Manuel Retana, a University of Nevada, Reno graduate, is playing a key role in ensuring astronaut safety as project manager for environmental control and life-support systems on NASA’s Artemis II spacecraft, according to an April 8 announcement.
Retana’s work focuses on fire suppression within the spacecraft. This area is critical because fires in space can be catastrophic due to the closed environment. “I work on environmental control and life support systems. It sounds very fancy, but it’s really the HVAC of the spacecraft — controlling humidity, temperature and the whole atmosphere onboard,” Retana said. “My area of focus is fire suppression.”
He explained that in space, astronauts cannot simply open a window if there is a fire; instead, smoke must be filtered out to prevent suffocation. Retana’s team designs filters and masks for this purpose and develops specialized tools such as fire extinguishers and gas analyzers suited for space conditions. “In the event of a fire in orbit, astronauts obviously can’t just open a window,” he said. “That smoke has to go somewhere — it needs to be removed so people don’t suffocate. We design filters and masks for that. Essentially, we’re responsible for protecting the crew on their way to the moon.” He added: “If we sign off on something and we’re not doing it properly, you kill someone… At the end of the day, as engineers, we’re protecting lives. And in this case, it’s the lives of the people going around the moon.”
Retana shared his personal journey from being a first-generation college student who moved from Mexico to Las Vegas before attending university through Upward Bound programs at Nevada’s campus: “I visited through Upward Bound, and when I got to campus I fell in love.” He chose mechanical engineering at Nevada since aerospace programs were not yet available during his undergraduate years but later pursued advanced degrees related to aerospace.
His time at university included studying abroad in England with USAC programs and founding Lobos de Plata—a mariachi group still active today—reflecting both his academic drive and cultural pride: “I’m passionate about going to the moon… But I also want to show that we as Hispanics can play a big part in it.”
After graduation in 2018 with support from faculty mentors who wrote recommendation letters for him—”The University has top-level researchers and engineers… Countless people helped me”—Retana began working at NASA while continuing his education at Stanford University and completing doctoral coursework at The University of Texas at Austin.
Looking ahead, Retana hopes his story will inspire other first-generation students by showing how mentorship opportunities can lead all the way from classrooms into roles supporting historic missions like Artemis II.
