Cislunar operations, resource processing, power and assembly fill 15 of NASA's 35 NSTGRO 2026 titles

The roster text runs alphabetically and ends at Rithvik Ramesh, with no project title shown for that entry ^[1]. The counts here cover the 35 titled entries from Omar Alyousef to Abbey Piatt Price ^[1], sorted by what each title says. Abigail Glover's project at Colorado School of Mines uses the word regolith, but its subject is standardizing regolith terramechanics for risk-aware rover navigation ^[8], so it stays out of the processing group.

Only one title puts cislunar space and multiple agents together: Cade Armstrong's "Intelligent Multi-Agent Constellations for Cooperative Cislunar Operations" at the University of Texas at Austin ^[2]. The other two cislunar titles are about navigation and trajectories. Lars Erickson at the University of Minnesota works on embedded normal form algorithms for low-cost cislunar navigation ^[3]. Madison Lin at the University of Colorado Boulder works on autonomous trajectory anomaly detection and replanning ^[4]. The fourth project in the group belongs to Elsa Forberger at the University of Southern California, who works on planning and control for multi-robot teams carrying lunar cargo ^[5].

Two chemical threads run through the resource work. Annalise Cabra at CU Boulder is developing RF hydrogen plasma for ion-assisted metal processing of lunar regolith ^[6]. Alanis Matias-Perez at Colorado School of Mines studies electrochemical behavior in molten regolith electrolysis ^[7]. Piatt Price, at Columbia, uses protonic solid-oxide electrochemical cells for hydrogen recycling and in-situ resource production ^[9], so that title carries both threads. Theodore Houser's ECLiPSe project at the University of Chicago, electrochemical liquid propellant synthesis, falls in the propellant group by its wording but uses the same kind of process ^[23].

In power, Eleni Mowery at the University of Michigan simulates vapor core nuclear reactors with MHD power conversion ^[12]. Ari Nadelson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign designs solid-state batteries and electrolytes for low temperatures ^[13]. William Bodnar at North Carolina State is working on near-field thermophotovoltaics for extraterrestrial surface power ^[10], and Andrew Dean at the University of Central Florida is sizing power and mass for molten-salt-powered lunar outposts ^[11].

Origami turns up twice in the assembly group. Omar Alyousef at the University of Memphis designs polycatenated architected materials for origami-inspired docking ports ^[15], and Diana Bolanos at UC Berkeley builds origami-inspired lattices ^[14]. The two remaining docking titles are for small satellites: Alexander Chin's wire-bent compliant attachment aids at the University of Washington, whose title also cites ISAM ^[16], and Robert Muldrow's electrical and data interface for autonomous smallsat docking at the University of Florida ^[17].

I count five titles as entry, descent and landing work, including plume-surface interaction and supersonic retropropulsion ^[6], and five as propulsion or propellant work ^[7]. Two specify atmospheric entry: Dillon Mulrooney's study of internal pressure in pyrolyzing ablators at Illinois ^[22] and Elan Graupe's model-driven navigation for entry and descent at Minnesota ^[20]. Rachel Constantin at the University of Tennessee is imaging supersonic retropropulsion with high-speed tomographic schlieren ^[19]. Eric Comstock at Georgia Tech is simulating air-breathing electric propulsion ^[26]. All four describe work that needs an atmosphere ^{[19][20][22][26]}. On the propellant side, Joseph Hwang at Purdue studies spray cooling for propellant tank thermal management ^[24], and Connor McCleery at Yale sinters coatings for cryogenic propellant storage ^[25].