NASA awards $12 million to 12 research institutions
The M-STAR selections span robotics, heat shields, lunar instruments, propulsion materials and power systems for Moon and Mars missions.
Twelve institutions receive research awards
NASA selected 12 U.S. colleges and universities for a combined $12 million in research and technology awards supporting future Moon, Mars and deep-space missions. Each institution may receive up to $1 million through the MUREP Space Technology Artemis Research initiative.
The program, known as M-STAR, is intended to strengthen research capacity at minority-serving institutions while involving faculty and students in aerospace work. The awards also aim to improve the institutions' ability to compete for later government and commercial research funding.
The selections are research investments, not flight certifications. Each project must still complete technical work, testing and review before any result could be considered for a mission.
Projects cover robotics, power and human systems
California State University, Sacramento will study models for resilient collaboration among planetary robots. The University of Central Florida will work on aerothermal simulation and testing, while the University of Hawaii at Manoa will develop training in radiation instrumentation and detection.
The University of Houston project concerns rover-carried surface equipment. The University of Texas at San Antonio will study regolith properties under cryogenic conditions, and Kean University will work on terrain understanding and autonomous path planning.
Virginia Commonwealth University's proposal addresses radiation-tolerant materials for nuclear thermal propulsion hardware. Shaw University will work on environmental-control and surface-infrastructure materials, and Howard University will develop a Raman instrument concept for a lunar minirover.
Other projects include propulsion-hardware repair at Prairie View A&M, extreme-environment batteries and fuel cells at the University of New Mexico, and model-based systems engineering at Fayetteville State University.
Research capacity is part of mission readiness
M-STAR links technology development with workforce preparation. NASA says the program connects institutional leaders and researchers with agency priorities while expanding facilities, expertise and student participation.
That structure recognizes that a space program depends on more than a single center or contractor. Long-duration exploration requires advances in autonomy, materials, power, sensing, thermal protection and life-support systems, along with researchers trained to continue the work.
Awards do not guarantee that a project will fly on Artemis or another mission. They create a funded path for institutions to test ideas, publish results and build the evidence needed for future competition.
The selected institutions span California, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Washington and New Mexico. The geographic and technical range gives NASA multiple research pathways, but each team remains responsible for meeting award milestones and documenting performance under its own project plan.
Universities may also use the awards to improve laboratories, recruit students and form partnerships that remain useful after the individual research period ends. That capacity-building goal is explicit in the M-STAR program design.
The announcement is therefore both a technology story and an education story: NASA is distributing research across institutions while targeting problems relevant to sustained operations beyond Earth.