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In the vast expanse of space, Earth’s limitations no longer apply. That’s exactly where University of Florida (UF) engineering associate professor Victoria Miller, Ph.D., and her students are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

In partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, UF’s engineering team is exploring how to manufacture precision metal structures in orbit using laser technology. The project, called NOM4D – Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design – seeks to transform how people think about space infrastructure development.

“We want to build big things in space,” said Miller. “To build big things in space, you must start manufacturing things in space. This is an exciting new frontier.”

Imagine constructing massive structures like satellite antennas, solar panels, or even parts of space stations directly in orbit. That’s exactly what Miller’s team aims to achieve with their pioneering research.

UF received a $1.1 million DARPA contract to carry out this work over three phases. While other universities explore various aspects of space manufacturing, UF is the only one specifically focused on laser forming for space applications, according to Miller.

A major challenge of the NOM4D project is overcoming the size and weight limitations of rocket cargo. To address these concerns, Miller’s team is developing laser-forming technology to bend metals into precise shapes without human touch. This process involves tracing patterns on metals with a laser beam, which heats and bends them into shape.

“With this technology, we can build structures in space far more efficiently than launching them fully assembled from Earth,” said team member Nathan Fripp, also a third-year Ph.D. student studying materials science and engineering. “This opens up a wide range of new possibilities for space exploration, satellite systems, and even future habitats.”

However, the challenge doesn’t stop at shaping metals; Miller’s students are also working to ensure that material properties remain good or improve during the laser-forming process.

“The challenge is ensuring that the material properties stay good or improve during the laser-forming process,” said Miller. “Can we ensure when we bend this sheet metal that bent regions still have really good properties and are strong and tough with the right flexibility?”

To analyze the materials, students ran controlled tests on aluminum, ceramics, and stainless steel, assessing how variables like laser input, heat, and gravity affect how materials bend and behave.

“We run many controlled tests and collect detailed data on how different metals respond to laser energy: how much they bend, how much they heat up, how the heat affects them, and more,” said team member Tianchen Wei, a third-year Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering. “We have also developed models to predict the temperature and the amount of bending based on the material properties and laser energy input.”

The research has made significant progress since 2021, but the technology must be further developed before it’s ready for use in space. Collaboration with NASA Marshall Space Center is critical, enabling researchers to test laser forming in space-like conditions inside a thermal vacuum chamber provided by NASA.

As the project enters its final year, finishing in June of 2026, questions remain around maintaining material integrity during the laser-forming process. Still, Miller’s team remains optimistic that UF moves one step closer to a new era of construction with each simulation and laser test.

“It’s great to be a part of a team pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in manufacturing, not just on Earth, but beyond,” said Wei.

The article highlights the groundbreaking discovery made by citizen scientists participating in the Kilonova Seekers project. This initiative allows members of the public to analyze near-real-time data collected from the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) project, which involves two arrays of telescopes located on opposite sides of the planet.

The team, led by Dr. Tom Killestein and Dr. Lisa Kelsey, was able to identify a bright exploding star, dubbed GOTO0650, after public volunteers flagged it as an object of interest within 3.5 hours of the image being taken. The quick response enabled the team to gather an unusually complete dataset on the star, including spectroscopy, X-ray, and UV measurements.

The discovery was made possible by the involvement of citizen scientists from around the world, who were able to analyze images and data in real-time. One volunteer, Svetoslav Alexandrov, recalled his excitement when he saw that he would be a co-author on the research paper, while another, Cledison Marcos da Silva, credited the project with distracting him from a serious health problem.

The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of citizen science in making novel serendipitous discoveries in vast datasets. The Kilonova Seekers project is approaching its two-year anniversary and has provided over 3,500 members of the public with the opportunity to discover supernovae and variable stars using real data.

In summary, the article showcases the power of collaborative efforts between scientists and citizens, highlighting the potential for groundbreaking discoveries in real-time. The image prompt complements the article by visually representing the excitement and wonder of uncovering a rare exploding star, surrounded by the diverse group of scientists working together to understand this phenomenon.

As scientists continue to explore the vast expanse of our solar system, they are constantly reminded that there is still much we don’t know about its origins and evolution. A recent discovery in the asteroid Ryugu has shed new light on this phenomenon, leaving researchers with more questions than answers.

The Hayabusa2 mission returned pristine samples from the C-type asteroid Ryugu on December 6, 2020. These samples were crucial for improving our understanding of primitive asteroids and their role in forming the Solar System. However, a research team at Hiroshima University made an unexpected find – the presence of djerfisherite, a potassium-containing iron-nickel sulfide mineral, in one of these Ryugu grains.

Djerfisherite is typically associated with enstatite chondrites, which form under very reduced conditions. Its occurrence in CI chondrites, like those found in Ryugu, has sparked debate among scientists about the asteroid’s history and formation processes. Associate Professor Masaaki Miyahara explained that djerfisherite’s presence suggests either an unexpected local environment or long-distance transport in the early solar system.

The research team had been conducting experiments to understand the effects of terrestrial weathering on Ryugu grains. While observing these grains using field-emission transmission electron microscopy (FE-TEM), they stumbled upon djerfisherite in grain number 15, sample plate C0105-042. This finding opens new avenues for understanding the complexity of primitive asteroids and challenges our previous notion that Ryugu is compositionally uniform.

Ryugu’s parent body is believed to have formed between 1.8 to 2.9 million years after the beginning of the Solar System. During this time, it existed in the outer region of the solar system, where water and carbon dioxide were present as ice. The temperature inside the parent body remained below approximately 50℃. However, the presence of djerfisherite in Ryugu suggests that materials from different formation histories may have mixed early in the solar system’s evolution.

Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon: either djerfisherite arrived from another source during the formation of Ryugu’s parent body or it was formed intrinsically when the temperature of Ryugu was raised to above 350 ℃. Preliminary evidence indicates that the intrinsic formation hypothesis is more likely to be true.

Ultimately, scientists aim to reconstruct the early mixing processes and thermal histories that shaped small bodies like Ryugu. By understanding these events, we can gain a better grasp of planetary formation and material transport in the early solar system. The discovery of djerfisherite in asteroid Ryugu has taken us one step closer to unraveling this enigma.