Latest News
PISCES Visits Classrooms During 19th Journey Through The Universe Week
Above: Coral Clark of SETI explains spectroscopy to students at Kapiolani Elementary School on Feb. 28. JTTU is back! This week, PISCES is visiting classrooms in support of the 19th Journey Through The Universe program...
Applications Open for UCSC’s 2023 Science Internship Program
Science Internship Program student. Credit: UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz is now accepting applications for its 2023 Science Internship Program. High school students interested in STEM are...
UH Researchers to Monitor Astronauts’ Bodies in Space Using Smart Devices
Can smart phones and smart watches keep astronauts healthier in space? University of Hawaiʻi researchers have partnered with NASA to find out. John Shepard of the UH Cancer Center and his team will measure astronautsʻ...
UH Lab Creates Building Blocks for DNA in Simulated Deep Space Environment
Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have discovered a way to synthetically make building blocks for DNA and RNA under the extreme conditions of deep space. The team blasted interstellar analog ices made...
Satellites Capture Mauna Loa Eruption From Space
Above: The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite captured this composite image of the eruption shortly after it began. Credit: ESA As you're probably well aware, Mauna Loa awakened on Nov. 27, spewing...
PISCES Leads Remote Lunar Rover Simulation During MVA Symposium
Above: Helelani in the field at the HOST Park's lunar analog site in Kailua-Kona. Operators in California used a graphic user interface to navigate the rover remotely. The PISCES planetary rover "Helelani" was back in...
Artemis I Sets Record for Distance Flown From Earth by Crew Spacecraft
Credit: NASA NASA's Artemis I mission made history on Monday, Nov. 28 when the uncrewed Orion spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth of 268,563 miles—farther than any spacecraft designed for human space...
2023 Akamai Internship Program Accepting Applicants
Credit: Akamai Workforce Initiative The 2023 Akamai internship program is now accepting applications through its online portal. STEM students attending any University of Hawaiʻi campus, or who are from Hawaiʻi and...
NASA Spacecraft Crashes Into Asteroid in First Planetary Defense Test
Above: The DART spacecraft captured this image of the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Sept. 26 just 11 seconds before impact. Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL After orbiting the Sun for 10 months in pursuit of an...
Artemis I Flight is Testing NASA’s New Deep Space Exploration System
Credit: NASA NASA is poised to launch Artemis I, the first in the Artemis Program's series of planned missions to return humans to the Moon in the coming years. The 1.3-million-mile flight is scheduled for launch on...
International Students Drive Helelani Rover Remotely for Lunar Tele-robotics Event
Four teams of students from countries around the world took the controls of our Helelani rover last month, July 20, to conduct a simulated lunar mission as part of a tele-robotics lunar event hosted in the U.S....
UH Mānoa Launches Lunar Science Project for Native Hawaiian Students
Credit: NASA Continuing Hawaiʻi’s important role in lunar exploration, the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa will soon begin a new NASA-funded project to engage Native Hawaiian students in planetary science. In...
5th Annual EMER-GEN Program Offers Mentorship for Space Careers
Credit: AMOS/SGAC Are you a student or young professional who is excited about space careers? Check out the 5th Annual EMER-GEN Program on Maui, Sept. 25 to 27. Participants will meet space professionals from academia...
Final Tests Prepare Student-built Science Payload for Launch
Above: Windward CC team lead Nikki Arakawa configures the Project Imua 10 payload. Credit: UH News Two University of Hawaiʻi Community College students and their advisor wrapped up the final tests last month to...
UH Mānoa Rocketry Team Claims Multiple Awards at NASA Competition
Above (L–R): Matthew Paulino, Kelli Ching, Nikki Arakawa, Katlynn Vicuña and Kahiamaikalani Walker. Credit: UH News The winners of NASA's First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition in April were...
UH Mānoa Receives $2.5 Million for Space Weather Monitoring Station
Above: Example of a neutron monitoring station. Credit: UH News The outlook for space weather forecasts is looking bright. Researchers at UH Mānoa have been awarded a $2.5 million National Science...
Astronomers Unveil First Image of Supermassive Black Hole at Center of Milky Way
Above: The first image of Sagittarius A captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, a global network of observatories working in unison to form a single "Earth-sized" telescope. Credit: EHT Collaboration...
PISCES Program Manager Named HSGC Associate Director at UH Hilo
PISCES Program Manager Christian Andersen has been named UH Hilo's associate director for the Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium and will support students who want to explore research and training opportunities in space...
AstroDay in East Hawaiʻi Returns May 14
Hilo's beloved AstroDay celebration of science and discovery is back! All ages are invited for a day of educational fun on Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., at the Prince Kuhio Plaza in Hilo. Organized by the...
Hawaiʻi Students Invited to Name New Lunar Camera
Image: ILOA, CSYS, Intuitive Machines The first camera to photograph the Milky Way galaxy from the surface of the Moon needs a name! Local students are invited to submit Hawaiian name ideas for the International Lunar...
