Since she was a kid, Morgan Kainu (’19), a UNT anthropology alum, has loved outer space, attending NASA summer camps and visiting observatories and planetariums. Though no one else at UNT — and practically no one in the U.S. — was studying it, Kainu thought: Why not combine anthropology and the universe? With mentorship from UNT anthropology professor Christina Wasson, Kainu researched the human factors and ergonomics of space station, analog station and off-planet habitat design. Additionally, Kainu started a UNT chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space in 2017. In her senior year, she launched a student organization called SWISE — the Society for Women in Space Exploration — and was lead flight director for Mars Academy USA, which uses exponential technologies and simulation-based learning to train the next generation of analog astronauts.