University students in Colombia and Argentina advance space technology projects

Students from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) have been admitted to the 2027 International Air and Space Program (IASP) in Houston, Texas. Physics student Simón Jiménez Reyes and Biology student Ana María Maldonado Castro will present projects focused on space exploration challenges. Jiménez Reyes has developed an intelligent liquid cooling system designed to manage heat in spacecraft computers, which lack atmospheric dissipation in a vacuum. Maldonado Castro’s work focuses on recycling astronaut waste into usable resources to reduce Earth-dependency.

In Argentina, the Universidad Nacional del Comahue is developing Pehuensat III, a CubeSat-style satellite. Led by engineering students and faculty, the project aims to replicate the success of the Pehuensat I, Argentina’s first university satellite launched in 2007. The team is working through all stages of satellite construction, from initial design to functional testing, to foster technological development in the space sector.