Tensions Over War in Ukraine Threaten ISS Partnership
Image: NASA Speeding across the skies some 250 miles overhead, the International Space Station is a tangible symbol of international cooperation and has largely remained above the realm of geopolitics—both literally...
UH Asteroid Tracking System Upgraded to Survey Entire Sky
Earthlings are better-equipped to detect asteroid threats thanks to the expansion of a NASA-funded program run by the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA). ATLAS, or Asteroid...
UH Mānoa Gets $3M to Find Subsurface Lunar Ice
Clavius Crater on the Moon. Credit: NASA/USGS NASA has awarded $3 million to a team of five University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa scientists in support of a system that will search for widespread ice...
Webb Has Arrived: What’s Next Could Change Our Understanding of the Universe
Image: Artist rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA What can one of the most sophisticated scientific instruments ever built do for our understanding of the universe? We’re about to find out—and the...
Water Discovered In-Situ on Moon for First Time
Above: Chang'E-5 landing site where water was detected. Credit: CNSA/CLEP An international team of scientists including a planetary geologist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has discovered water on the Moon for...
UH-Designed Sensors on James Webb Telescope Will Provide Deepest Views of Universe Yet
Above: Artist rendering of the James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed in space. Credit: NASA Astronomers around the world had an especially exciting Christmas in 2021 when the James Webb Space Telescope—NASA's...
New Composite Material Could Make Manufacturing on the Moon and Mars More Efficient
Above: An experimental composite material for the Moon/Mars cures inside an acrylic vacuum chamber. NASA has plans to put humans back on the Moon as early as 2025 and ISRU (in-situ resource utilization) will be a...
Hawaiʻi Plays Key Role in NASA’s Next-Gen Space Comms System
Image courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Since the dawn of space exploration, spacecraft and astronauts have communicated using radio frequency (RF) systems. As technology progressed and the data-gathering...
The Moon’s top layer alone has enough oxygen to sustain 8 billion people for 100,000 years
Image: NASA This article was originally published by The Conversation. Author: John Grant, Southern Cross University Alongside advances in space exploration, we’ve recently seen much time and money invested into...
CubeSat Design Challenge for Hawaiʻi Students Awarded $450K
Above: CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that use a standardized size and form factor. They were developed as a cost-effective platform for education and space exploration. Credit: NASA The Hawaiʻi Space Flight...
4th Annual EMER-GEN Program Returns in September
The 4th annual EMER-GEN program for young professionals and students interested in space careers will return to Maui Sept. 12 to 14. EMER-GEN is a joint initiative of the AMOS Conference (happening Sept. 14 to 17) and...
Masten & PISCES Named Among Top 3D Printing Projects
Above: PISCES’ sintered basalt tiles stack up to the challenge of a durable ISRU building material for the Moon/Mars. A Phase 1 additive manufacturing project led by Masten Space Systems in partnership with PISCES has...
Virgin Galactic Successfully Launches 3rd Test Flight in Preparation for Commercial Tours
Above: VSS Unity rockets into space after a horizontal launch above New Mexico. Credit: Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic successfully launched its third human spaceflight last month, marking a new milestone in the path...
Mars helicopter completes 4 test flights, extends mission
Above: Ingenuity’s 2nd flight captured by the Perseverance rover on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS NASA-JPL’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter successfully completed four test flights last month, exceeding...
What’s the HAPS (High-Altitude Platform System)?
Above: HAPSMobile’s Sunglider HALE-UAV takes flight. Credit: AeroVironment. By: Peter De Baets - Sr. Director, AeroVironment Improvements in power electronics and composites have taken the latest generation of aircraft...
NASA and SpaceX launch 2nd crewed mission to ISS
Above: The Crew Dragon “Endeavour” launches atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Apr. 23 from Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA Four astronauts joined the International Space Station (ISS) crew late last month, marking the...
How Next-Gen Unmanned Aerial Systems Can Benefit Hawaii
Above: The Sunglider HALE-UAS developed by AeroVironment for HAPSMobile can provide on-the-ground broadband internet access. Credit: HAPSMobile. PISCES is working to bring new aircraft technology to Hawaii that could...
Masten and PISCES selected for NASA STTR Phase 1 grant
Above: Sintered basalt tiles produced by PISCES. Masten Space Systems together with PISCES has been awarded a NASA STTR Phase 1 grant of up to $125,000 to develop a low-energy, additive construction method for the Moon...
Long-Duration Flight: The Development of HALE-UAS
Above: Swift Engineering's SULE UAS takes flight: Credit: Swift Engineering. By: Matthew Fladeland, Airborne Science Manager at NASA Ames The advent of lightweight, high-power batteries, efficient solar cells, and...
Economic Recovery in Hawaii: The Case for Aerospace
Above: HAPSMobile’s unmanned aerial system platform could launch from Hawaii to provide wireless connectivity on the ground. Image courtesy of HAPSMobile. During the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated...
