For thousands of years, from the first myths to today's space launches, humanity has been enamored with the secrets of the universe and what lies beyond the stars. UNT alumni and current researchers are working every day to unravel those secrets, driven by their passion for knowledge. Whether they're building advanced telescopes or studying how life could handle the extreme conditions of space, these researchers are paving the way for learning more about the universe we live in.

Danielle Da Costa ('22) will tell you she has one of the best jobs in the world.

"I think what I'm doing is the most fun," Da Costa (pictured above) says.

She works as a mechanical engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and has been working on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope since joining the team. The telescope, which launched this August, will have a field of vision at least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope and will be able to see planets in other galaxies and planet-forming disks.

"I've been working on integration and testing, so creating hardware and putting it through different extremes to make sure it's ready for the launch and space," she says.

Da Costa has been working with NASA since she was a junior studying mechanical engineering. She earned an internship with NASA that year and took off school for the role. When she came back, she then started a position with NASA's Pathways internship program and was hired after graduating.

"I actually interned for the Roman Space Telescope during my program," Da Costa says. "It's amazing to see how far it's come. We were working on drawings when I was an intern, and now we're ready to launch."

To prevent the possibility of contamination and unwanted particles going into space, Da Costa works in a dedicated clean room while wearing frocks and face masks. Not many visitors can enter, but it does have a large viewing window.

"The public can come see our hardware and ask questions. I feel like that's very important," she says. "A lot of kids come to visit, and they get really excited to learn. They'll ask what all our equipment does."

Da Costa takes her love of sharing knowledge outside of her work as well. She volunteers as a mentor with the College Bound program in D.C., which helps underrepresented high schoolers get into college and partners mentors and students with similar interests.

"My sister was the first in my family to go to college, so everything was still new to me," Da Costa says. "I love helping people with a similar background as me. I think everyone belongs in this field as long as they're driven and motivated."

Some of the toughest organisms on Earth could offer clues about one of the biggest challenges of space exploration: how to sustain life beyond Earth.

That question is taking a UNT research team to two extreme environments -- Chile's Atacama Desert and Brazil's hypersaline lakes -- where scientists will study the energetic interplay between ecosystem resources, such as sunlight, nutrients and temperature, and microorganisms, known as extremophiles, which thrive in harsh conditions.

"We're excited to learn whether the ways they survive on Earth could help us understand how they may fuel self-powered devices in spaceflight or on other planets," says Juliana D'Andrilli, associate professor of biological sciences and lead investigator on the seven-member team.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is funding the project as part of a larger initiative exploring ways to develop systems that can support life in space. D'Andrilli's team will focus on how extremophiles take in and use energy under natural and additional stressful conditions and what they produce in the process.

The team will expose the microorganisms to three stressors -- light, water and dissolved organic matter -- and measure the methane and carbon dioxide they release as they survive. By studying how organisms use energy and respond to changing conditions, the researchers hope to better understand how self-powered biological systems could function in the closed environments required for spaceflight.

"In spaceflight, we can't allow molecules, waste products and atmospheric gases to leave its closed system," D'Andrilli says.

The researchers will conduct some experiments in the field and bring samples back to UNT laboratories for further study. D'Andrilli will be joined by Jim Junker, clinical assistant professor of biological sciences, and Brandon Gaesser, assistant professor of media arts. Gaesser will document the research and help turn the team's work into educational and outreach materials.

"I want this to become an opportunity to broaden outreach and expand educational resources for increased public engagement," Gaesser says. "Together, we're turning science into storytelling."

After a slight detour, Jonathan Pond ('24 M.S.) is now following his passion for space.

"I'm retired Navy, but I always said when I grew up, I was going to be an astronomer," Pond says.

When he was a kid, Pond wanted to be an astronaut, but he learned he couldn't because of his poor vision. Then one day, his parents brought home a special board game.

"It was a knock-off Monopoly game called Solarquest where you buy the planets and moons, and all the deed cards came with factoids. That's probably where my desire to be an astronomer came from."

While in the Navy, Pond earned a history degree. Once he retired, he joined UNT and earned his master's degree in astronomy.

"I was really struggling at first because my education background is bad. I'm a high school dropout so I never really had math down. I remember asking if this is something I really wanted," Pond says. "Then I took two courses with Duncan Weathers and Alexander Barr," he says. "Those made me realize 'Yes, I really do like physics. I want to learn this stuff.'"

Pond also gives credit to Ryan Bennett, UNT's astronomy program director, who led him to UNT's Monroe Observatory near Gainesville, which would serve as an inspiration for his studies.

"We cleaned the place up. I rebuilt some telescopes and got them working again," Pond says. "I was able to take some images of planet transits and light curves -- and that was my thesis."

Pond's research focuses on transit photometry and exoplanets -- planets in other galaxies. "In a nutshell, you wait for a planet to pass in front of a star and then take a bunch of pictures," he says. "That's how most exoplanets have been discovered in the past few decades."

Pond is now working at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of SPARK, A Student Pathway to Astrophysical Research Knowledge, a postbaccalaureate research program at one of the largest astrophysics research institutes in the world.

"The program is for folks who don't have a traditional path to graduate school," Pond says. "I couldn't get into a Ph.D. program because I didn't have a lot of research internship experience, but those kinds of internships are for undergraduates. So, this is the perfect helping hand to help me get to a doctoral program."

Isaiah Sears ('24) looked around at his job options in aerospace and decided to get in on the ground level.

"Originally, I wanted to go into the Air Force, but when I found out about Space Force, I thought that was something completely new, and I wanted to be a part of the foundation," Sears says. "It's a service all about space, and I'm all about space."

Sears remembers visiting the planetarium in his hometown of Killeen and how it taught him to find constellations in the sky. He decided to give it a try at home and was instantly hooked on space.

He followed that passion and earned a double major in physics and mechanical engineering at UNT. He worked in the research lab of Richard Zhang, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and, after graduation, he interned at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida where he worked on lunar dust experiments.

"There's no atmosphere on the moon, so lunar dust is extremely sharp and abrasive. We tested the adhesive and abrasive effects lunar dust had on different materials."

When his internship ended, he applied to the Space Force. He was selected in March 2025 and is currently undergoing training with the organization.

"We're developing our foundation as Space Force officers while getting exposure to the different mission areas across the service. We also learn how those capabilities can support the other service branches while protecting our nation's and our allies' interests in the space domain," Sears says.

He hopes he'll be assigned to a position in space electronic warfare, missile warning, acquisitions or engineering when training is complete.

"I'm drawn to these fields because they're very technically focused and directly connected to space operations. Whether it's protecting our capabilities from an adversary or developing the systems we use in space, there's a lot of problem-solving involved," he says.

In the meantime, Sears will work on what he sees as the most important thing in the sector dedicated to the great, wide unknown: making connections for the journey.

"You never know who you're going to meet, and the Space Force is a small community. The relationships you build can lead to people vouching for you in rooms you're not in and help open new opportunities," he says.