California State University (CSULA), Pasadena City College (PCC), both designated as Minority Serving Institutes (MSIs), and University of Southern California (USC) establish partnerships and exchange/joint programs in space science-related education and researches under the NASAÂ’s Minority University and College Education and Research Partnership Initiative (MUCERPI). The associated activities will be conducted mainly under the technical supports from the CSULA Structures Pointing And Control Engineering (SPACE) Laboratory, that has be sponsored by NASA since 1994, and effective March, 2003, is part of the CSULA University Research Center (URC) sponsored by NASA for the next five years. MUCERPI has a modular organizational structure. Education partnership and Research partnership will be conducted in modules called Educational Component and Research Component, respectively. 

     Both of the Educational and Research components focus on the current scientific content and future direction of the Space Science Enterprise as listed below: 

1.      Solar System Exploration

a)     Understand the initial stages of planet and satellite formation

b)     Study the processes that determine the characteristics of bodies in our Solar System and how these processes operate and interact.

c)     Understand why the terrestrial planets are so different from one another

2.      Astronomical Search for Origins

a)     Observe planetary systems around other stars and compare their architectures and evolution with our own

b)     Understand how different galactic ecosystems of stars and gas formed

c)    Learn how gas and dust become stars and planets