Systems Engineering is the school's newest and fastest growing focus area. Through this initiative, we are building the capacity to design and build a wide array of instruments to enable scientific research on Earth and in space. Our research teams are involved in both component development and system integration. Current projects fall into three broad categories: astronomical instrumentation, sensors and cameras for remote sensing and in situ characterization of planetary surfaces, and environmental robotics systems for a variety of terrestrial and space applications. Visit our Space Missions page for a full listing of the school's current space missions and instruments.
Learn more about our Exploration Systems Design undergraduate degree and our PhD degrees in Exploration Systems Design Instrumentation, Exploration Systems Design Sensor Networks and Exploration Systems Design Systems Engineering.
Explore Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Search the tabs below for a list of faculty, research groups, labs and resources that comprise the school's Planetary Sciences.
Astronomical and Planetary Science Instrumentation
Our school is a world leader in the development of instrumentation for astronomy, cosmology and planetary science. We are one of a small handful of universities with the experience and facilities needed to develop, build and test instrumentation for major NASA space missions in-house. We build astrophysics instruments for major ground based telescopes, balloon borne observatories, sounding rockets and space missions, with an emphasis on UVOIR and radio/THz instrumentation. Several of our planetary science instruments have traveled to Mars and beyond and we have a particular expertise in thermal infrared imagers and spectrometers and optical multispectral imagers for planetary science.
Principal Faculty and Research Scientists
- Bell profile
- Bowman, J. profile
- Butler profile
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Christensen personal website
- Groppi personal website
- Hardgrove profile
- Jacobs profile
- Jansen personal website
- Mauskopf profile
- Robinson personal website
- Shkolnik profile
- Windhorst personal website
Research Groups
Engineering for Scientific Exploration
Principal Faculty and Research Scientists
- Das profile
- Groppi personal website
- Jacobs profile
Research Group
- MESE (MicroElectroMechanical System for Earth and Space Exploration)
Environmental Robotics
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, and the power of human ingenuity, scientists and engineers use environmental robotics to build systems and algorithms to monitor environmental and biological processes at large geographic scales. This field of research includes aquatic, aerial, and ground robots for sampling and analysis in a variety of terrains and ecosystems.
Principal Faculty and Research Scientists
- Das profile