ABQ Times

The University of New Mexico recently hosted Space Day, an event aimed at showcasing significant discoveries, promoting internships, and offering engaging experiences like a virtual walk on Mars. This event was part of UNM’s Research & Discovery Week and attracted faculty, students, and staff to a lecture featuring speakers from NASA and other space organizations. They emphasized UNM's long-standing involvement with two National Laboratories.

Charles “Chip” Shearer, a research professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and a research assistant at UNM’s Institute of Meteoritics, organized the Space Day events. He stated that the goal was to engage STEM students by illustrating available opportunities. “We have a lot of groups both on and off campus to illustrate the number of opportunities available to students,” Shearer said. “There’s information on internships and employment opportunities here. We were gearing this whole workshop around students and faculty opportunities.”

The workshop included free lunch and beverages for visitors alongside various tables showcasing different aspects of space exploration. One table featured a VR headset for viewing Mars' surface, while another displayed a disassembled Lobo rocket.

A separate table drew attention with a large silver trophy beside plans for cultivating plants for space colonization using chile from Albuquerque's climate. Trinity Griffus, an undergraduate in Biology who led last year’s NASA MINDS project for UNM, won this trophy. The NASA MINDS challenge supports Minority Serving Institutions in designing prototypes for technologies needed in the Artemis mission. Griffus credited her success to UNM's resources: “So last year out of 50 competing teams across the country, we won first place grand champions,” Griffus said. “The University did an excellent job at making the project a reality and offered so many resources… at Space Day we’re hoping to recruit more aspiring students to join projects like this to gain experience.”

Students explored opportunities offered by both university departments and external contributors such as Space Force and National Laboratories. Shearer highlighted UNM's historical involvement in space research: “UNM always has been involved in space. In the 1940’s, UNM opened up what was called the Institute of Meteoritics,” Shearer said.

He noted that this institute housed valuable meteorites and moon rock samples post-Apollo missions, emphasizing Space Day as homage to UNM's space connections: “New Mexico has been involved in space exploration since the beginning of its founding...Space Day at UNM was a culmination of past efforts and current projects for space exploration at the University of New Mexico.”