New Astraeus Space Institute director discusses upcoming Space Days, recent milestones
For UF students and faculty, the frontier of space science has never been closer to home.
UF’s Astraeus Space Institute is hosting its first Space Days, a three-day event to inspire students, focus research efforts and engage the public.
On Sept. 30, student-led innovation and leading space companies converge on the Marston Science Library. Clubs that focus on aerospace design, rocket engine development and other space-related activities will showcase their efforts. Leading space companies will also be on hand with information about internships and careers in the space industry.
The following day, a Reitz Union ballroom will bustle with space research topics: UF faculty will share their expertise on an array of topics, including submitting large grant proposals, best practices for research communications and developing impactful paper presentations.
Space Research Day will feature an array of discussions for faculty with an interest in space science, said Rachael Seidler, the incoming director of the Astraeus Space Institute and a professor of applied physiology and kinesiology. Two speakers will detail the value of embedding a communications professional in the research process. Another speaker will explain how they turned a preliminary grant into external federal funding.
One of the keynote speakers for Space Research Day is Janet E. Petro, director of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center. Petro also served as acting NASA administrator earlier this year.
On Oct. 2, there will be a 10th-anniversary screening of “The Martian” movie featuring Matt Damon. The 5 p.m. event at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts includes a short panel discussion about the film’s historical significance and depiction of space research. The panelists are science fiction scholar and Associate Professor of English Terry Harpold, Ray Wheeler, a recently retired NASA plant physiologist, and Associate Professor of Geological Sciences Amy Williams. The event is free and open to the public.
Space Days is the first major, public-facing event for the Astraeus Space Institute. It was launched in 2024 as a research hub to bring together space-related researchers from engineering, agricultural science, pharmacy and other disciplines.
Seidler said the institute has three focus areas – unlocking the secrets of the universe; space manufacturing and sustainability; and space health. The first area includes the development of sensors and spacecraft, while the space manufacturing research should focus on issues that include space debris, in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing and building structures beyond Earth, she said. The space health efforts will address the health hazards of space travel and educating future space physicians, she added.
Additionally, space security and cybersecurity are a crucial, growing area that is ripe for potential partnerships between space and cybersecurity organizations, Seidler said.
“My goal is to continue the strengths of Astraeus but also to coalesce those strengths into a few key areas,” she said.
The Astraeus Institute has considerable momentum of its own, said Seidler, who previously served as its inaugural deputy director. Astraeus members continue to send crucial science payloads into orbit. Monthly gatherings to help faculty identify and pursue space-related research funding are ongoing. Astraeus’ faculty membership now stands at 84. That, Seidler said, is largely due to the strong foundation built by Astraeus’s founding director Rob Ferl, a distinguished professor in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
In August 2024, Ferl became the first NASA-funded university researcher to conduct his own experiments in space. His experiment will reveal more about how plants adjust their gene expression while transitioning from Earth to space.
“Our biggest success at Astraeus has been bringing together the wide range of space expertise on campus and forming a vibrant, collaborative and supportive community,” she said.