Hopes for future space exploration could be dampened if effective solutions aren’t found for breathing problems astronauts have experienced during long periods of time spent inside spacecraft. One of the engineers working on a remedy is Phoebe Henson, a Fulton Schools alumnus who earned an electrical engineering degree in 2015. Henson is a member of the Human Space Group at the Honeywell Aerospace facility near Phoenix. The team has already helped NASA by developing a system that removes excess carbon dioxide from the air inside the International Space Station. Now Henson and her colleagues are at work on advanced materials to capture and filter out the carbon dioxide from air supplies — and possibly even recycle the CO2 and turn it back into oxygen. That kind of work helped Henson become one of only several Arizonans named to Forbes magazine’s 2019 list of 30 Under 30 rising stars. (Subscriber access only)