Five students earn major NASA graduate fellowships

Five Smead Aerospace PhD students are being recognized with 2026 �ڱ��Ƿɲ��󾱱��.��

Austin Bodin, Anna Cabra, Emily Gokie, Madison Lin, and Breno Macarenhas Pontes are recipients of the program, which sponsors graduate students who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s goal of creating innovative new space technologies for our nation’s science, exploration and economic future.

Honorees receive funding for up to four years to conduct research and are also matched with a NASA expert, who serves as a research collaborator. Fellows also have the opportunity to conduct annual "visiting technologist" research experiences in-person at NASA centers for up to 10 weeks each year.

Smead Aerospace students have had strong representation in the NSTGRO program, with 19 winners over the past five years.

The 2026 Honorees:

Austin Bodin

3rd Year PhD Student

Advisor: Natasha Bosanac
Lab:Bosanac Group

Spacecraft trajectories that are designed to be robust require less propellant mass for unanticipated course corrections, are more likely to complete mission objectives, and are less dependent on precise navigation capabilities. My research aims to develop an automated method of designing robust low-thrust trajectories in cislunar space using funnels, graph theory, and robust optimal control. The process will involve constructing a library of funnels capturing the robustness of trajectories to dynamical uncertainty, implementing a graph-based method of assembling the funnels in sequence to both plan nominal trajectories and rapidly replan following missed thrust events, and developing a funnel-informed robust trajectory optimization method. This work will support future onboard autonomy, reduce the burden on ground operators, and allow a higher cadence of missions to cislunar space.

Anna Cabra

2nd Year PhD Student

Advisors: Jim Nabity and Xu Wang
Labs:and the

My research focuses on developing a lower-energy method for extracting metals from lunar regolith to support long-term human exploration of the moon. Lunar soil contains valuable resources such as iron, titanium, and silicon that could be used for construction, power systems, and other infrastructure on the lunar surface. This project uses radio-frequency (RF) hydrogen plasma, a highly energized form of hydrogen gas, to separate metals at lower temperatures than conventional methods. I will investigate optimal plasma and regolith conditions to improve processing efficiency and reduce energy requirements. Ultimately, this research aims to make greater use of resources already available on the moon, reducing the need to transport materials from earth and supporting more sustainable lunar exploration. ��

Cabra is an awardee of both the NSTGRO and a 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Program rules allow honorees to receive only one. She has chosen the NSTGRO.

Emily Gokie

1st Year PhD Student

Advisors: Penina Axelrad and Dennis Akos
Labs: COMPASS Lab and the Radio Frequency & Satellite Navigation Lab

My research will focus on developing the precision timing abilities of small spacecraft for reliable positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), particularly in the lunar domain. There is a current shortfall in timing systems and methods that function with the low operating parameters required of small satellites and that also meet the stability performance required for communication, PNT, and networking. My work will investigate methods to leverage the growing number of precision oscillators and atomic clocks onboard and distributed across in-orbit and planetary surface platforms to realize a superior reference stability. The extreme lunar environment poses several challenges, including induced frequency shifts from harsh thermal and radiation environments, pronounced relativistic effects from highly eccentric orbits, and fundamental instability of stochastic clock processes.

Gokie is an awardee of both the NSTGRO and a 2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Program rules allow honorees to receive only one. She has chosen the NSTGRO.

Madison Lin

2nd Year PhD Student

Advisor: Natasha Bosanac
Lab:Bosanac Group

Sustained space exploration in and beyond cislunar space requires new technologies that enable spacecraft to independently make navigation decisions. My research aims to develop and test a new approach to detect trajectory anomalies and respond using current mission constraints as well as spacecraft capabilities to inform maneuvers or trajectory replanning. The process will involve using motion primitives to detect anomalies via an isolation-based methodology as well as formulate spacecraft responses, and the full system will be validated with processor-in-the-loop testing. This work would allow for rapid trajectory correction and replanning without ground support, adapting to subsystem constraints and compensating for any previous anomalies to extend mission life and capabilities.��

Breno Mascarenhas Pontes��

2nd Year PhD Student

Advisor: Bob Marshall
Lab:

My research goal is to develop an X-ray detector instrument capable of enabling pulsar-based autonomous spacecraft navigation, along with the supporting algorithms, while decreasing the volume, mass, and power needs. The design will use CZT/CdTe detectors for room temperature operation and compact size. In addition, it will have a wide field-of-view paired with a coded aperture mask, allowing for tracking of multiple sources simultaneously within the same exposure and avoiding slewing mechanisms. The research will involve simulation and system modeling using software such as Geant4, as well as the development of an algorithm capable of recovering the individual pulse profiles of observed pulsars that are required for navigation. The successful development of this navigation instrument could represent a major shift in space technology, especially for small satellite platforms and low-cost missions, moving away from depending on the Deep Space Network for deep-space navigation.

��

��ñ��