UH Hilo student ‘walking on cloud 9’ after receiving NASA internship to study Jupiter’s moon

Raven Kromer of Minnesota has been interested in space since he was a child, repeatedly playing a record of legendary CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite reporting on the first moon landing in 1969.

But he delayed following his passion and worked as an electrician to care for his family. Now that his two children have grown up, he has rekindled his love for space and is attending the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo to pursue astronomy and physics.

“I have always talked about going back to school and my wife encouraged me after our kids moved out,” Kromer said.

While at UH Hilo, he landed an internship this summer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to continue searching for answers to the universe’s biggest questions.

He will be part of one of NASA’s most exciting missions, Europa Clipper, which is the first designed to conduct a study of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

According to NASA, there is scientific evidence that the ingredients for life may exist on Europa right now, so the Clipper spacecraft is traveling 1.8 billion miles to reach Jupiter in April 2030. It will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon.

Kromer will be working as a NASA intern from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to study impact cratering on Europa. This research will help scientists understand the geology, composition and the potential for subsurface oceans on the icy moon.

“I will be working to determine the thickness of the ice shell and what kind of impacts produced the shape and depth of the craters on the moon, and what kind of features to expect,” Kromer said. “I will also be learning how to find and analyze these things this summer. I will learn what tools to use and how to use them, and you never know what this kind of work will lead to until you find it.”

Kromer said he has always had a curiosity about what is out in space and was driven to astronomy by big questions, not necessarily how it works.

“Where did we come from? Why are we here? And it seems the more I learn, the less I know,” he said.

The Clipper mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, as well as the moon’s composition and geology. The detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond Earth, according to NASA.

“I have been excited for the Clipper mission since it was announced and the fact that I get to be part of it is something I did not expect,” Kromer said. “I was walking on cloud nine when I got the news. This mission is pushing the boundaries of what we can do as far as space science.”

Kromer has some experience looking at the surface of other planets and recently returned from Italy where he attended the Eighth International Planetary Dunes Workshop through a travel grant from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

While there, he presented his scientific work, “Visual Comparison of Morphologies of Martian Basaltic Sand Dunes with Terrestrial Basaltic Sand Dunes,” which compares the basaltic sand grains from several locations on Hawaiʻi Island with Mars data from rovers and satellite imagery.

According to Kromer, the bedrock of the Hawaiian Islands is made of basalt, which makes it more similar to Mars than any other place on Earth.

“If we can look at the dunes and sand here and see how the wind changes the grain, we can see how the wind moved in the past on Mars based on the sand and dunes,” Kromer said. “Using the environment here could also work as a resource utilization project. If we sent astronauts to Mars, what could they do with the sand there?”

Kromer also is considering continuing this research next year with a larger project that explores varied environments at different locations.

Kromer was able to share his research with scientists and researchers from around the world, which felt overwhelming, but also inspiring, since he was the only undergraduate student there at the time.

Earlier this year, Kromer delved into more physics-based space science after being awarded the Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium grant to study dwarf galaxies under the mentorship of Nicole Drakos, a University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo assistant professor of physics and astronomy.

Kromer’s project, “Stellar Dynamics of Dwarf Galaxies as a Test for Dark Matter,” addresses problems in cosmic structure formation, where simulations of small dark matter halos conflict with observations of dwarf galaxies.

“When I started astronomy, I didn’t know what to focus on and had no idea what to do, so I started by doing all sorts of different research,” Kromer said. “I’m definitely moving toward more hands-on research with planetary science. I think this is because concepts continually get bigger and more complex, so being able to reach out and touch the thing I’m researching can be helpful.”

Kromer is being mentored and supported by UH Hilo faculty John Hamilton, an affiliate professor of physics and astronomy; Steve Lundblad, a professor of geology; and Meghann Decker, an education specialist in the geology department.

“Raven has been an incredible student and we’re excited to watch him expand his knowledge through these opportunities,” Hamilton said. “I knew he would do well with the presentation in Italy and I’m particularly excited to see what he wants to pursue after this internship.”

Kromer is set to graduate with his undergraduate degree in May 2027 and plans to get a PhD in astronomy and then work for NASA.

“A doctorate has been an educational goal of mine and after that, I want to do public science for the public good,” Kromer said. “That’s why we study space science, it is to ultimately serve the public good by answering questions.”