From ISS to Mars: Twenty years of university of Kentucky student microgravity and space systems experiments

Since 1996, the University of Kentucky (UK) has offered multi-disciplinary aerospace design experiences culminating in microgravity and space systems flight experiments. This paper summarizes these experiments, with a focus on key technical results rather than on the systems engineering educational aspects presented previously. While most participating students joined the aerospace workforce at small or large companies or at national laboratories, several entrepreneurial graduates recently established start-up companies which are applying their educational experiences and entending the technical results from their student experience to contribute to local economic development.