TRAJECTORIES 96 AEROPUZZLER 8 LOOKING BACK 94

Robot maker What does this plane need? Goddard’s moon treatise and more

2019 YEAR IN REVIEW

Artemis
INCLUDING PAGES
16, 42, 45,
61-64, 67, 72, 75

DECEMBER 2019 | A publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org
LAUNCHING
THE FUTURE
OF SPACE
From launch to landing, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, one of the nation’s first commercial space capsules, is paving the
way for the new space age. Follow us to experience the journey.

boeing.com/starliner
 YEAR IN REVIEW | December 2019 MORE AT aerospaceamerica. aiaa.org
B:11.125”
T:10.875”
S:10”

Astronauts Christina Koch, left, and Jessica

Meir made history in October when they
made the first all-female spacewalk.
Page 75.
NASA

ON THE COVER

THE YEAR Stratolaunch, the world’s largest aircraft by

wingspan, flew for the first time in April.
Pages 4, 33, 36.

IN REVIEW
The most important developments as
described by AIAA’s technical, integration
and outreach committees

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 1

 24–26 AUGUST

2020
NEW ORLEANS, LA

CALL FOR PAPERS

The AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum is the world’s only event that showcases both
aeronautics and space propulsion as well as energy technologies at a single venue.

AIAA IS SOLICITING PAPERS FOR THE 2020 FORUM

IN THE FOLLOWING TECHNICAL DISCIPLINES:
› Additive Manufacturing for Propulsion Systems › Hybrid Rockets

› Advanced Integrated Intelligent Propulsion › Inlets, Nozzles, and Propulsion Systems

Controls Integration

› Advanced Mechanical Components › Liquid Propulsion

› Advanced Propulsion Concepts › Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion

› Advanced Vehicle Systems › Pressure Gain Combustion

› Aerospace Power Systems › Propellants and Combustion

› Electric Propulsion (Spacecraft) › Propulsion Education

› Energetic Components and Systems › Small Satellites

› Energy Conversion Technology › Solid Rockets

› Energy-Efficient and Renewable Energy › Thermal Management Technology

Technologies
› Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Propulsion, Energy,
› Fuel and Power Generation Technology and Applications

› Gas Turbine Engines › AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies

Symposium (26–28 August)
› High-Speed Air-Breathing Propulsion

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT BY 11 FEBRUARY 2020

aiaa.org/propulsionenergy/cfp
AEROSPACE
★ ★ ★ A M E R I C A ★ ★ ★
YEAR IN REVIEW

D E C E MB E R 2 0 1 9 , V OL . 5 7 , NO. 1 1 Adaptive Structures............................................. 9 Materials ........................................................... 11

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Aeroacoustics .................................................... 19 MVCE................................................................. 27
Ben Iannotta Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems ..................... 31 Microgravity and Space Processes .................... 59
beni@aiaa.org
Aerodynamic Measurement Technology ............. 20 Modeling and Simulation .................................. 28
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Aerospace Power Systems ................................. 45 Multidisciplinary Design Optimization............... 12
Karen Small Aerospace Traffic Management ......................... 69 Non-Deterministic Approaches .......................... 13
karens@aiaa.org
Air Transportation Systems................................ 32 Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion ................ 53
STAFF REPORTER
Aircraft Design .................................................. 33 Plasmadynamics and Lasers............................. 29
Cat Hofacker
catherineh@aiaa.org Aircraft Operations ............................................ 34 Pressure Gain Combustion ................................ 54
EDITOR, AIAA BULLETIN Applied Aerodynamics ....................................... 21 Propellants and Combustion ............................. 55
Christine Williams Astrodynamics................................................... 22 Sensor Systems and Information Fusion............ 43
christinew@aiaa.org Atmospheric Flight Mechanics .......................... 23 Small Satellite................................................... 60
EDITOR EMERITUS Balloon Systems ................................................ 35 Society and Aerospace Technology..................... 75
Jerry Grey CFD Vision 2030 ................................................ 70 Software Systems .............................................. 44
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Communications Systems ................................. 40 Solid Rockets..................................................... 56
Robert van der Linden,
Computer Systems ............................................ 41 Space Architecture ............................................ 61
Debra Werner, Frank H. Winter
Design Engineering ........................................... 10 Space Automation and Robotics........................ 62
John Langford AIAA PRESIDENT Electric Propulsion ............................................ 46 Space Exploration.............................................. 72
Daniel L. Dumbacher PUBLISHER Energetic Components and Systems ................. 47 Space Logistics ................................................. 63
Rodger S. Williams DEPUTY PUBLISHER Energy Optimized Aircraft Systems.................... 71 Space Resources ............................................... 64
ADVERTISING Flight Testing .................................................... 36 Space Systems .................................................. 65
advertising@aiaa.org Fluid Dynamics.................................................. 24 Space Tethers .................................................... 66
Gas Turbine Engines.......................................... 48 Space Transportation ........................................ 67
ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN
Ground Testing .................................................. 25 Spacecraft Structures ....................................... 14
THOR Design Studio | thor.design
Guidance, Navigation and Control..................... 26 Structural Dynamics.......................................... 15
MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION High-Speed Air-Breathing Propulsion ................ 49 Structures ......................................................... 16
Association Vision | associationvision.com History ............................................................... 74 Survivability ...................................................... 17
Hybrid Rockets .................................................. 50 Systems Engineering ......................................... 18
LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE
HyTASP .............................................................. 37 Terrestrial Energy Systems ................................ 57
Ben Iannotta, beni@aiaa.org
Inlets, Nozzles and Propulsion Systems ............. 51 Thermophysics .................................................. 30
Intelligent Systems............................................ 42 Transformational Flight ..................................... 73
Life Sciences and Systems ................................ 58 V/STOL Aircraft Systems .................................... 39
Lighter-Than-Air Systems .................................. 38 Weapon System Effectiveness ........................... 68
Liquid Propulsion .............................................. 52

Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly

except in August by the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics, Inc., at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite
DEPARTMENTS
200 Reston, VA 20191-5807 [703-264-7500]. Subscription
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5 Letters
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at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA, 20191-5807,
Attn: A.I.A.A. Customer Service. Periodical postage 7 Flight Path
paid at Reston, Virginia, and at additional mailing
offices. Copyright 2019 by the American Institute of 77 AIAA Bulletin
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved.
The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA
92 Career Opportunities
8 AeroPuzzler
in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

94 Looking Back An unsatisfactory test flight poses a question. Do you have the
answer?
96 Trajectories

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 3

 EDITOR ’S NOTEBOOK 2020 VISION

The Stratolaunch

Unfinished business aircraft touches down

after its first flight.
Stratolaunch

his year displayed a tantalizing mix of technical breakthroughs, human achievements and

T
also vulnerability.
Six months after the death of its sponsor, billionaire Paul G. Allen, the Stratolaunch aircraft
became the largest plane (by wingspan) ever to fly when pilots lifted off from Mojave Air and
Space Port in California.
The video is amazing, but wowing us isn’t why Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and self-proclaimed
“Idea Man,” formed Stratolaunch Systems Corp. eight years ago. He wanted to prove that satellite launch
costs could be slashed by carrying launch vehicles and satellites to an altitude of 35,000 feet and boost-
ing them from there. This would prepare the way for “world-altering” satellite applications, to use the
company’s words.
Still unclear is whether the Stratolaunch flight was the start of a new way of business or something
that will be remembered as an engineering feat with little long-term significance, akin to the first flight of
Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose in 1947. The company issued a dryly worded statement in October saying
it had “transitioned ownership” to a person or entity it did not name.
In another case of unfinished business, neither of NASA’s Commercial Crew contractors managed to
launch a crew to the International Space Station this year. SpaceX’s uncrewed launch to ISS and Boeing’s
pad abort test, deemed acceptable by NASA, suggest that 2020 could be the year we see this achievement.
And of course there is the matter of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and the accidents that killed 346 people.
As of this writing, the FAA had yet to bless an update to the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation
System anti-stall software and the planes remained grounded.
I believe it will take more than the MAX aircraft returning to flight in 2020 to achieve closure on this
issue. An independent panel of some kind should be convened with the gravitas and authority of the
Rogers commission that examined the space shuttle Challenger accident or the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board. The many engineering, business and regulatory lessons from this saga should be
recorded for those in business today and for posterity. ★

Ben Iannotta, editor-in-chief, beni@aiaa.org

4 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Reactions to “Mystery sightings”

really enjoyed the “Mystery of the ‘Damn on-board, could not survive the G-forces unless the craft offered no inertia. That would

I Things’” article [November cover story]. I

was interested when news broke a couple
of years ago and was wondering what happened
be a nice trick to obtain.
i Data tends to imply one craft reached orbital speed while it was flying near the ground,
up to Mach 20. Another nice trick! For those with knowledge about hypersonics, the heating
since then. Great reporting. would be so severe to stress our known expertise where the survival of the craft would probably
Michael Martin, AIAA senior member exceed temperatures above tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. This craft must have
generated a lot of thermal energy. In all of these events, there were no gas dynamic shocks
or waves. That by itself pushes the credibility of conventional wisdom.
have read a lot of material about these i One craft moves underwater at speeds of more than several hundreds of miles per hour.

