With NASA’s Artemis program poised to send humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo days, three students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University spent summer 2023 contributing to that mission after they earned once-in-a-lifetime opportunities as NASA M-STAR (Minorities in Space Technology Artemis Research) Fellows. A GIANT LEAP FORWARD
Solving a Dusty Dilemma Born in the Dominican Republic,
A record of accomplishments led to Pujols’ selection as an M-STAR Fellow. In 2021, she was chosen as Embry-Riddle’s only female representative in the NASA RASC-AL research competition, where she oversaw space operations. The team’s research made it to the state finals, where it won Best Design Concept and placed third overall.
Aerospace Engineering senior Ashley Tirado Pujols (’24) interned at NASA Langley Research Center, where she primarily worked on ways to mitigate the effects of lunar dust on ceramic-coated materials used by astronauts. “Lunar dust, or regolith, poses a challenge for aerospace structures on the moon, and even Mars,” Pujols said. “Particles adhere to surfaces, and the impacts from micrometeorite showers can affect the safety of landings. If we can understand how dust adheres to different surfaces, we are one step closer to developing prominent methods to mitigate its adhesion on aerospace structures and spacesuits.”
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