aldrin space institute

An Easy Mission to Mars We need citizen scientists to help us collect soil samples from dry desert environments. Florida Tech and the Aldrin Space Institute are working together to build the largest database of Mars regolith here on Earth. Regolith is essentially a soil simulant that mirrors Mars’ dry, arid desert-like environment.  So far we’ve collected samples from six…

On the second floor of the Florida Tech Olin Life Sciences Building, tucked away in what looks like an old refrigerator, is the beginning of the next great human journey into the unknown. To look at it, the research seems pretty simple. There’s a chamber – that looks like a refrigerator – fitted with some special lighting and filled with…

When it comes to discussing plans to get humans to Mars, the focus is often on the rockets and technology required to get there. Less attention has been paid to another component critical to the success of future missions: the crew member. That is until now. On May 30-31, researchers from across North America gathered at Kennedy Space Center Visitor…

The event brings together leading scholars from social science disciplines to develop common characterizations of the psychological, sociological and human performance challenges of Mars colonization.

It’s not every day that a team of college seniors gets to present an idea to NASA and Buzz Aldrin. “The first day after we presented to Buzz Aldrin, we were freaking out,” mechanical engineering senior Muhammad Shah said. “We started from nothing and we narrowed it down. Today, we have a really cool system.” That really cool system is a…

By Shelley Preston Class began with a hum of nervous energy; students fidgeted in their seats, eyes drifted around the room. There was a rumor that the world’s most famous astronaut would make an appearance here in this small intimate classroom on the fourth floor of the Olin Physical Sciences Center. Heads kept turning to the door near the back of the room as astrophysics…

Last fall, in an article for CNN, President Obama gave space engineers and scientists a goal to send humans to Mars by the year 2030. The ultimate goal of the NASA space program is to be able to stay on Mars for an extended period of time. What do these plans mean for aerospace engineering? More jobs and more research, most likely.…

Florida Tech Researchers Explore the Possibilities of Growing Plants on the Red Planet A little more than a year after the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute was created at Florida Institute of Technology with the mission to get humans to Mars, researchers are already looking at realistic ways we can grow food on the Red Planet. Unlike Earth soil, Martian soil,…

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin has come to Florida Tech. In partnership with the university, the legendary moonwalker has established the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute (BASI) and signed on as a research professor of aeronautics at Florida Tech.  His goal: to promote the settlement of Mars through research. “I am proud of my time at NASA with the Gemini 12…

NASA Mars Chamber Prepares to Roll to Florida Tech An email came from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center recently, asking Florida Institute of Technology if they would like to take something off their hands: A Mars Environment Chamber that had been languishing in a spare-part junk yard. And… Wrap it Up—We’ll Take it It’s going to need some work. Daniel Batcheldor,…