Space Technology Showcase
The annual Maryland Space Technology Showcase hosted by the Center for Advanced Space Science and Technology Research at UMD is a cross-campus event highlighting the breadth and impact of space-related research happening at the University of Maryland.
From orbital debris and asteroid detection to lunar landers, rovers, and instruments, this showcase features poster presentations from UMD faculty, researchers and students, along with partners like the recipients of joint UMD/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) seed grants.
This showcase event of Maryland’s contributions to the space ecosystem is aimed at fostering collaboration and awareness across academia, industry, and government as a leader in space research and innovation.
Join us this November 12, 2026 for a look at what’s on the horizon at Maryland!
EVENT DETAILS
WHEN: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Time and additional details to be announced.
WHERE: A. James Clark Hall (AJC), Forum 1101
8278 Paint Branch Dr, College Park, MD 20742
PARKING: XFinity Visitor Parking Lot, Paint Branch Drive
Light refreshments will be provided.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
The 2026 speaker to be announced.
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Research presentations for 2026 to be announced.
Event Contact:
Dr. Christine Hartzell
Professor & Director, ASTRA
hartzell@umd.edu
2025
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nancy L. Chabot
Chief Scientist, Space Exploration Sector, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
Dr. Chabot will discuss how the scientists and engineers of the DART mission successfully changed the orbit of an asteroid, demonstrating a technology that could be used to protect Earth from hazardous asteroids in the future.
Dr. Nancy L. Chabot was the coordination lead on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, is the deputy principal investigator for the Mars-moon Exploration with GAmma rays and NEutrons (MEGANE) instrument on the JAXA Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, and is an interdisciplinary scientist on the joint ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission. On NASA’s MESSENGER mission, she was the instrument scientist for the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) and the chair of the Geology Discipline Group. She has been a member of five field teams with the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program.
Research Presented:
- Rapid Pre-Discovery of Near-Earth Objects
- The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station for Artemis III
- 3D-Printed Antenna for Space Applications
- 2D Soliton Characterization for Debris Detection
- Chemical Imaging with a Spaceflight LDMS Instrument for Planetary Exploration
- MW-NeRF: Modeling Shadowed Spacecraft
- Human Capacity for Portable Life Support System Mass in Mars EVAs
- Discrete Element Modeling Implementation of a Patched Surface Tribocharging Model for Particle-Mesh Interactions
- Risk-Sensitive Reinforcement Learning for Spacecraft Autonomy
- Super-Additive Joint-Detection Optical Receiver for Deep-Space
- Neural Ordinary Differential Equations for Astrodynamics Applications
- Highly Pixelated Energetic Particle Sensor
- Space Debris Charging Mechanisms in Ionospheric Plasmas
- Gecko Roller Dust Mitigation System
- Space Domain Awareness with Event Cameras
- The Planetary Lorentz Perturbation and Applications to Charged Space Debris
- Robotic Teleoperation using an Exoskeleton
- On the Fabrication of Ultra-thin Composite Rotors for Martian Flight
- Rotational Cleaning of Gecko Roller
- Exploring the Molecular Space of Extraterrestrial and Terrestrial Organic Matter