AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

UPDATE

May 2016

McIlvaine Company

CU-Boulder Seeks to Build Cleanroom for Mars Spacecraft

The University of Colorado wants to build a $9 million "cleanroom" as part of a partnership between CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and the United Arab Emirates to send a spacecraft to Mars in 2020.

The project, which would add 3,400 new square feet and renovate an existing 1,700 square feet to CU's Astrophysics Research Laboratory on East Campus, received initial approval from the Board of Regents during a capital construction subcommittee meeting in Denver.

A cleanroom is a controlled environment with low levels of dust, airborne microbes, particles and chemical vapors for designing and building the scientific equipment that will travel aboard the spacecraft, which is named Hope, according to planning documents.

In May 2015, CU announced a partnership with the United Arab Emirates on a project known as the Emirates Mars Mission, which seeks to send a spacecraft to Mars to observe weather phenomena such as Martian clouds and dust storms, as well as changes in temperature, water vapor and other gases in the planet's atmosphere.

The mission is being led by 75 to 150 engineers from the United Arab Emirates, as well as CU faculty, staff and students.

LASP, which currently leads NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission (MAVEN) and manages the Kepler and Kepler2 planet-hunting missions, is responsible for a number of elements for the Emirates Mars Mission. Arizona State University and University of California Berkeley are also working on the project.

The project is funded by the partnership between LASP and the United Arab Emirates, said CU officials.

If the full board approves the project in June, construction is set to begin in July and finish by January 2017. CU planning officials called it an "aggressive" timeline.

The regents also gave preliminary approval to the Boulder campus to update Hellems Arts and Sciences. The campus will request $30 million from the state in 2017-18 to address deterioration of the building's basic systems, such as electrical panels, windows and gutters.

CU officials said they are also considering whether to spend additional funds to update the programmatic, space and educational needs of Hellems, which was built in 1921. The campus undertook a similar, dual-purpose project at Ketchum Arts and Sciences over the last two years.

Campus budget and construction officials also offered a window into potential future projects, including renovations of the Environmental Design building, Regent Administrative Center and Muenzinger Psychology building.

The campus also wants to build a 200-seat auditorium classroom in the Engineering Center and move the campus police department out of its existing building on Regent Drive to make that space available for academic use.

Officials offered no timeline for any of the future projects.

McIlvaine Company

Northfield, IL 60093-2743

Tel:  847-784-0012; Fax:  847-784-0061

E-mail:  editor@mcilvainecompany.com

Web site:  www.mcilvainecompany.com