Asteroid Mission Lands Professor on NBC CT, Fox 61

As a long-time research partner with NASA, Associate Professor Paul Slaboch closely studies the latest space program initiatives and recently spoke about asteroid news with NBC CT and Fox 61.

Slaboch, director of the University of Hartford's aerospace program, visited Fox 61 studios to discuss asteroid material being brought to Earth on Sept. 24, following a mission that launched in 2016. 

The asteroid sample—the largest ever brought to Earth— was collected in 2020, and then landed in Utah this past weekend. It can now be examined for insight into the time when the sun and planets formed, Slaboch explained, and likely will be studied for an extremely long time, with some of the sample being saved for the future when new technologies are developed.  

While the next phase of work can now begin on the 4.5-billion-year-old remnant from the origins of the solar system, even securing the sample was an incredible challenge, Slaboch told NBC CT.

He also discussed the mission and its challenges with his students. “In my orbital mechanics class, we talked about how difficult it is to orbit such a small object, and how the last adjustment NASA made before it sent the sample back was to change the velocity relative to the earth, which moved the landing site by eight miles," Slaboch says.

Slaboch, who teaches in UHart's College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, has completed two Faculty Fellowships at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. His research is primarily funded by NASA and the NASA CT Space Grant Consortium, which provides funding for a wide range of projects at UHart.