University of Colorado LASP

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder is the world's only research institution to have sent scientific instruments to every planet in the solar system, from Mercury (MESSENGER) through Neptune (Voyager 2), as well as to comets, asteroids, the Sun, and Earth's magnetosphere — making it one of the most prolific space instrument developers in the world. Founded in 1948 as one of the earliest university space research groups, LASP has delivered more than 200 instruments and spacecraft across 7+ decades of continuous space science, establishing a unique heritage of design, fabrication, test, and mission operations capabilities within a university setting. LASP's research spans solar physics (Solar Dynamics Observatory instruments, SORCE solar irradiance), planetary atmospheres (MAVEN Mars mission PI — studying Mars's atmospheric escape that turned it from warm-wet to cold-dry — and Juno, Cassini, and Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer instruments), Earth's climate system (TSIS total solar irradiance monitoring on ISS), and space weather. The MAVEN mission, for which LASP's Bruce Jakosky served as PI, achieved one of the most scientifically significant Mars results of the 21st century — quantifying the rate at which the solar wind strips Mars's atmosphere, explaining the mechanism by which Mars lost its early thick atmosphere and surface water over billions of years. LASP operates a mission operations center that manages multiple simultaneous satellite missions around the clock, training the next generation of spacecraft operators. CU Boulder's atmospheric and planetary science graduate programs feed directly into LASP, and LASP alumni hold senior science and engineering roles at NASA centers, JPL, and the international planetary science community.