WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  — NASA has chosen Purdue University as the site of a new research institute that will design deep space habitats for humans.

The new institute in West Lafayette is a partnership with the University of Connecticut, Harvard University and the University of Texas at San Antonio. It will be led by Purdue engineering professor Shirley Dyke.

The Resilient ExtraTerrestrial Habitats institute, or RETHi, will receive as much as $15 million over five years from the space agency.