The university of texas at EL paso (utep), the only emerging national research university in the U.S. With a student population that is majority (75%) hispanic, proposes the miro center for space…

This federal contract award, identified as NNX15AQ04A, was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a Hispanic-serving research university. The contract, valued at $4,923,725.38, establishes the MIRO Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (MIRO CSETR) to support NASA's space exploration goals through advanced non-toxic and green propulsion research. UTEP will partner with NASA centers, aerospace companies, and other academic institutions to develop lunar, Mars, asteroid, and solar system exploration capabilities. This cooperative agreement does not have a set-aside designation. As the prime contractor, UTEP leverages its expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, electronic warfare, and advanced manufacturing to advance NASA's space technology objectives. The University of Texas System, the parent organization of UTEP, also holds multiple federal contracts and grants across its institutions to support the government's research and development needs.

The university of texas at EL paso (utep), the only emerging national research university in the U.S. With a student population that is majority (75%) hispanic, proposes the miro center for space exploration and technology research (miro csetr). The miro csetr supports NASA's vision of space exploration by focusing on advanced capabilities in the areas of non-toxic and green propulsion. The miro csetr vision is to establish a sustainable minority university center of excellence in advanced propulsion research through strategic partnerships and to educate a diverse future aerospace workforce. To achieve this vision and create advanced technologies and exploration capabilities for lunar, mars, asteroid, solar system and beyond missions, a multidisciplinary engineering team will partner with NASA centers [johnson space center (JSC)-lead NASA partner, marshall space plight center (msfc), glenn research center (GRC), and NASA white sands test facility (wstf)], aerospace industries [lockheed martin corporafion (LMC), blue origin, and alliant techsystems operations LLC (ATK)], air force research laboratory (afrl), academic institutions [university of maryland at college park (UMD), princeton university, savannah state university (SSU), and southern arkansas university (SAU)], and other organizations [texas space grant consortium (tsgc)].