NASA’s University Innovation (UI) project funds university-led innovation to address the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s system-level challenges via independent, NASA-alternate-path, multi-disciplinary awards.
Strategic Goals
The UI portfolio’s strategic goals in descending order of importance are:
1. Assist in achieving aviation outcomes defined in the ARMD Strategic Implementation Plan through NASA-complementary research. 2. Transition research results to an appropriate range of stakeholders that leads to a continuation of the research. 3. Provide broad opportunities for students at different levels, including graduate and undergraduate, to participate in aeronautics research.
Portfolio Elements
The UI project’s strategic goals are achieved through two opportunities that are available through NASA Research Announcement awards.
University Leadership Initiative (ULI) ULI provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges, defining interdisciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact. By addressing the most complex challenges associated with ARMD’s strategic thrusts, universities will accelerate progress toward achievement of high impact outcomes while leveraging their capability to bring together the best and brightest minds across many disciplines. To transition their research, principal investigators are expected to actively explore transition opportunities and pursue follow-on funding from stakeholders and industrial partners during the course of the award.
University Students Research Challenge (USRC) USRC seeks to develop novel concepts with the potential to create new capabilities in aeronautics by stimulating aeronautics research in the U.S. student community. USRC provides students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for aeronautics projects that also raise cost sharing funds using crowdfunding platforms. By including the process of creating and preparing a crowdfunding campaign, USRC can act as a teaching accelerator to help students develop entrepreneurial skills.
Gateways To Blue Skies Gateways to Blue Skies expands engagement between universities and NASA’s University Innovation Project, industry, and government partners by providing an opportunity for multi-disciplinary teams of students from all academic levels (i.e., freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate) to tackle significant challenges and opportunities for the aviation industry through a new project theme each year. The competition is guided by a push toward new technologies as well as environmentally and socially conscious aviation.
Telescopes Team Up for New View of Cat’s Eye Nebula
ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov
This March 3, 2026, image combines views from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Euclid and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to feature one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies 4,400 light-years away in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4825-4831: Exploring the Borderlands
3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4825-4831: Exploring the Borderlands
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a pitted vertical rock face dubbed “Timboy Chaco,” using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. MAHLI uses an onboard process to merge multiple images of the same target, making a composite that brings as many features as possible into focus. Curiosity performed the merge on March 5, 2026 — Sol 4827, or Martian day 4,827 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 19:56:40 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute
Earth planning date: Friday, March 6, 2026
Curiosity is in the last stage of its exploration of the spiderweb-like boxwork unit. This stage consists of exploring the eastern and southern borders of this terrain. There were two multi-sol plans assembled this week. The previous plan put Curiosity at a site on the eastern extent of the boxwork unit with bedrock that allowed for brushing and in-place measurements with APXS and MAHLI of the bedrock target “Infiernillo.” The ChemCam also took a LIBS chemical measurement of this target as well as a nodular-rich piece of bedrock assigned the name “Humahuaca.” MAHLI was tasked to image a pitted vertical rock face which was dubbed “Timboy Chaco” (part of which is shown in the MAHLI color image accompanying this report). Mastcam color mosaics and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics were also collected to characterize nearby terrain including a butte to the south and the geologic contact between the boxwork terrain and the adjacent layered, light-toned unit.
A midweek drive put the rover even closer to the eastern edge of the boxwork unit and set it up for two or more drives to the southern edge of the boxwork. The workspace present for Friday planning included bedrock exposures and a dark-toned float rock. The float rock was large enough for in-situ observation by APXS, and it was also targeted for up-close imaging by MAHLI and a measurement by ChemCam to observe its reflectance properties. Some other dark float rocks observed by Curiosity in the past year have been hypothesized as being stony meteorites (chondrites). Measuring the chemistry and reflectance of this dark rock, named “Thola,” will allow the team to determine if it is native to Mars or a meteorite from beyond. The Friday plan also included ChemCam remote chemistry measurements of the smooth bedrock target “Valle Fertil” and a nodular bedrock target “Norte Grande.” The plan also included Mastcam mosaics of light-toned bedrock across the eastern contact of the boxwork unit to assess sedimentary structures and determine stratigraphic relationships, observations of smaller troughs in the regolith, and other mosaics of nearby ridges as well as a two-frame mosaic of the dark float rock Thola and another dark-toned pebble.
The plan concludes with a drive toward the southern border of the boxwork unit. Given that this southern contact is approximately 100 meters (about 109 yards) away, it will likely require two drives.
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4825-4831: Exploring the Borderlands
3 min read
Curiosity Blog, Sols 4825-4831: Exploring the Borderlands
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of a pitted vertical rock face dubbed “Timboy Chaco,” using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. MAHLI uses an onboard process to merge multiple images of the same target, making a composite that brings as many features as possible into focus. Curiosity performed the merge on March 5, 2026 — Sol 4827, or Martian day 4,827 of the Mars Science Laboratory Mission — at 19:56:40 UTC.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Written by William Farrand, Senior Research Scientist, Space Science Institute
Earth planning date: Friday, March 6, 2026
Curiosity is in the last stage of its exploration of the spiderweb-like boxwork unit. This stage consists of exploring the eastern and southern borders of this terrain. There were two multi-sol plans assembled this week. The previous plan put Curiosity at a site on the eastern extent of the boxwork unit with bedrock that allowed for brushing and in-place measurements with APXS and MAHLI of the bedrock target “Infiernillo.” The ChemCam also took a LIBS chemical measurement of this target as well as a nodular-rich piece of bedrock assigned the name “Humahuaca.” MAHLI was tasked to image a pitted vertical rock face which was dubbed “Timboy Chaco” (part of which is shown in the MAHLI color image accompanying this report). Mastcam color mosaics and ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) mosaics were also collected to characterize nearby terrain including a butte to the south and the geologic contact between the boxwork terrain and the adjacent layered, light-toned unit.
A midweek drive put the rover even closer to the eastern edge of the boxwork unit and set it up for two or more drives to the southern edge of the boxwork. The workspace present for Friday planning included bedrock exposures and a dark-toned float rock. The float rock was large enough for in-situ observation by APXS, and it was also targeted for up-close imaging by MAHLI and a measurement by ChemCam to observe its reflectance properties. Some other dark float rocks observed by Curiosity in the past year have been hypothesized as being stony meteorites (chondrites). Measuring the chemistry and reflectance of this dark rock, named “Thola,” will allow the team to determine if it is native to Mars or a meteorite from beyond. The Friday plan also included ChemCam remote chemistry measurements of the smooth bedrock target “Valle Fertil” and a nodular bedrock target “Norte Grande.” The plan also included Mastcam mosaics of light-toned bedrock across the eastern contact of the boxwork unit to assess sedimentary structures and determine stratigraphic relationships, observations of smaller troughs in the regolith, and other mosaics of nearby ridges as well as a two-frame mosaic of the dark float rock Thola and another dark-toned pebble.
The plan concludes with a drive toward the southern border of the boxwork unit. Given that this southern contact is approximately 100 meters (about 109 yards) away, it will likely require two drives.
Scientists estimate that Earth is home to more than 100 million lakes. Among the most unusual is Lake Unter-See, one of Antarctica’s largest and deepest surface lakes, known for its distinctive water chemistry. Its ice-covered waters have exceptionally high levels of dissolved oxygen, low dissolved carbon dioxide, and a strongly alkaline (basic) pH.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 9 captured this image on February 16, 2026, during the Antarctic summer. Most of the lake’s water comes from seasonal meltwater draining from the margins of the nearby Anuchin Glacier, which flows south from the Gruber Mountains in Queen Maud Land.
With mean annual temperatures of about minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), Lake Unter-See remains frozen year-round, its waters sealed beneath several meters of ice. Sunlight penetrates the ice and warms the water below, but the cold surface and strong winds drive evaporation and sublimation, preventing significant surface melting. The lake’s maximum depth is thought to reach nearly 170 meters (558 feet).
The lake’s water chemistry is unusual partly because it is one of the only perennially frozen lakes with a community of large, conical stromatolites. The layered microbial reef structures grow slowly upward as photosynthetic microbes—primarily cyanobacteria—trap sediment on their sticky surfaces and form calcium carbonate mineral crusts. These conical stromatolites—as well as pinnacle and flat forms of the microbial communities—release oxygen that becomes trapped under the ice, increasing its concentration in the lake.
Lake Unter-See’s stromatolites, discovered by SETI geobiologist Dale Andersen and colleagues in 2011, offer a glimpse into a time more than 3 billion years ago, when microbes were the only form of life on Earth. The formations are thought to be modern, living examples of the organisms that likely produced some of Earth’s oldest fossils—stromatolites found in places such as southwestern Greenland and western Australia.
The scientists noted that similar periodic flooding may provide “biological stimuli to other carbon dioxide-depleted Antarctic ecosystems and perhaps even icy lakes on early Mars.”
Some Antarctic lakes, such as Lake Joyce in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contain conical stromatolites, but they reach only a few centimeters tall. By contrast, the formations in Lake Unter-See tower up to half a meter. Scientists think Unter-See’s stromatolites grow unusually tall because they are sheltered from tides and waves beneath permanent ice, live in exceptionally clear waters with little sediment, grow toward limited light, and face little grazing. The lake’s largest creatures are tardigrades—microscopic “water bear” invertebrates known for their ability to survive in extreme environments.
Astrobiologists also point to the lake as a possible analog for the type of environment where life might have formed or survived on icy moons with oceans such as Europa and Enceladus, or perhaps on Mars, which has ice caps and glaciers.
Yet despite its seemingly stable conditions, Lake Unter-See occasionally experiences abrupt changes. During fieldwork in 2019, researchers observed an increase in the lake’s water levels. The team, led by scientists at the University of Ottawa, later analyzed elevation data from NASA’s ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2) and confirmed a 2-meter rise was caused by a glacial lake outburst flood from nearby Lake Ober-See.
The University of Ottawa team also showed that the outburst flood had released 17.5 million cubic meters of meltwater, altering Unter-See’s pH and replenishing it with carbon dioxide-rich waters that likely enhanced the productivity of the lake’s microbial life. The scientists noted that similar periodic flooding may provide “biological stimuli to other carbon dioxide-depleted Antarctic ecosystems and perhaps even icy lakes on early Mars.”
NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.Story by Adam Voiland.
