In The News

Inside Texas A&M’s centrifuge: Simulating gravity on the moon and Mars

Houston Chronicle • Jun 28, 2026

Texas A&M is using the centrifuge to better understand how the human body responds to low-gravity environments such as those on the moon and Mars, where NASA wants to send its astronauts.

“If those cascading things happen, then there could be a collapse of the grid,” said Prasad Enjeti, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Texas A&M University. A large data center that goes offline during a temporary grid disruption, Enjeti said, could cause a ripple effect in the grid’s demand-supply balance.

Researchers at Texas A&M University are developing optical sensors that can compress and analyze their own data, saving time, money, and energy.

Everything is bigger in Texas, and that includes its controlled detonations. Texas A&M University recently revealed what they say is the world’s largest controlled explosion lab, where researchers can fill a nearly 500-foot metal tube with gas and ignite it in the name of science.

Alan Kuhnle, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is developing a system that uses machine learning and anonymized smartphone location data to map recreational fishing across the Gulf Coast at a higher level of detail than traditional methods.

Light-powered propulsion could help power space travel

Futurity • Apr 28, 2026

Texas A&M researchers have successfully used lasers to precisely steer tiny devices known as “metajets” in three dimensions.

A team of researchers at Texas A&M University says they’ve demonstrated an exciting new approach, which uses lasers to propel and steer objects from a distance, without physical contact.

As NASA’s Artemis program advances following its first crewed mission to the moon April 10, former astronaut Bonnie Dunbar sees it as the latest step in a long legacy of human spaceflight that includes Apollo, the space shuttle program and the International Space Station.

In a groundbreaking advancement poised to revolutionize space travel, researchers at Texas A&M University’s J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering have unveiled a novel method of light-driven propulsion and maneuvering.

Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, the aerospace engineering professor and former NASA astronaut leading the program, said the centrifuge addresses an important gap because the U.S. currently lacks domestic capability for combined bed-rest and centrifuge studies.