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Approaches Red Planet Landing
Above: Perseverance touches down on Mars aided by a jet-powered sky crane in this artist rendering. Credit: NASA-JPL. After more than six months in flight, NASA’s Perseverance rover will touch down on the Red Planet on...
New Sintering Method May Reduce Cost of ISRU Production for Earth, Moon and Mars
Above: A durable new basalt produce uses a binding agent to reduce energy consumption during production. After nearly a year of research, PISCES scientists have developed a new ISRU (in-situ resource utilization)...
HALO Program Offers Remote Testing at Lunar/Mars Analog Sites in Hawaii
Above: Helelani analog rover at NELHA’s HOST Park analog site in Kailua-Kona (aerial shown below). PISCES is launching a new program offering remote or on-site access to lunar analog environments. Called Hawaii Analogs...
Helelani Rover’s Comm Systems Upgraded for Mobile Ops
The Helelani analog rover inside its new home, “Moku” or Mobile Operations Kommand Unit. The PISCES planetary analog rover Helelani got an upgrade to its communication systems last month with the help of an undergrad...
Using ISRU 3D Printing Systems for Sustainable Construction on Earth
RedWorks is testing various types of dirt and sand to create feedstock for 3D printing systems that can build habitats on Earth and in space. Credit: RedWorks By: Keegan Kirkpatrick - Founder & CEO, RedWorks...
Chang’e-5 Mission to Retrieve Lunar Samples
Chang’e 5 blasts off on a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket from Wenchang Space Launch Center on Nov. 23. Credit: CNSA/CAS China is on track to return to Earth the first lunar surface samples in more than four decades. On...
First NASA-Certified Commercial Spaceflight Carries Astronauts to ISS
Above: The crew of Resilience inside the Crew Dragon cockpit. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX broke new ground in space flight again on Nov. 15, 2020, after successfully launching a crew of four astronauts to the International...
Water Discovered on Sunlit Surface of Moon for First Time
An artist rendering shows the location of a lunar crater where water molecules were recently discovered using a NASA telescope. Credit: NASA/Daniel Rutter For the first time ever, scientists have confirmed the presence...
NASA’s Historic Asteroid Mission to Return Samples to Earth
Artist rendering of OSIRIS-REx readying itself for landing on Bennu. Credit: NASA Goddard/University of Arizona. NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission is on track to retrieve a handful of primordial rock dust for...
WiSE Talks Highlight Women in Space Exploration
When eight of the world’s best and brightest women working in space exploration come together, magic happens. The first Women in Space Exploration (WiSE) Talks series hosted by PISCES featured a week of virtual...
UH Mānoa Renews Focus on Aerospace Engineering
(L-R) UH Mānoa engineering students Adam James Macalalag, Eric Takahashi, Efren Enriquez and Matthew Nakamura hold a rocket they built and launched as part of the Spaceport America Cup competition in 2019. Credit: UH...
UH Student-built CubeSat Set for NASA Launch
Above: Students adding a solar panel to the Neutron-1 3U cubesat inside a cleanroom at HSFL. The inside panel contains labels with the names of all the students and faculty involved. Credit: HSFL. After six years in...
Basalt Launchpad Tiles to Undergo Testing at NASA
Above: Geology Tech Kyla Edison removes basalt launchpad tiles from their casting molds after sintering. PISCES completed and shipped a series of sintered basalt tiles last month for testing by NASA’s Swamp Works at...
UH Mānoa Aerospace Engineering Program Launches Website
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering Aerospace Engineering Program (AEP) now has a dedicated website with a variety of resources for students interested in spaceflight studies and careers. Launched...
UH Students Get Hands-on Aerospace Experience at HSFL
By: Luke Flynn, Director of Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory Above: Students who worked on the Neutron-1 cubesat. Credit: HSFL. In 2007, the Hawai‘i Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) was created to design, build, test,...
Startup Plans to Launch Space Tours in Space Balloon
Hawaii is among the planned launch locations A new human spaceflight startup has revealed plans to launch suborbital space tours for the public in less than five years. The Space Perspective, billed as “the off-world...
Demonstrating Spacecraft Technology in Zero Gravity
Above: Dr. Ian McKinley (left foreground) and Dr. William Jones-Wilson (right background) test their agility in a weightless environment during a microgravity flight and technology demonstration in March 2017. Credit:...
Big Isle Students Invited to Compete in STEM Design Challenge
Applications for NexTech Hawaiʻi's 2022 FishTank Design Competition are open! Big Island students in grades 6–12 are eligible to apply for this annual STEM challenge focused on finding practical solutions for local...
Hawaiʻi Telescopes Help Confirm Success of NASA Planetary Defense Test
Above: A trail of debris scatters in the wake of asteroid moonlet Didymos after NASA's DART spacecraft pummeled it surface. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) in late...