Space Content

�鶹��ý and Proteus Space to Launch First-Ever Dynamic Digital Twin into Space

Andy Fell — June 25, 2025 - 10:12am

The Center for Space Exploration Research at the University of California, Davis, has partnered with Proteus Space to launch a US government-sponsored satellite into space with a custom AI-enabled payload in a brand-new, first-ever rapid design-to-deployment small satellite.

The team will launch the satellite and payload in October 2025 from Vandenberg, CA. From the time the project was fully approved, the design and launch will occur within an unprecedented 13 months. (The normal pace for small satellites is often measured in years.)

To the Moon and Back: �鶹��ý Plays Role in Historic Artemis I Mission

Andy Fell — December 16, 2022 - 2:00pm

On Dec. 11, Artemis I’s Orion capsule made a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean after nearly 26 days in space and orbiting the moon. Orion is NASA’s new exploration spacecraft designed to carry humans into deep space.

Lettuce Could Protect Astronauts’ Bones on Mars Trip

Andy Fell — March 22, 2022 - 8:30am

Astronauts might one day grow and eat genetically modified plants to ward off disease associated with long spaceflights. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, College of Engineering have developed a transgenic, or genetically modified, lettuce producing a drug to protect against bone density loss in microgravity. The work will be presented March 22 at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.

Fragments of 2018 Botswana Fireball Came From Vesta

Andy Fell — April 23, 2021 - 8:30am

An asteroid that exploded over Botswana in 2018 likely came from Vesta, the second largest object in the asteroid belt, according to an analysis of rocks recovered after the impact.

Vesta is the source of about six percent of all meteorites found on Earth. Some of these meteorites were launched by a huge impact on Vesta about a billion years ago. However, the new analysis suggests the 2018 asteroid was flung into space about 22 million years ago.

New Institute Eyes HOME in Deep Space

Andy Fell — April 30, 2019 - 1:34pm

In a significant step toward human-crewed space missions to the moon or Mars, NASA has awarded a grant of up to $15 million over five years to a new research institute led by the University of California, Davis. The HOME (Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration) Space Technology Research Institute will develop enabling technology for spacecraft and deep-space bases of the future.

Fruit Flies Raised in Space by �鶹��ý Researcher Show Weakened Immunity

Karen Michele Nikos — October 08, 2018 - 4:58pm

In 2006, Professor Deborah Kimbrell and a group of university researchers were selected by NASA to send fruit flies up on a space shuttle to test their immune response.

How Did the Moon Get Where It Is?

Karen Michele Nikos — September 17, 2018 - 4:47pm

Earth’s moon is an unusual object in our solar system, and now there’s a new theory to explain how it got where it is, which puts some twists on the current “giant impact” theory.

How the Moon Formed Inside a Vaporized Earth Synestia

Andy Fell — February 28, 2018 - 1:49pm

A new explanation for the moon’s origin has it forming inside the Earth when our planet was a seething, spinning cloud of vaporized rock, called a synestia. The new model led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Harvard University resolves several problems in lunar formation and is published Feb. 28 in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets.

10 Ways �鶹��ý Is Great in STEM

Andy Fell — August 22, 2016 - 4:36pm

This week, we present in sound and video some of the people and projects that make �鶹��ý a great place for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.

New Type of Meteorite Linked to Ancient Asteroid Collision

Andy Fell — June 15, 2016 - 9:33am

An ancient space rock discovered in a Swedish quarry is a type of meteorite never before found on Earth and likely a remnant of a collision in the asteroid belt that sent debris raining to Earth during the Ordovician Period 470 million years ago.