Principals
CU Boulder undergraduate students; LASP Mission Operations Center听Funding National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Funding
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Collaboration + support
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP); Ball Aerospace; NASA鈥檚 Marshall Space Flight Center; Italian Space Agency听An artist鈥檚 rendition of NASA鈥檚 Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, which LASP students and staff are operating. Illustration: NASA
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Over the next two years, CU Boulder undergraduates working as flight controllers at the will help manage the day-to-day mission operations of NASA鈥檚 spacecraft.听From CU Boulder鈥檚 East Campus, they鈥檒l send commands, tell the $214 million satellite where to point, and monitor its health and safety.
Each year LASP recruits about 10 students, who spend the summer learning about spacecraft operations鈥攆rom how engineers keep components warm in space to how satellites turn using thrusters and spinning motors. In all, 23 students work in operations at the institute.听Mary Wells, a senior studying physics and an IXPE command controller, has certainly caught the space bug. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like what you see in movies,鈥� Wells said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a real feeling of being involved in something bigger.鈥�
Photo: An artist鈥檚 rendition of NASA鈥檚 Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, which LASP students and staff are operating.
Illustration: NASA
