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This year marked the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing and astronaut Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind.” Across CU Boulder, many researchers celebrated the occasion by asking: How can we go back?

Among them is Professor Jack Burns of the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. He’s leading a team that is exploring how astronauts might work side-by-side with robots to build infrastructure on the moon. “This isn’t your grandfather’s Apollo program,” Burns said. 

Scientists in the Bioastronautics Program, meanwhile, are probing how people can stay healthy as they spend more time in space than ever before—from designing new kinds of spacesuits to examining the effects of microgravity on bones.

“Humans are always wondering what’s beyond the horizon,” said Luis Zea, an assistant research professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences.