Humberto Campins, professor of astronomy, gives a talk titled “How Likely an Asteroid is to Ruin Your Day” at the Colombian Space Agency, June 28, 2022.
Courtesy of Humberto Campins
Curiosity is a powerful force, and for one UCF professor, it’s strong enough to help build machines capable of chasing down and studying asteroids millions of miles away.
Dr. Humberto Campins, a Pegasus research professor of physics and astronomy and the head of the Planetary and Space Science Group, didn’t always spend his time within the walls of UCF teaching astronomy.
Growing up, Campins always had a plan for exactly what he wanted to pursue as a career. Reflection of his childhood dreams and aspirations further solidified the notion that he was meant for space research.
“When I was 4, I told my mother that I wanted a helicopter to go to Mars,” Campins said. “At age 7, my parents sent me to get exposed to astronomy at the local astronomy society … I’ve been one of those fortunate people that have had this amazing North Star, astronomy, and it has guided me throughout my life.”
Throughout his professional and academic career, Campins created new opportunities for humans to explore beyond our atmosphere and analyze asteroids orbiting Earth.
Within the past four years, 12 of his scientific research papers have been published in a few of the top science journals in the world. These publications include: five articles in Science, one in Nature, two in Nature Astronomy, two in Nature Communications and two in Nature Geosciences.
In addition to collaborating on research papers, Campins worked alongside teams at NASA to create technology for spacecraft missions that study asteroids and celestial bodies. These missions include, but are not limited to, OSIRIS-REx, the CAESAR project proposal and now the OSIRIS-APEX mission series.
Campins received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona in 1982, and as a graduate student, he served as a representative to the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space of the General Assembly of the United Nations. During his post-doctorate academic journey, he served as a research assistant for the astronomy program at the University of Maryland.
After serving as a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute from 1985 to 1989 in Tucson, Arizona, he began his journey south to the Sunshine State and worked at the University of Florida. For nine years, he climbed up through different roles — an assistant professor, an associate professor and finally a full-time professor of astronomy.
Upon receiving tenure at UF, Campins was offered and accepted recruitment for the oldest philanthropic foundation for the advancement of science at the Research Corporation, with headquarters located in Tucson, Arizona.
While moving back to Arizona, again, other institutions were alerted to his mobility as an academic. He received a call from UCF inquiring about a job offer, and Campins told the university he would take two years and see if he was happy with the job.
Two years passed and after three separate offer letters, he moved back down to Florida to teach as the first UCF provost research professor of astronomy in 2002.
“I was the only astronomer at the University of Central Florida for a year,” Campins said. “My first hire was Daniel Britt, who’s phasing into retirement now … the secret to building a group such as ours is to hire people who are smarter than you are.”
Daniel Britt, a Pegasus professor of astronomy and planetary sciences at the Department of Physics, has worked alongside Campins at UCF since 2003. The two have worked on several award-winning NASA projects and have received federal space grants for furthering their research in small space and celestial bodies.
Britt has been involved in developing technology and research for numerous space missions, including but not limited to Mars Pathfinder, Deep Space 1, New Horizons and Lucy, according to his CV.
“You’re constantly seeing new things,” Britt said. “Things that are being seen for the first time by humans, which is inherently interesting … all of those projects have been a lot of fun and very interesting.”
In 2010, Campins was tasked by the University of Arizona to help with the CAESAR project proposal to NASA to build a spacecraft to travel to asteroid Bennu and bring back geological samples (Regolith).
The mission was titled OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, according to NASA. The project proposal was approved in 2011 and received $650,000,000 million in funding from Lockheed Martin and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Campins’ team built a suite of satellite cameras and a spectrograph at the University of Arizona, while the Goddard team supplied another spectrograph for the completion of the build of the spacecraft. The spacecraft successfully launched in 2016 and began its seven-year journey.
OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid and one of the spacecrafts Humberto Campins helped build, returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, landing in the Utah desert, to drop off a capsule with material from asteroid Bennu.
Courtesy of NASA
“It’s been the most fun I’ve ever had,” Campins said when discussing the hard work leading up to the completion of OSIRIS-REx. “It was just a bunch of wonderful colleagues, bright young people and amazing engineers at NASA.”
During an interview with WKMG News 6 in 2019, Campins discussed the mission objective and the operational environment and rotational acceleration of asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx.
Upon the spacecraft’s return to Earth in 2023, the capsule’s asteroid sample was analyzed by a series of celestial body and asteroid research teams, including Campins. The spacecraft was then put back to work to analyze another asteroid; the mission was rebranded as OSIRIS-APEX.
In the near future, Campins will be moving back to Tucson, Arizona, to pursue the next chapter of his career. He will still remain as a half-time professor for UCF, teaching astronomy online, while working on the next 2029 mission phases for OSIRIS-APEX at the University of Arizona.
“In 2031, I’m going to have to decide what I want to be when I grow up,” Campins said. “I’ve basically always done what I wanted to do as a child. As a grown-up, I haven’t quite decided.”