Government Partnerships
Partnership Overview: NASA
The University of Maryland and NASA have established a close research relationship, much in part thanks to the close proximity of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the College Park campus. In 2010, UMD and NASA-Goddard signed a memorandum of understanding that created a strong and important partnership between the two organizations. The agreement provided greater reciprocal access to the personnel and the facilities of each organization and allow easier identification, development, and implementation of future partnerships. Joint, collaborative research activities have included space-based science; engineering research and development; bio-sciences; earth sciences, and education. The partnership was also designed to help NASA-Goddard attract and retain scientific and engineering talent, including graduate students, post-doctoral research associates as well as full-time scientists and engineers. UMD is among the top sources of future employee recruits of any university in the country for NASA.
Centers and Collaborations
Partnership News
Funding Allows UMD to Expand Collaboration With Space Agency, Broader Research Community
$95M NASA Cooperative Agreement to Support Research Center Focused on Global Sustainability
Maryland Astronomers Were Central to Planetary Defense Mission That Smashed Into Asteroid Moon Last Year
New DART Studies Confirm NASA Can Bump Asteroids Out of Collision Course With Earth
$15M NASA Partnership Establishes Consortium to Improve Food Security, Diversity in Earth Observation Industry
UMD to Lead Effort to Bolster U.S. Agriculture With Satellite Data
UMD Astronomers to Expand and Upgrade Database of Small Space Objects
$32.5M NASA & UMD Funding Agreement Supports Study of Comets, Asteroids and Meteorites
CRESST II will continue to foster research collaborations between NASA Goddard and partner institutions, including UMD.
NASA Harvest is teaming up with CropX to improve farming sustainability through resource conservation and enhanced crop yields.
MD-led NASA Harvest Program Teams Up With CropX to Support Sustainable Agriculture
A first-of-its-kind laser instrument designed to map the world's forests in 3-D is moving toward an earlier launch to the International Space Station than previously expected.
UMD astronomers contribute to first published results from Pluto flyby
New Horizons Reveals Pluto’s Striking Surface Variations & Unique Moon Rotations
Somewhere dark and icy on a comet 320 million miles away, the history-making, comet-bouncing Philae spacecraft is sleeping. Its batteries are depleted and there isn’t enough sunlight to recharge. But while the lander finished its primary job, collecting invaluable data on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta mission is far from over. For many scientists, the excitement is just beginning.
Energy Research Center faculty have been awarded funding from NASA for their Garnet Electrolyte Based Safe, Lithium-Sulfur Energy Storage technology. NASA has selected this research proposal as a potentially breakthrough technology to power future space missions.