Focus on Undergraduate Students

University of Arizona students have completed one of the first comprehensive peer-reviewed brightness studies to characterize mega-constellation satellites cluttering the skies.

New UArizona research finds that the target asteroid of NASA's Psyche mission may not be as metallic or dense as previously predicted.

Ten students from Japan and Arizona gathered for the first official Space Camp at Biosphere 2, where they designed Biosphere 3 to sustain life on Mars.

Bradley Williams sat cross-legged in his fifth grade classroom watching television coverage of the 1999 Mars Polar Lander descent. Suddenly, the lander lost communication with Earth, and his teacher turned off the television. But she'd turned on the 10-year-old's passion for deep space exploration.

When she’s not in class or training to qualify for next year’s Boston Marathon, you can find undergraduate Stephanie Stewart hard at work with her teammates on OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s first asteroid sample return mission.

Systems engineering and mathematics double major Keara Burke is helping NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft find the perfect place to collect samples at its far-flung destination, the asteroid Bennu.

Goldwater Scholarship winner Adriana Mitchell of the UA will assist on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hayabusa2 project, an asteroid sample return mission that is similar to the UA-led OSIRIS-REx mission by NASA.

Undergraduate Adriana Mitchell already has her sights set on worlds far across the solar system. But right now, thanks to a virtual telescope stretching across 2,500 miles, she is poised to find answers to questions about the sun that have eluded scientists for decades.

From modeling the asteroid to steering the spacecraft, UA engineering students are helping ensure all systems are go.

UA alumna Daniella DellaGiustina wasn't planning on a career in planetary science, but one thing led to another and now she plays a significant role in the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.