I Navy pilot incidents, and this is one of the

best treatments I have seen. I especially
appreciated the succinct critiques of various
The best technology that we can establish underwater at high speed involves cavitating
torpedoes that move on the order of 150 mph, none of which can perform underwater
maneuvers because the saltwater dynamic pressure would easily destroy the structure. This
theories, as well as the quotes from some tech- UFO craft seems to be invulnerable to such effects.
nical experts not previously heard from on this These events demonstrate technologies beyond our competence. We should not be
subject in anything I’ve read. afraid of unknown knowledge that potentially offers us embryonic technologies which
There was one paragraph, however, that would exceed our imagination pinioned by the conventional wisdom. Instead, we, espe-
bothered me a tad. Your use of the term “con- cially in academia, should spend significant and serious efforts to accept and develop this
spiracy theories” has a somewhat pejorative game-changing expertise and its promise to benefit humankind as we try to touch the stars.
ring. The genesis of UFO theories in the late P.A. Murad, AIAA associate fellow, Vienna, Virginia, ufoguypaul@yahoo.com
1940s and 1950s was that a hell of lot of people
were seeing the “damn things,” including a ** “An Electromagnetic Rocket Stellar Drive....Myth or Reality? Part I- Electromagnetic and Relativistic
Phenomenon,” July 1995.
great many military personnel (up to generals), “An Electromagnetic Rocket Stellar Drive....Myth or Reality? Part II- Fluid Dynamic Interactions and
especially at nuclear sites, as well as commercial an Engine Concept,” July 1995
pilots, private aviation pilots, knowledgeable
people like Kelly Johnson*, and other credible
witnesses. As for the CIA’s claim that U-2 flights
accounted for many UFO sightings, this has
been refuted in detail by various researchers,
including veteran UFO skeptic Robert Sheaffer
and UFO photoanalyst Bruce Maccabee.
That aside, commendations on a solid piece
of journalism on a thorny topic.
Douglas D. Johnson, Adelphi, Maryland
douglas.dean.johnson@gmail.com

*Clarence “Kelly” Johnson founded Lockheed

Skunk Works and provided a UFO account to the U.S.
Air Force’s “Project BLUE BOOK” report.

n the 1990s, I gave two AIAA papers**

I involving UFOs based upon concurrent

information and available photographs.
The Aerospace America article was quite
thorough and informative, especially about
broaching speculations of Russian and Chi-
nese capabilities, but did not address several
important pieces of interest for engineers
and scientists.
i At least one craft went from high to low
altitudes within seconds and performed
unusual maneuvers. Conventional wis-
dom implies biological beings, if they were

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 5

 5–7 MAY

2020
LAUREL, MD

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 FLIGHT PATH

The Future of Autonomous Flight:

The Technology Clock Ticks On
y family immigrated to the United States in the mendous progress toward addressing the challenges, a remark

