Fall 2026 NASA Goddard DC Space Grant Supported Student Intern Charlie McAdoo III
Charlie McAdoo III, an undergraduate student at Howard University. Charlie and his NASA mentor are working on the following research activity: Multifunctional Nanosensor Platform. They are developing a highly sensitive and selective gas sensing platform for lunar applications. Charlie will workwith the NASA team to characterize various sensors using Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and electrical probing. Charlie will summarize the data, which will aid in the selection of the final chip to be used for the upcoming NASA CLPS mission. We are proud to support Charlie at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center this Fall!
One of 8 UniversityTeams Selected By NASA
he NASA DC Space Grant Consortium, in collaboration with the American University Physics Department and Department of Mathematics & Statistics, is incredibly proud to support an AU student-led team selected by NASA as one of only eight university teams worldwide to participate in the Artemis II mission. This historic mission, the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo 17, carries four astronauts on a journey around the Moon, and the AU team will track radio signals from the Orion spacecraft, contributing directly to NASA’s citizen science initiative.
Led by Ankur Purao (Physics Major), and supported by faculty, the students have designed and installed professional-grade radio astronomy equipment at AU’s Airlie property, providing an unprecedented opportunity to conduct research at a level normally reserved for graduate students. This initiative showcases the ingenuity, dedication, and talent of our students, as well as the power of hands-on, interdisciplinary learning fostered through the partnership between the NASA DC Space Grant Consortium and AU’s Physics and Mathematics & Statistics departments.
We are immensely proud of our students for taking part in this groundbreaking project and helping advance space science while setting a new standard for undergraduate research at AU.
Research group poses for a photo at Airlie. Photo by Nikolai Roster, CAS.
