New findings from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission suggest that the interior of the asteroid Bennu could be weaker and less dense than its outer layers—like a crème-filled chocolate egg flying though space. The findings could give scientists new insights into the evolution of the solar system’s asteroids.

CU Boulder and Lockheed Martin will lead a new space mission to capture the first-ever closeup look at a mysterious class of solar system objects: binary asteroids. These bodies are pairs of asteroids that orbit around each other in space, much like the Earth and moon.

NASA and the National Science Foundation have awarded two CU Boulder space weather scientists more than $5M to lay the groundwork for faster and more robust space weather forecasts. Both projects are led by CIRES scientists working with the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

“It really takes an interdisciplinary approach to think about analyzing and designing a hypersonic vehicle,” said Iain Boyd, an aerospace engineering professor at CU Boulder. The university has awarded a two-year grant to Boyd and 20 other faculty members to model better designs for such vehicles.

This month, the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) is slated to blast off aboard an H-IIA rocket. Since 2014, researchers at CU Boulder have worked side-by-side with dozens of young scientists and engineers from the United Arab Emirates to help them make this mission a reality.

An update of 50-year-old regulations has kickstarted research into the next generation of rockets, which could be the key to faster, safer exploration of space. Professor Iain Boyd shares on The Conversation.

Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator on NASA’s MAVEN mission and associate director of LASP, is one of 28 representatives from government, industry and academia who have been appointed to serve two-year terms on the users' advisory group.

Aaron Aboaf is leading a team of students on a million-dollar satellite development project to advance space communications technology—all from his childhood bedroom in Aurora, Colorado. The project will be the first CubeSat platform to use CDMA technology (widely used in cell phones).

BioServe Space Technologies at CU Boulder is designing a space-rated refrigerator for astronauts to store experiments, as well as tasty food treats from home. The first two units are scheduled for delivery to NASA this summer, with a planned launch on the NG-14 resupply mission on September 7.

The chair of the space committee will be Mark Sirangelo, a scholar in residence in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU Boulder and former chief executive of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems.