News and Events
UCF GOLD Project Makes Critical Step on Path to Space
ORLANDO, April 07, 2015 – A contract award to SES Government Solutions puts UCF’s Global-Scale Observations of Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission on track to launch no earlier than Fall, 2017. The award, made by the University of Colorado, a partner in the project, will give the GOLD payload the ride it needs to geostationary …
The FSI Senior Design Program: Connecting UCF students with space research
December 12, 2018 – With the Florida Space Institute (FSI) Senior Design Program, UCF students have an opportunity to participate in interdisciplinary teams to tackle real problems in space research. The program kicked off early in 2018 with three goals: Match NASA Kennedy Space Center project opportunities with UCF Senior Design Faculty and Student …
FSI Associate Scientist Awarded NASA Grant
November 9, 2018 – Dr. Julie Brisset, an Associate Scientist at the Florida Space Institute, was recently awarded a NASA grant to study man-made dust clouds in microgravity. The Dust In-Situ Manipulation System (DIMS) is a platform that can conduct controlled experiments on dust grains; ultimately providing insight on how dust grain material properties, sizes, …
Esther Beltran Featured in Serendipitous Leaders
October 24, 2018 – Read Esther Beltran’s interview with Serendipitous Leaders here .
UCF Celebrates Arecibo Observatory’s 55th Anniversary
October 24, 2018 – The Arecibo Observatory officially opened on November 1, 1963 in Puerto Rico. Next week, on-site and off-site activities are planned to celebrate Arecibo Observatory’s 55th anniversary and the important scientific contributions it has been involved in. On October 29th, UCF will host Dr. Kristen Jones, a post-doctoral researcher from the Arecibo …
A UCF lab has developed a recipe for creating Martian soil on Earth. And yes, it’s red.
Click here to read the article on the Orlando Sentinel.
Sheyene Gerardi Infusing Scientific Progress into Robotics Outreach
UCF’s Florida Space Institute and NASA’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS) announced today an expanded collaboration with Sheyene Gerardi to advance space robotics through visionary, global participation in space. The partnership between the Florida Space Institute and Sheyene Gerardi is making rapid progress. Ms. Gerardi is joining NASA’s Center for Lunar and …
Laboratory Astrophysics Studies along the Cosmic Cycle of Gas
September 6th, 2018 – Seminar at FSI at 11am Partnership 1 Room 209 Abstract – Tracing the evolution of baryonic matter from atoms in space to stars and planets hinges on an accurate understanding of the underlying physics controlling the properties of the gas at every step along this pathway. Here I will focus on …
Arecibo Observatory proves that Einstein was right (again)
Data collected from the William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory helped researchers confirm the strong equivalence principle of general relativity for heavy objects. An essential concept in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, the equivalence principle, proposed that all objects accelerate identically in an external gravitational field. Prior to the results by Archibald, et al. published in Nature , tests of the …
Arecibo Observatory observations of a massive and fast-spinning pulsing star
Imagine being able to see a flea on the surface of Pluto. That’s a good way to describe what the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico helped a group of Canadian researchers do. The team, led by Robert Main of the University of Toronto, was able to observe unprecedented details of a pulsar 6,500 light years from Earth. …