Pioneering Space Initiatives Take Center Stage at Grand Forks Summit
A low winter sun washed over Grand Forks as students in UND hoodies and flight jackets filtered past name badges and poster boards, swapping notes on lunar dust and satellite ops. The 2025 Space Operations Summit brought that energy downtown, positioning Grand Forks as a serious waypoint for conversations that shape how — and where — humans will work in space next.
Hosted in partnership with the University of North Dakota’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, the summit drew mission planners, engineers, and educators for briefings on lunar timelines, the future of the International Space Station, and a slate of UND-led research. Organizers highlighted the city’s growing aerospace footprint and UND’s decades-long leadership in human spaceflight studies, according to the university’s news office UND News and the Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce (Chamber).
A keynote moment arrived when aerospace engineer and UND alumna Kavya Manyapu connected the dots between her doctoral work in Grand Forks and her current contributions to lunar exploration. Her talk underscored a theme running through the summit: breakthroughs that start in campus labs can ripple outward to international missions and industry partnerships.
A Deep Dive into Lunar Missions
Panelists traced the next wave of crewed lunar missions now moving from test campaigns to operations under the Artemis program, which aims to "land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon," according to NASA. Beyond the marquee landings, speakers outlined the nuts and bolts: power systems for long nights at the poles, habitat designs that fit on commercial landers, and dust-tolerant tools that won’t seize in regolith.
Several experts emphasized the shift to international and commercial collaboration as a defining feature of this era, noting that logistics networks, communications, and science payloads increasingly come from consortia. That model, attendees said, spreads both the risk and the learning — and opens doors for university teams to contribute specific components or field tests.
UND’s role in this landscape is pragmatic and hands-on. Faculty pointed to the university’s space operations training, human-factors work in analog habitats, and payload integration experience as building blocks for Artemis-era projects. The message was clear: when agencies and prime contractors look for partners who can prototype, test, and train, Grand Forks is in the conversation, according to UND’s Space Studies program and summit organizers.
UND’s Cutting-edge Research on Display
Across poster sessions and demos, the University of North Dakota showcased research in spacesuit dust mitigation, analog habitat operations, and autonomous systems. The UND Human Spaceflight Laboratory’s work with the Inflatable Lunar/Mars Habitat — a long-running analog on campus — offered visitors a tactile view of how crews may live and work on the Moon, according to the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences (UND Aerospace).
UND officials framed the university’s vision as equal parts discovery and workforce development: advancing human spaceflight while training engineers, mission controllers, and scientists who can plug into Artemis timelines and commercial stations. That dual mandate, administrators said in summit remarks, is why UND continues to invest in simulation facilities and partnerships that give students seat-time on real systems.
Manyapu’s story drove the point home. Her UND doctoral research focused on lunar dust — a stubborn hazard that can degrade spacesuits and mechanisms — and explored materials and methods to keep suits cleaner in harsh environments. She described how that work has informed her later contributions to lunar exploration efforts, illustrating the throughline from Grand Forks lab benches to mission planning rooms. According to UND’s news office, her trajectory reflects the university’s approach: identify a hard problem, build a team around it, and test solutions in realistic conditions.
The Future of the International Space Station
Another thread threaded through the summit: what comes after the International Space Station’s final chapter. NASA has signaled a transition to commercially owned low-Earth orbit destinations later this decade and plans to deorbit the ISS around the early 2030s, according to agency planning documents summarized by NASA. For UND faculty and students, that pivot opens research lanes in microgravity manufacturing, human performance, and Earth observation payloads that could fly on a mix of platforms.
Panelists discussed innovations under consideration for the station’s remaining years — from upgraded life-support experiments to autonomous robotics — and how those same systems might migrate to commercial platforms. They also underscored the need for standardized interfaces so university teams can plug experiments into multiple stations without extensive redesigns, a point several industry representatives echoed.
In a conversation moderated by UND Space Studies faculty, educators outlined how ISS access has shaped coursework and student research for years, and how a diversified station marketplace could broaden that pipeline. The takeaway: as long as slots exist for small payloads, capstone teams in Grand Forks can test ideas in orbit — experience that translates directly to aerospace jobs.
Community and Educational Impact
For Grand Forks, the summit wasn’t just a technical meeting; it was a civic moment. Local high school robotics teams and UND undergrads packed into the afternoon sessions, comparing notes and collecting business cards. City leaders who have prioritized aerospace and defense growth said the event reinforces the region’s strengths — from UND’s training pipeline to mission support talent at Grand Forks Air Force Base (GFAFB) and a business community that knows how to collaborate, according to the City of Grand Forks and the Chamber.
Attendees described the summit as a spark for new student clubs, capstone ideas, and internship conversations. Educators from Grand Forks Public Schools noted that bringing practitioners into the room helps teens see a path from physics class to payload design, aligning with district efforts to expand STEM opportunities (GF Public Schools). The presence of military families — many with ties to space and ISR careers — added another bridge between classroom and cockpit.
Organizers encouraged residents and businesses to stay engaged: watch UND’s public lectures and lab open houses, connect with the Chamber’s aerospace roundtables, and tap city resources for startups considering space-adjacent ventures. For schedules and contacts, check the UND events calendar via UND News, the Chamber’s events page (gochamber.org), and the city’s economic development updates (grandforksgov.com).
Looking Ahead: The Road to Future Space Exploration
As the summit wrapped, the focus turned to near-term projects: Artemis surface experiments where UND expertise in operations and human factors could plug in; expanded analog campaigns in Grand Forks; and research proposals targeting microgravity test beds as the ISS transitions to commercial successors. Faculty also flagged opportunities to collaborate with Grand Forks AFB units on space domain awareness and data pipelines that serve both Earth and lunar operations, in line with the base’s ISR missions (GFAFB).
Open questions remain. How quickly will commercial stations come online, and how affordably can university teams access them? Which lunar payloads will offer the best training ground for UND students, and what support — from scholarships to lab space — will the community marshal to meet that demand? The consensus in Grand Forks was pragmatic: keep building capabilities locally, and be ready to scale when mission calls come in.
What to Watch
• UND is expected to announce additional analog habitat campaigns and student research opportunities tied to Artemis timelines this spring via UND News. • NASA’s next Artemis milestones — including crew assignments and payload calls — will shape how university partners like UND compete for slots (NASA Artemis). • Locally, watch the Chamber’s aerospace roundtables and City of Grand Forks updates for new partnerships and internship pipelines as summit conversations turn into projects.