M
late 1800s in pursuit of the American dream. by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at the 2013 AIAA AVI-
Leaving the European system of dictated standing ATION Forum hints at our biggest challenge. He commented
of wealth, they dreamed of a land where they that he would like to see the aviation community more active,
could come from nothing and become anything. noting “If I got half the pressure from this community that I
The dynamic system of America offered hope that the fruits of get from one Congressman on going to a distant planet, we’d
their aspirations and hard work could be harvested. be OK.” His comment strikes at the heart of the speedbump
My generation was raised during the Cold War with an eye to realizing the full potential of autonomous flight: we lack
on the Doomsday Clock counting down to the man-made global a common intent.
catastrophe of nuclear war or climate change. Our nation was Realizing the full potential of uncrewed and autonomous
in a technology-driven race to prevent the existential threat flight is a shared responsibility of government, academia,
to our life, our liberty, and our dreams. The space race was infrastructure providers, operators, manufacturers, and
the inspiration for my career in aerospace. suppliers. Our community must come together to engage
With the end of the Cold War, the threat receded and a new policymakers to assure they understand what must be done,
one emerged. In his 30 April 1992 speech to the Aero Club what is at risk, and what R&D and infrastructure investments
of Washington, D.C., Mr. A. D. Welliver, CTO of The Boeing must be made to complete the foundation for uncrewed and
Company, introduced a new clock, the Technology Clock. This autonomous flight.
clock represented our economic security and a countdown to The unifying strength of our members’ shared values and
the loss of U.S. leadership in aerospace. their technical leadership roles uniquely position AIAA to bring
A quarter of a century later, we are in an era of technology the stakeholders together. These values include:
disrupters to our society, the aerospace community, and the
global balance of power. A tipping point offering the promise i Collective and Collaborative Capabilities: There is strength
of societal as well as environmental benefits is occurring from and reason in diverse disciplines.
the confluence of social trends, technological advancements, i Knowledge Excellence: Intellectual pursuit requires education
and military and commercial interests. and learning to expand upon current thought.
Uncrewed and autonomous flight provides an example i Challenge and Excitement in the Work: We desire to make
of the confluence of disruptive technologies which, in their a difference.
infancy, are already providing social and economic benefits. i Honor and Achievement: We must promote the value of the
Delivery of medical supplies to remote areas, search and profession to the public.
rescue, and remote monitoring of critical infrastructure are i Future Vision: We believe in the importance of what we do,
only a few examples. I look forward to the day I can fly over and that there is ever more work to be done.
Seattle’s congested traffic!
The technical challenges to building this future include As the Doomsday and Technology Clocks march toward
creating a safe transition for these vehicles into the operation midnight, imagine the day where a rising nation announces
of the airspace system, and defining the regulatory framework that they have tethered an uncrewed vehicle to their latest
for replacing the current human-centric pilot and controller fighter. Then imagine how the balance of power begins to shift.
functions. The implementation of a regulatory foundation The price for losing our technical leadership will be high:
for emerging technologies requires 1) a clear framework and loss of jobs, a declining economy, and a shift in the balance of
classification for the apportionment of risk to the aviation power. We must start the conversation with policymakers on
system components for the varying degrees of automation vs how this generation will come together to drive the confluence
autonomous learning systems, 2) clarity of the contribution of of technology disruptors to address societal concerns and to
deterministic systems (the machine) and non-deterministic assure the dream is passed to the next. ★
systems (the pilot) to safety, 3) clarity of the safety level required
for various degrees of autonomy and for new technologies,
and 4) validation of the methods used to ensure compliance. James Vasatka
While our members and key stakeholders have made tre- Member, AIAA Board of Trustees

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 7

 Do you have a puzzler to suggest? Email us at aeropuzzler@aiaa.org.

Flight-test FROM THE NOVEMBER ISSUE

CANARD CONUNDRUM: We asked whether Ra-

feedback
fale fighters and NASA’s X-59 low boom design have
canards for the same reason. NASA’s Mark Guynn
and Clint Balog of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University helped us select the winning response:

Q. After landing, a test pilot says the WINNER: False. The Dassault-built Rafale fighter is a two-surface airplane
which utilizes the canard for pitch stability and control. The X-59 is a
prototype jet was difficult to control three-surface airplane and uses the canard to redistribute the lifting surface
in certain configurations and wanted area for the purpose of reducing the sonic boom made during supersonic
flight. Most aircraft’s wings create lift aft of the aircraft’s center of gravity
to stall sooner than it should. He (CG) which results in a negative moment. Therefore, an additional lifting
surface is required to balance the moments in the pitch-axis. In conventional
assesses “a Cooper-Harper of 7 to aircraft, a tail is used to create negative lift and a positive moment. In the
8” at times. One of the engineers case of the Rafale fighter, the trailing-edge of the wing is already at the
back of the plane. The designers utilize a lifting surface forward of the CG to
sighs: “Well, it was worth a shot, but balance the moments to maintain pitch stability while giving controllability in
we’d better put them back on.” What the pitch-axis with changing the canard’s incident angle.

devices is the engineer most likely The three-surface design utilized by the X-59 allows the wing to be smaller
due to the canard providing lift. Also, the canard helps reduce the size of
referring to, and why would it be the horizontal tail because the forward-of-CG lifting surface would require
desirable to leave them off? a smaller aft lifting surface to balance the moments. By redistributing the
cross-sectional area of a wing and tail along the fuselage, the designers
may be able to achieve a quieter sonic boom. Loud sonic booms are a result
of shock waves building up from different surfaces of an airplane. By redis-
Draft a response of no more than 250 tributing the cross-sectional area, the shock wave buildup can be reduced.

words and email it by midnight Dec. 9 Royd Johansen

to aeropuzzler@aiaa.org for a chance to AIAA member
San Jose, California
have it published in the January issue. Johansen is an aeronautical engineer for Northrop Grumman.

