Student cohort selected for year-long lunar mission design program
An illustration of a vertical solar array power source on the surface of the Moon. Student mission concepts will include considerations for providing power on the moon. Credit: NASA.
A cohort of 10 University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa undergraduates was selected to participate in the inaugural LUNADS — Lunar Undergraduate/graduate missioN Architecture Design Seminar, a competitive national program run by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) under NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to engage university students in lunar science and NASA-style mission architecture design.
All 10 students are engaged in the Space System Science and Technology program undergraduate minors, either the minor in Earth and Planetary Exploration Technology or the minor in Human Space Flight Technology, administered by the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).
“Being selected as part of the inaugural LUNADS cohort at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is a wonderful recognition of the quality and dedication of our students at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology,” said Peter Englert, HIGP professor and LUNADS faculty lead and program coordinator. “This program gives our undergraduate students direct access to NASA-style mission design alongside some of the best planetary scientists and engineers in the country—an experience that grows directly from our Earth and Planetary Exploration Technology and Human Space Flight Technology programs and reflects HIGP’s long-standing commitment to preparing the next generation of space scientists and engineers from Hawaiʻi.”
Designing a lunar mission concept
One of only four university cohorts chosen nationally, the UH Mānoa students will participate in the program throughout the 2026–2027 academic year. The program includes a Lunar Science Seminar Series, followed by a 10-week Mission Design Seminar in Spring 2027 in which they work directly with APL scientists and engineers to design an actual lunar mission concept — the team chooses the science question and builds the mission. The completed mission architecture will be published on Zenodo, an open-access repository, with all student participants listed as co-authors. The other three selected cohorts are from the University of Tennessee Space Institute, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and Howard University.
While the students share a commitment to the Space System Science and Technology programs, they bring diverse academic backgrounds, with majors spanning Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace concentration), Astrophysics, and Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Science. HIGP researchers Paul Lucey (lunar remote sensing), Matt Siegler (lunar thermal science and volatiles), and Shuai Li (lunar water ice detection) will all serve as faculty advisors.
“The knowledge, skills and hands-on experiences ahead for these students make LUNADS participation a direct and meaningful extension of their academic work within HIGP and UH Mānoa programs,” Englert added. “I look forward to seeing where they take this opportunity.”
Student cohort
The LUNADS cohort includes the following students along with their majors Kaela Gabriella Coroner (BS Astrophysics), Dylan Zuarri-Cott (BS Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace), Piper Chinn (BS Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace), Christian Petties (BS Mechanical Engineering), Khylin Verplank (BS Astrophysics), Alexandra Morris (BS Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace), Kai Kennedy (BS Astrophysics), Rafferty Eddy (BS Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace), Aspen-Shay Hoakua Kane (BS Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace), Diarmuid Higgins (BS Kinesiology & Rehab Science).
LUNADS is funded through a cooperative agreement with NASA under the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute program awarded to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
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