USU space lab brings in $60 million payload to Utah

LOGAN — If the United States establishes a permanent site on the moon to be used as a launching pad to Mars, future astronauts will have researchers at Utah State University to thank for some of their equipment.

And for their vegetables.

What started more than 40 years ago with a faculty members' involvement in the V-2 rocket project has turned the school with 20,000 undergraduate students into one of the nation's biggest players in the aerospace industry.

Now, Utah State's Space Dynamics Laboratory brings in more than $60 million each year in grants and research funding and has positioned itself among the nation's top colleges in scoring space projects.

It is one of only a handful of schools designated as University Affiliated Research Centers, which allows the lab to secure government contracts with much less bureaucracy than other contenders.

The Space Dynamics Laboratory exists in 173,000 square feet of laboratories, conference rooms and offices just off the Utah State campus. There, about 350 employees, including 80 students, work on projects commissioned by the aeronautics and defense clients, including the federal government.

"If (further exploration) is to happen, they will need instrumentation," said lab director Michael D. Pavich. "We build them — that's our specialty."

While lab officials are still not sure what role they will play in future space exploration, researchers already have their hands full with projects for the military — including next-generation satellites for the U.S. and Russia that work in tandem — and the International Space Station.

NASA and the Department of Defense look to the school to test instruments and to make sure they are able to withstand the stress and temperature rigors of space and air travel.

Besides instruments, most of the lab's current work with the space program involves building sensors — primarily infrared, but also ultraviolet, hyperspectral and beyond.

The lab has developed thousands of sensors and supporting devices for more than 400 space and aircraft projects.

Those include a project developed in conjunction with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that will use infrared sensors to provide a more comprehensive survey of space than was previously possible. It will be used by scientists trying to determine the origins of planets and galaxies.