More than 650 students and community members filled the Bear Down Building Wednesday as NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman brought the agency's Inspiration Tour to the University of Arizona, sparking excitement about where America is headed in space and the opportunities for a new generation to help shape it.

“The reputation of the U of A and its optics work is some of the best in the country, and not to mention all of its cameras out there helping us on the James Webb and providing us with unbelievable imagery of the Martian surface,” Isaacman said. “What an absolutely amazing university for contributing to this great mission of discovery.”

Students from Tucson-area high schools, the U of A, Pima Community College and Tohono O'odham Community College engaged directly with Isaacman, asking questions about space debris, black holes and the pace of space missions.

“Above all, we need people with the talent and drive to take on the problems that do look impossible, right up until somebody solves them,” Isaacman said. “That is where we need many of you and many more just like you across America to help us advance humankind even further. We need engineers, we need scientists, we need technicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, operators, explorers. We need astronauts. You are all part of the Artemis generation, and America and NASA are very much back in the moon business.”

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The visit marked the only Inspiration Tour stop at an Arizona university and connected a space legacy stretching back more than 60 years with the students and technologies shaping what comes next.

"The University of Arizona has been a NASA partner since the earliest days of the space age, and that relationship has only grown stronger,” U of A President Suresh Garimella said. “Our students are involved in active NASA missions alongside the best scientists and engineers in the world, and today we were excited to open that world to future Wildcats from high schools and community colleges across Southern Arizona. As the top public university for space sciences in the nation, we are proud to put everything that contributes to that standing and this partnership to work for the students who will lead the next era of exploration.”

The U of A's contributions to NASA missions reach back to the Ranger era before Apollo. University researchers have since played leading roles in missions including OSIRIS-REx, which returned NASA's first asteroid sample to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. Today, the U of A ranks No. 1 in space sciences among U.S. public universities and No. 3 globally.

Before the student event, U of A Space Institute Director Erika Hamden and Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, senior vice president for research and partnerships, welcomed Isaacman and the NASA team to the Applied Research Building for a tour of the university's space research and engineering capabilities.

“Space exploration is no longer the work of governments alone, and Administrator Isaacman, who commanded the first all-civilian orbital mission, understands firsthand how much the space enterprise is changing,” Díaz de la Rubia said. “In this new era, universities matter more, not less. We are where fundamental science happens, where new technologies can be proven at exceptional value and where the talent that will power every part of this enterprise is developed. Today, Administrator Isaacman saw all three in one building, and our students saw just how far their work could take them.”

Stops included an anechoic chamber used to test satellite communications and the high bay housing the Magnum and Arizona Radio telescopes.

In the Multi-Mission Operations Center, where the U of A operates NASA's Pandora exoplanet satellite, Isaacman met with students and researchers working on missions and technologies spanning Earth orbit, Mars, the moon and beyond. 

“I'm so thrilled that the Administrator was able to see our state-of-the-art facility and also meet with the students who drive all of our work. So many of our space missions have student involvement as an intrinsic part of their development, which gives those students the unique experience of building something that goes to space,” Hamden said. “Our showcase was really just the tip of the iceberg for the amazing work we do here.”

On Aspera, a NASA SmallSat slated to launch in January, students are helping develop a mission that will study how galaxies form and evolve. For CatSat, a student-built SmallSat, the team is testing an inflatable antenna designed for high-speed communications.

“Sharing this with a big delegation from NASA is huge,” said CatSat student lead Walter Rahmer. 

Other groups are developing new ways to study the moon and Mars. HiRISE has been capturing high-resolution images of Mars from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and students are helping develop Lunar HiLIFE to bring similar capabilities to the moon. Students also shared EMILIA-3D, which will create 3D thermal maps of the lunar surface, along with LEMs seismometers bound for NASA's Artemis IV mission to measure moonquakes.

For students earlier in their space careers, Ascend offers another way in. The Arizona Space Grant Consortium program gives them the opportunity to design experiments and fly them to near-space aboard high-altitude balloons. 

The visit culminated in the Bear Down Building.

“Students on this campus are building and testing spacecraft and operating toward where we will go next,” Isaacman said. “You are already part of that story.”

Isaacman’s message extended well beyond becoming an astronaut. NASA's plans for future exploration will include extending mankind’s presence in space, building nuclear power and propulsion for missions in the outer solar system, investigating the complex chemistry of planets and moons, establishing a sustained lunar presence and taking what humanity learns from expeditions on the moon to Mars. Individuals across disciplines will need to bring their expertise and new ideas to address increasingly complex challenges, he said.

“Make your contribution,” Isaacman said. “Help us make history at NASA because this is the golden age.”

Claire Lynch, a junior majoring in computer science who interns at SpaceX, was among the first in line to speak with Isaacman after the event.

“He is a personal inspiration for me,” she said. “It’s incredible that we had him here today.”

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