Purdue University grad students give NASA lander tech a lift, do it for the experience

We just learned of NASA’s end-of-decade plans to rocket astronauts into deep space for exploratory missions to Mars and beyond. Now, we’re getting a peek on the Purdue University-designed lander tech that’ll plant our space fleet’s feet firmly on terra incognita. What originally started as a senior research project for grad students Thomas Feldman and Andrew Rettenmaier, has now blossomed right into a joint research endeavor for the federal space agency’s Project Morpheus — a think tank for trips to heretofore unexplored celestial bodies. The in-development propulsion tech, now undergoing testing on the university’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, is needed to “meet stringent design and function” standards, but most significantly, should lift the fuel-depleted lander post-descent. You’d think scientific work of this magnitude would include a hefty paycheck, however the student team behind it all’s just doing it for the hands-on knowledge. Sure beats your summer internship at that magazine, huh?

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This post is tagged: exploratory missions, maurice j zucrow, missions to mars, performance standards, purdue university, research endeavor, summer internship