Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research

Researchers at CU Boulder are starting work on a new collaborative grant from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that will improve solar wind modeling. The team at CU is led by the Space Weather Technology, Research and Education Center with contributions from Stanford University, Lockheed Martin...

The Space Shot podcast interviews Distinguished Professor Dan Scheeres about the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. Scheeres is leading radio science on the mission. OSIRIS-REx launched in September 2016 and has traveled more than one billion miles since, looping around the sun and now in orbit around Bennu. Listen on...

The Earth’s magnetic field is constantly changing, so researchers need constantly updated data to revise the models that guide our navigation systems and help predict weather on Earth. CU researchers Bob Marshall and Svenja Knappe are collaborating to bring down the cost of this process through the use of small...

The National Academy of Engineering has elected Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences professor Penina Axelrad and alumnus Dereje Agonafer (AeroEngr ’72) as new members in 2019. Election to the prestigious academy is among the highest professional distinctions bestowed upon an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made...

University of Colorado Boulder Smead Aerospace Professor Hanspeter Schaub has been elected a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The honor is in recognition of notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics. Schaub is a prolific...

Mass media representations of space weather—variable conditions in space that can affect the technological systems modern society depends on—often evoke visions of catastrophic power grid failures and global chaos. The result can be gripping film or literature but, while such worst-case scenarios are possible, they can distort our understanding of...

Daniel Scheeres is a University of Colorado Distinguished Professor, the A. Richard Seebass Chair of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His research spans astrodynamics and spacecraft navigation to planetary science and celestial mechanics. A primary focus of Scheeres’ work is studying mechanics of...

University of Colorado Boulder scientists have a front row seat today to observe a NASA spacecraft as it arrives at the asteroid Bennu, coming to within 4.5 miles of the space rock. This close approach, followed by a flyby Dec. 4, up is the first in a series of planned...

On Aug. 4, 1972, U.S. military pilots flying south of Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam saw something unexpected: more than two dozen sea mines suddenly—and without apparent explanation—exploding in the water. Now, CU Boulder engineering professor Delores Knipp and her colleagues have dug into this four-decades-old naval mystery. In a...

Jay McMahon, Assistant Professor, Smead Aerospace Friday, Oct. 5, 2018 | DLC | 12:00 P.M. Download Flyer Abstract: There is great interest in asteroid exploration for three reasons - science, planetary defense, and asteroid mining. While many dream of getting rich off of mining rare minerals, the real treasure is...