Rice Space Institute

Shannon Walker

NASA’s Shannon Walker ’87 returns with gifts from space

NASA astronaut and Rice alumnus Shannon Walker ’87 returned to campus Oct. 12 to present more than a dozen Rice-related mementos that flew with her during her latest six-month mission to the International Space Station. 

People, Papers, and Presentations

People, papers and presentations for Sept. 20, 2021

Rice Space Institute Director David Alexander, a professor of physics and astronomy, has been named by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to the board of the Houston Spaceport Development Corporation.

PPP

People, papers and presentations for July 26, 2021

Rice alumnus Ryan Udell ’21 has been named to the Aviation Week Network’s 20 Twenties Class of 2021, which honors exceptional students seen as the future of the aerospace and defense industries

Rice University scientists have enhanced models that could detect magnetosphere activity on exoplanets. The models add data from nightside activity that could increase signals by at least an order of magnitude. In this illustration, the planet’s star is at top left, and the rainbow patches are the radio emission intensities, most coming from the nightside. The white lines are magnetic field lines. Illustration by Anthony Sciola

Nightside radio could help reveal exoplanet details

Rice scientists enhance models that could be used to detect magnetosphere activity on exoplanets. The Rice model adds data from nightside activity that could increase signals by at least an order of magnitude.

ISS downlink

Rice’s Walker beams down from space station

Rice alumna Shannon Walker and crewmate Kate Rubins, aboard the International Space Station, joined a conversation with students in Houston, Scotland and Ecuador.

“My home is the most diverse in the nation/Beyoncé blessed!/My home is the heart of aspiration,” she writes in “Skyline of Mine.”

Houston students get time with astronauts aboard ISS

Students from eight Houston-area schools will take part in a live Q-and-A session with two astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Thursday, April 8.

ISS

Ultimate field trip will be out of this world

While it may be virtual, the Rice Space Institute (RSI) has organized the ultimate spring trip for grade school students.

Images of the sun captured by the IRIS mission show new details of how low-lying loops of plasma are energized and may also reveal how the hot corona is created. (Credit: Rice University/NASA)

Scientists get the lowdown on sun’s super-hot atmosphere

Images of the sun captured by the IRIS mission show new details of how low-lying loops of plasma are energized, and may also reveal how the hot corona is created.

A colorized image of Jezero Crater, the target for NASA’s Perseverance rover. Kirsten Siebach, a Martian geologist at Rice University, is one of 13 scientists selected to help operate the rover. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL)

Rice scientist joins next Mars adventure

A Rice University geologist is one of 13 scientists recently selected to operate the Mars rover Perseverance and analyze samples for an eventual return to Earth.

The CanadArm2, a robotic manipulator, has been an essential component of the International Space Station since it was launched in 2001. The successor to the CanadArm that flew on the space shuttle is used to manipulate payloads, including satellites, docking capsules and astronauts. (Credit: NASA)

Rice Space Institute, Canada agree to collaborate

Rice Space Institute and the Consulate General of Canada in Dallas agree to collaborate on science and technology related to the space industry.

A view showing how the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will appear in a telescope pointed toward the western horizon at 6 p.m. CST, Dec. 21, 2020. The image is adapted from graphics by open-source planetarium software Stellarium. (This work, "jupsat1," is adapted from Stellarium by Patrick Hartigan, used under GPL-2.0, and provided under CC BY 4.0 courtesy of Patrick Hartigan)

Christmas week: Worlds will align for spectacular heavenly sight

Early in the evening of Dec. 21, people the world over will get a chance to see Jupiter and Saturn line up closer together in Earth's night sky than they have been since just before daybreak on the morning of March 4, 1226.

Space X craft launching

SpaceX launch 'historic,’ will pave way for NASA’s moon and Mars plans, Rice space expert says

HOUSTON -- (May 22, 2020) – The Crew Dragon space capsule made by Elon Musk's SpaceX faces a final big test when two astronauts climb aboard for a flight to the International Space Station on Wednesday. "This historic first launch of American astronauts from American soil since 2011 will mark the next stage in U.S. human spaceflight, paving the way for a more versatile and flexible access to the International Space Station," said astronomer David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute.

Artist's depiction of OwlSat in orbit.

Rice satellite OwlSat set to launch in 2022

OwlSat, a small research satellite designed by Rice University students to monitor ultraviolet radiation, is set to launch into orbit in 2022.