a 2023 Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship. The University of North Dakota’s first-ever Marshall Scholar will intern this summer at the space launch company Astra in Alameda, Calif., before beginning her master’s degree program at England’s University of Southampton this fall. In the photo, Menne stands on the factory floor of Virgin Orbit in Long Beach, Calif, where she worked with the propulsion engineering team last summer as a Brooke Owens Fellow.

Powell Middle School sixth grade students learned about the effects of radiation Thursday and Friday thanks to a visit from NASA representative Megan Candelaria and University of Wyoming graduate student Buck Scougale.

The visit came following the sixth graders completion of their Artemis 1 research projects. Artemis 1 was an unmanned flight conducted by NASA in early December 2022. Sixth grade science teacher Necole Hanks had reached out to the University of Wyoming’s science initiative about sending scientists to help her students learn about the effects of radiation related to space travel.  

Read the full Powell Tribune Article online.

Author Credit: Braden Schiller

Image Credit: Braden Schiller

Image Description: Powell Middle School sixth grader Breiyah Bonander (from left) watches NASA representative Megan Candelaria demonstrate a radiation based activity using a cloud chamber. Sixth graders Blake Bessler and Autumn Allred also watch intently to see how the artificial contrails behave.

BOZEMAN – Montana State University will host high school and transfer students from all over Montana at Native Student Preview Day on Monday, Jan. 23. The event is designed to offer Native students a culturally relevant campus visit experience and provide in-depth information about what it’s like to attend MSU.

Kristie Russette, outreach coordinator and recruitment specialist for MSU’s Native American Studies program, said MSU continues to increase resources for Native students as their enrollment grows. Organizers will showcase those resources, including American Indian Hall, which celebrated its grand opening in October 2021.

Read the full article on Montana.edu

Image Credit and Image Description: Montana State University students study and socialize in the American Indian/Alaska Native Student Success Services Center in the American Indian Hall on campus, Friday, May 6, 2022, in Bozeman, Montana. MSU Photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez

The UMaine Space Initiative is pleased to announce recipients of a new seed grant program created to encourage innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations that result in rapid planning, team development, and research coordination in supported topical areas.

UMaine Space administers an Ideas Lab program for the state of Maine, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Maine Space Grant Consortium (MSGC) Ideas Lab, and UMaine’s Office of Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School.

Read the full article on the UMaine.edu.

Image Credit: UMaine Space

Image Description: Three individuals are pictured in astronaut suits. Two suits are orange and the center person is wearing a white suit. Each suit has a NASA patch on the chest and an American flag patch on the shoulder.

‘UD Day in DC’ shows federal partners the powerful impact of research

AUSTIN, Texas — Moriba Jah(link is external), an astrodynamicist, space environmentalist and aerospace engineer at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the “genius grant.” The award recognizes Jah’s work to track and monitor the more than 30,000 human-made objects orbiting the earth.

Jah is one of 25 individuals selected for the five-year fellowship — a no-strings-attached “investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential.”(link is external) Recipients are nominated based on proven talent and extraordinary originality and dedication to their creative pursuits.

Read the full story on the Arizona Space Grant Consortium website here.

Author & Image Credit: UT News (The University of Texas at Austin)

The University of Arizona’s Daniella “Dani” DellaGiustina shot for the stars and has already landed among them. Today, the planetary scientist was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10 – an annual list of early-career scientists and engineers who are developing innovative approaches to problems across a range of disciplines.

DellaGiustina is an assistant professor of planetary sciences in the university’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and deputy principal investigator of NASA’s UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. She is also principal investigator of the extended OSIRIS-REx mission, dubbed OSIRIS-APEX, which will visit the near-Earth asteroid Apophis.

Read the full article on news.arizona.edu

Image Credit: Kyle Mittan/University Communications

Author Credit: Mikayla Mace Kelley

Test Launch day

“Going in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” The eight-foot tall rocket stood, motionless.

“… Come on Chungus.” the rocketeer murmured into the microphone.

With an ear-shattering roar, Chungus burst into the sky, 500 hundred feet, 1,000 feet, over 3,000 feet! A speck in the brilliant blue.

The team erupted, screaming wildly as the rocket flew.

“YES!” Reign Pagaran yelled, leaping into the air, held aloft, it seemed, by the joy of this moment. The Trailblazers did it, they flew before they walked.

…

Read the full article on colorado.edu

Image Credit: University of Colorado Boulder & Colorado Space Grant Consortium

Author Credit:  Grace Wilson

Learn more about the First Nations Launch – Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium

If you had two days to work with NASA to eliminate barriers of access to space and science opportunities, what would you do?

For nearly 30,000 participants who had this opportunity earlier this month, the sky was the limit. Coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, builders, artists, and technologists across the world came together in person and virtually for the 2022 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Using NASA’s open-source data, they tackled the challenge of scientific access, using their scientific knowledge, artistic skills, business acumen, and wildest imaginations.

Read the full article on american.edu

Author Credit: Patty Housman

Image Credit: DC Space Grant Consortium