PROVIDENCE – A return trip to the moon. Volcanic glass and asteroid samples. Innovative underwater robots.
Those are just a few NASA-funded projects in which Rhode Island businesses and higher education researchers are applying their expertise.
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In late June, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson traveled to the Ocean State for a firsthand look at the research and technology that Rhode Island colleges, universities and businesses are producing to support the space agency’s mission.
The visit, led by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., started at DEWETRON Inc. in East Greenwich, a precision test and measurement equipment manufacturer that NASA commissions for tools to monitor the performance of its Space Launch System, which supports the lunar return mission.
Later, Nelson visited NASA-funded labs at Brown University, where students and faculty also contribute to the planned return to the moon. Among other projects, Brown researchers support the Curiosity Rover on Mars, measure space materials such as asteroid samples and are working to develop an underwater robot that mimics the movement of krill.
In a statement, Nelson called the visit “an eye-opening experience.”
“Our partnership with universities and other governmental agencies and the private sector is absolutely invaluable for what we’re doing,” Nelson said during the Brown tour. “Senator Reed and I just attended a laboratory where they were actually taking samples from the moon and examining them for water content. … That’s just amazing.”
The Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown and NASA’s R.I. Space Grant Consortium hosted Nelson’s visit to Brown, which attracted space researchers from within and outside the university’s community.
Nelson also met with researchers from the University of Rhode Island who carry out NASA-funded research such as on weight-bearing jackets designed to help astronauts maintain muscle and bone health in space.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
