Sea Aggies triumph in search and rescue challenge

The Sea Aggies — a team of computer science students from Texas A&M University at Galveston — will watch closely as the Orion spacecraft returns to Earth after the Artemis II Mission this spring. 

The team competed in NASA’s 2025 Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (Micro-g NExT) challenge, where they addressed a problem facing the Artemis II mission. To participate, undergraduate students submitted proposals to contend with an issue in one of three available categories: Lunar Operations, Microgravity Operations, or Search and Rescue. NASA accepted proposals from just 17 teams across the United States. 

The Sea Aggies were the only team to successfully complete the Search and Rescue challenge. They developed a self-contained, portable device to detect and decode an emergency radio signal from the Orion spacecraft — enabling recovery teams to locate the spacecraft — using a search and rescue satellite-aided tracking communication signal that is part of the Cospas-Sarsat program. 

“The idea behind this is to find a simple, inexpensive solution that doesn’t require a long logistics chain,” said Brayton Lee, the project lead for the team. “A lot of Cospas-Sarsat receivers that you can go out and buy right now are very expensive. This would be something that can be built relatively quickly and inexpensively, depending on what type of computer you get to do the processing. It doesn’t require a very robust computer.” 

Such a device would allow for post-landing crews to locate the Orion spacecraft if it’s in an unexpected position upon its return, even if it’s out of communication range with the overarching recovery force. Additionally, a low-cost solution could allow volunteer search and rescue organizations to use this device for things like disaster assistance or finding missing persons. 

NASA provided the team with an ADALM PLUTO software defined radio (SDR) and gave the Sea Aggies about four months to develop their receiver — all while managing their regular class load. Among the required functions, their device had to detect, receive and decode beacon signals transmitted from a mockup of the Orion capsule on the 406 MHz radio frequency, which is reserved for search and rescue communications. Because this receiver is meant to be an open-sea solution, electronics had to fit inside a water-resistant case. 

The Sea Aggies designed, developed and tested their device, then took it to the Johnson Space Center’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston. At the NBL, the team set up their receiver on the side of the 6.2-million-gallon indoor pool, which holds a mockup of the Orion capsule. NASA personnel put an emergency beacon on top of the mockup capsule, turned the beacon on and started transmitting. They also created waves in the pool to simulate the ocean. 

“I really liked that we had a well-defined problem set that had a very specific set of requirements,” said Lee. “It wasn’t like, ‘here’s some nebulous problem; come up with a solution.’” 

Cody Kelly, technical manager at the Search and Rescue Mission Office of NASA Johnson Space Center, served as the team’s mentor. He confirmed that his office plans to build upon the Sea Aggies’ work to create a mobile 406 MHz message decoder and beacon detector.

“The Sea Aggie team demonstrated the capability for low-cost, localized Cospas-Sarsat beacon detection and message decoding using commercial-off-the-shelf components and the Aggie grit and spirit, demonstrating why Texas A&M is a leader in the sea and in space,” Kelly said. “Coming from a former student now leading technical efforts in the Cospas-Sarsat program, this tool will be useful in the future for not only astronaut rescue but finding beacons on land and in maritime applications.”

Members of the Sea Aggie team were Brayton Lee, Raphael Clark, Gage Howe, Miles Ryder, Bao Nguyen, Jeremiah Hermosillo, Nathan Lee, Mathias Miu and Matthew Staton. Their faculty advisor was Dr. Alpaslan Duysak, instructional associate professor in the computer science and engineering department. 

“Our team was the only group to successfully decode and detect the emergency beacon during testing at the NBL. This success reflects not only strong technical ability, but also dedication, perseverance and exceptional teamwork,” Duysak said. “This accomplishment highlights the quality of learning and undergraduate research within the computer science program at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Our students are given opportunities to engage in meaningful, real-world challenges that foster curiosity, problem-solving and innovation.”