A concept rendering of an automated cryogenic refueling system for NASA’s Human Lander System, created by 11 Ohio State students for the 2025 Human Lander Challenge. Credit: Courtesy of Max Heil
When it comes to space travel, cryogenic liquids are essential. Without them, astronauts might just find themselves left out in the cold — literally.
Used as propellants in spaceflight, cryogenic liquids like liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are “integral to NASA’s future exploration and science efforts,” according to its website. Their temperatures must stay extremely cold to maintain a liquid state. However, current systems can only keep these substances stable for a matter of hours — and students from across the nation are finding new ways to tackle this problem.
April 4, NASA selected 12 student teams — including a group from Ohio State — as finalists of the 2025 Human Lander Challenge. Participants must develop in-space solutions for storing and transferring cryogenic liquids to support future long-term exploration, according to NASA’s website.
In addition to being awarded a $9,250 stipend, finalist teams are invited to present their work to a panel of judges at the 2025 Human Lander Competition Forum June 24-26 in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The top three teams will then receive a share of $18,000, according to NASA’s website.
The group of 11 students, led by project manager Max Heil, consists of Rahul Ravishankar, Will Reuter, Kevin Subin, Zafar Shaik, Nishanth Kunchala, Anastasia Anikina, Ryan Endicott, Artur Leonel Machado Ulsenheimer, Allison Renshaw, Shiv Amin and Tejdeep Somi Reddy.
Heil, a fourth-year in aerospace engineering, said Ohio State’s team is focused on propellant transfer — the process of moving propellants, the materials that power rockets, between locations. He also said the competition is a valuable way to gain hands-on experience in his chosen field.
“This project is really important for everybody, including myself, to be able to learn how to manage everything, [and] for them to branch out from what they’ve done in classes and theory and everything, and to get a more practical understanding of it all,” Heil said.
Beyond practical application, John Horack, the Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy at Ohio State, said he recognizes the opportunity for students to make a real impact, especially when it comes to refueling in space.
“The Artemis missions need refueling,” Horack said. “Everything we want to do in the future requires refueling in space. If you wanted to drive from Columbus to Los Angeles without refueling, it would be difficult.”
In order to establish a sustainable presence on the moon and support future missions to Mars, NASA created the Artemis missions, a series of NASA-led spaceflights aimed at returning humans to the Moon, beginning with unmanned tests and progressing towards manned lunar landings.
Heil and his team came up with a system to make refueling in space more efficient by building on technology used on the International Space Station, he said.
In order to refuel in space, the spacecraft that needs refueling and the spacecraft containing fuel need to connect through a coupling system, like plugging in a charger.
Notably, Heil said the coupling process is currently manual.
“What we wanted to do is just essentially automate that process, make it so that when we have [a] two-dock spacecraft, we can essentially just hit a button and the two sides would meet and start flowing and we transfer in space,” Heil said.
To support this, the team combined data from sensors and cameras with a custom computer program that helps guide the two parts together. The program would then operate a Stewart platform – similar to a table with legs that can change height — to carefully position the connectors.
Heil and his team designed the couplers to include multi-layer insulation against boiloff, or the evaporation of cryogenic liquids, and magnets to ensure a secure, aligned connection.
Heil said he couldn’t have gone through the design process without Horack’s help and guidance.
“He is one of the most prolific professors we have,” Heil said. “I mean, he is phenomenal, and he gave great advice for how to start everything out, so just getting to work with him was amazing.”
Holding professor appointments in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, Horack said it’s important to support student projects like Heil’s.
“That’s what I came here to do,” Horack said. “That’s my job: to support and invest time and energy into student projects like Max’s.”
Horack not only helps Heil with logistics and finances as his main contact, but also serves as a valuable professional and personal connection, Heil said.
“He has such massive influence in the industry,” Heil said. “That connection that you build with him, and that connection that you gain with NASA through this project is something that can set you up for a lifetime.”
With support from the finalist award stipend, Heil and Horack are aiming to build a physical prototype ahead of the final competition.
“Everything in engineering is about building something,” Horack said. “Say it’s show and tell day in class. The kid who is telling you about his dog isn’t going to be more interesting than the kid who brought the dog. So, you always have to bring the dog.”
After this project, Heil said he is looking forward to seeing what his teammates accomplish.
“It’s exciting for me to see all of them using this project as leverage for where they are going to take their career after this,” Heil said.
