Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium Seed Grants for Faculty

Professor Mark Campbell and students Dennis Titus, Ralph Ewig and Esther Carlson with Dawgstar Project.

The Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium annually awards seed grants to faculty to initiate research efforts in disciplines relevant to NASA's missions on earth and in space. To be eligible for these grants, applicants must be a faculty member of a Washington Space Grant Consortium member institution of higher education.

Awards range from $10,000 to $20,000 for a one-year project period. Faculty grants require matching funds.The Washington NASA Space Grant program values diversity and strongly encourages women and minorities to apply.

For application details, contact the Washington NASA Space Grant office by phone at (206) 543-1943, or e-mail us.

Seed Grant Recipients

2001-2002
Professor Bogdan Udrea
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
University of Washington

The Translife Mars Gravity Biosatellite will eventually carry a small population of mice to low Earth orbit aboard a spinning spacecraft, creating an "artificial gravity" identical to that on the Martian surface. The five-week mission is intended to provide essential data that will help determine future possibilities for human space exploration. Professor Udrea's student design team received Space Grant support to participate in the initial design competition and, based on a request from the Mars Society, to continue developing the project in collaboration with MIT and the University of Queensland.

2000
Professor Mark Campbell
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
University of Washington

The Dawgstar project brings together an interdisciplinary team of 23 graduate and undergraduate students. The students — working with teams from Utah State University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute — are designing and developing a system of three 10-kg spacecraft. Collaborating with NASA Goddard, the group will demonstrate satellite cross-links, exchanging relative global positioning satellite information and possibly attitude information. The nanosatellites are scheduled to launch on a Space Shuttle mission in 2002.

1999
Professor Florence Sheehan
Department of Medicine, Cardiology
University of Washington

Dr. Sheehan, who serves as director of the UW Cardiovascular Research and Training Center, received funding for preliminary work on her proposal to design a three-dimensional, ultrasound-based heart monitoring system for use aboard the International Space Station. Dr. Sheehan said that acquiring 3D images not only provides a more comprehensive view of the heart and other organs of complex structure, but also simplifies the astronaut's task.

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Revised 4-5-07 Questions? E-mail us! Washington Space Grant Consortium Home