NASA selects 12 institutions for $12 million in research awards

NASA selected 12 U.S. institutions for $12 million in research awards tied to exploration of the Moon, Mars and deep space. The agency announced the selections Oct. 15 through its MUREP Space Technology Artemis Research initiative, known as M-STAR.

NASA says each selected institution will receive up to $1 million. The awards support academic research and technology development, as well as institutional research capacity and faculty and student participation in aerospace research. The ceiling is not an equal award amount: NASA has not listed individual amounts for all 12 institutions, and the announced selection does not mean the funds have already been disbursed.

Research spans robotics, sensing and power

The selected institutions are California State University, Sacramento; University of Central Florida; University of Hawaii at Manoa; University of Houston; University of Texas, San Antonio; Kean University; Virginia Commonwealth University; Shaw University; Howard University; Prairie View A&M University; University of New Mexico; and Fayetteville State University.

NASA’s project descriptions cover a range of research and engineering topics. They include coordinating multiple robots, simulating and testing aerothermal conditions for Artemis, studying equipment carried by rovers, and examining how lunar surface material called regolith behaves in cryogenic conditions. Other listed work concerns propulsion materials and lunar sensing.

The projects also address batteries and fuel cells, power systems for extreme environments, and artificial-intelligence-supported systems engineering. NASA’s listing describes the University of Hawaii at Manoa project as student training in radiation instrumentation, detection and exploration. Across the group, the research spans measurement, robotics, materials and power rather than a single shared technology.

The initiative is part of NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project. NASA says M-STAR is intended to support academic research and technology development while building institutional research capacity and involving faculty and students in aerospace research. The selected projects are research and development efforts; their selection does not establish that the technologies are complete, operational or ready for flight.

Sacramento project starts in November

Sacramento State’s project page lists a $999,980 award, number 80NSSC26M0169, for multi-robot planetary research. As of Oct. 16, 2026, its listed project period is scheduled to begin Nov. 1, 2026, and run through Oct. 31, 2028. The page identifies San Diego State University as a partner and describes student research roles.

The Sacramento award is close to the program’s $1 million per-institution ceiling, but it does not establish the amounts awarded to the other institutions. Its two-year schedule is specific to that project: NASA has not provided a common set of milestones or completion dates for all 12 projects.