Beyond The Big Sky
Written by: Sean Madden
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cape Canaveral: these are the places that come to mind when we speak of space exploration. Montana may be one of the last places that would be associated with research of the final frontier. However, I, like many other Montanans, would be surprised to know that Bozeman, Montana is a new epicenter for aerospace and cosmological research. Montana State University (MSU) has had several programs come out of its space lab in the last decade that have put them on the map in the aerospace field. Research that has gathered some of the brightest minds in the field has taken technology developed in the labs not just to the atmosphere, but to the moon. Bozeman is now not only the home of some groundbreaking research, but to a leading astronaut.
Bozeman happens to be home to a young entrepreneur, billionaire, and pilot-turned astronaut, Jared Isacmaan. You may not know him by name, but you might know him as the guy who flies the camouflage jet fighter around Gallatin Valley. Isaacman amassed his wealth by founding Shift4, a payment processing company used by many large corporations, as well as Draken International LLC, a fighter aircraft training company for private operations.
As Isaacman grew his companies, he gained interest in aerospace activities beyond the confines of our atmosphere. Isaacman secured a position as the mission commander for the recent Polaris Dawn mission from SpaceX. The mission took SpaceX’s Dragon capsule 1,408 km above the planet; which is the highest the capsule had been before. This mission lasted five days and was the first of its kind. The mission included research on human health impacts from time in space, communications and the first all civilian spacewalk, all headed by Isaacman. Polaris Dawn raised over $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Hospital in their fight against childhood cancer, according to the mission website. Gaining increasing respect for his work in the aerospace community, Isaacman has recently been promoted to the next NASA administrator by the current administration, bringing attention to Montana for its involvement in space sciences.
MSU has been making waves in the community for its contributions to extra-terrestrial research. Montana State has been producing and sending research apparatus to space in conjunction with NASA since 2011, when the student-built satellite Explorer 1 was sent to orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Earlier this year, on January 14th, RadPC, a satellite computer, was sent aboard a mission. This satellite computer, designed at MSU, was built to resist radiation three times more than traditional satellites at the time. The RadPC was attached to the Blue Ghost lunar lander, where it will assist in conducting research on the moon in hopes of furthering the goal of putting humans on the Moon. This mission’s success has garnered attention to the school’s space science program.
To learn more about the current and future goals of aerospace research and exploration, I went to the MSU Space Lab. To Chase Bronson, a research student and lead electrical engineer of the Student Built Burst Observer (BUBO) project, in conjunction with both NASA and Lockheed Martin. BUBO is slated to be attached to the Multi-slit Solar Explorer satellite mission. This mission is being launched with hopes to gain understanding of the sun’s atmosphere with research on phenomena such as solar flares and radiation.
When asked about why MSU’s space lab is receiving the projects and producing phenomena centered research, BUBO pointed me to the Montana Space Grant Consortium (MTSGC). MTSGC works with Montana Universities in conjunction with NASA to provide funding and projects for stu- dent-based research projects. I asked Bronson why the university is allowed to have these large-scale projects that we received from NASA. Bronson explained that, “It was a student learning project, so they allow us (research students) to go through the full process of building a space instrument.” I also asked why there seems to be ground-breaking research being conducted primarily at MSU and not so much for others? He replied, “From what I can tell, it’s kind of up to which professors are wanting to get students involved with their space research.” He explained that a big reason that Montana State University receives these projects is because it has staff that are able to facilitate them.
The university has multiple subprograms in the Aerospace department that have faculty deeply involved in the research. This allows for programs like MTSGC to be able to fund and oversee projects of the magnitude that they do. Curious as to what the future of aerospace research looks at the university, I asked Bronson if he had any thoughts on plans for future projects and if the infrastructure could support more or larger projects.
“I don’t really know if it’s going to go as far as physical space labs and stuff, you know if there are going to be more built, but with the amount of stuff that’s going on it certainly could happen,” said Bronson. With BUBO in progress and its projected launch in 2027 the university is gaining increased attention for its efforts and with hope for success in the upcoming mission the university’s program has a hopeful future that may put Bozeman and Montana on the map for aerospace innovation.