UND wins $750,000 grant from NASA to develop next generation of spacesuits

GRAND FORKS, N.D.–The University of North Dakota’s Department of Space Studies has been awarded a $750,000 grant from NASA to develop a new 3D-printed spacesuit.

Pablo de León, UND Professor and Chair of UND’s Department of Space Studies, applied for the grant and will lead a three-year research project to develop the spacesuits. According to UND, de León has researched spacesuit technology on behalf of NASA for several years.

De León said, “I’m somewhat going back to my roots of developing spacesuits, and now we’re using a completely new system that we developed in the lab. We devoted the past year to making a lot of improvements in our techniques and methods, and NASA recognized that improvement. Now we are ready for action.”

In addition to using the grant to develop spacesuits, de León plans to use the funds to provide a number of scholarships for students to work with him.

This grant is the third NASA EPSCoR grant awarded to UND.