For a head start ... find the AeroPuzzler online on the first of each month at
https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/ and on Twitter @AeroAmMag.

8 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Materials that remember show promise direct harvesting of solar energy without drawing
system electrical power. To increase the stiffness of
for aircraft and space applications the solar array, new SMPC-based structures were
studied this year toward the goal of a second round
BY DARREN J. HARTL
of flight testing, according to the authors.
A number of new wind tunnel demonstrations of
The work of the Adaptive Structures Technical Committee enables aircraft
aeronautical adaptive structures applications were
and spacecraft to adapt to changing environmental conditions and
mission objectives. also performed this year. To quantify for the first
time experimentally the acoustic benefit of an SMA
slat cove filler in transport aircraft, researchers from
Texas A&M University and NASA’s Langley Research
Center in Virginia deployed a new aeroacoustic wind
tunnel at Texas A&M in February and recorded a
2 decibel noise reduction at 20 meters/second on
a 6.25% scale wing model. An international team
from Boeing, Deharde, the European Transonic
Morphing missiles Windtunnel and Langley demonstrated a new wind
being explored by the
tunnel testing paradigm allowing airplane models
U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory would adjust
to be actuated in a cryogenic wind tunnel, even
their shapes in flight to given small model feature sizes. The test article
provide aerodynamic consisted of a 4.5% scale Boeing-787 half-model
benefits. Such concepts with control surfaces powered by fully integrated

N
are enabled by novel
SMA rotary actuators. In August, the model was
actuator designs and
ew applications of shape memory materials tested at cryogenically simulated flight Reynolds
morphing skins.
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory were demonstrated worldwide this year, number conditions. Another collaborative project
while new morphing structural concepts initiated this year by the University of Maryland,
were tested in new ways. University of Bristol and Intelligent Automation Inc.
Boeing and NASA’s Glenn Research with NASA support demonstrated the feasibility of a
Center in Ohio tested shape memory alloys, or camber morphing wing prototype. The prototype
SMAs, that could be incorporated into the composite consisted of multimaterial 3D-printed morphing
materials that form the components of deployable skins supported by a 3D-printed bioinspired flexure.
structures on commercial airplanes. These SMA The prototype’s 60-centimeter camber morphing
compositions would respond autonomously to section was actuated in a 24 m/s free jet wind tunnel
ambient temperature changes. The new NASA- with minimal flutter. Upscaling and flight tests are
Boeing SMAs were incorporated into the hinge of a planned for future phases.
deployable vortex generator that was flight-tested Regarding noncommercial applications of
on a Boeing 777-200 in November as part of the adaptive structures, in September, the Aerospace
company’s ecoDemonstrator program. The vortex Systems Directorate of the Air Force Research
generator retracts at cruise to reduce drag. Laboratory first demonstrated a multiphysical
At the same time, Texas A&M University research- “dry tunnel” that creates a simulated aerother-
ers worked with University of British Columbia to mal test environment for morphing missiles. The
develop SMA artificial muscle actuators mimicking approach gives researchers uninterrupted access
the functionality of characterized bird muscles. Re- to the structurally adaptive test article during
sults were first presented publicly in May, showing simulated flight testing for full field strain and
that SMA components can act as actuators, brakes temperature tracking and allows testing of various
and structural components under cyclic stimuli, missile articulation mechanisms across a range of
emulating avian muscle functions. speed and altitude conditions not achievable in
In July, the Harbin Institute of Technology in traditional wind tunnels.
China revealed the existence of an experimental University of Central Florida researchers funded
satellite that tested a prototype shape memory by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research this year
polymer composite for self-deploying solar arrays, explored transient fluid-structure interactions
or SMPCs. In a paper in the journal Smart Materials during sea-based air vehicle morphing to find
and Structures, the designers of the experiment, optimal configurations for modular high-stiffness
called Mission SMS-I, described the mission as structures. The researchers measured the unsteady
the first SMPC demonstration in geostationary forces on a twisting and bending compliant wing
orbit. The authors said they have proved that their via water towing tank experiments, validating the
carbon-reinforced SMPC can deploy solar arrays by concept and enabling new modeling approaches. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 9

A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Novel designs and NASA’s moon-to-Mars

goals inspire next generation
BY LISA SAAM

The Design Engineering Committee promotes the development and

dissemination of technologies that assist design engineers in defining
practical aerospace products.

low-lunar orbit to the surface. Refueling capabil-

ities are required for the elements of the landing
system to be reusable.
NASA conducted ground testing on five full-
size prototypes of deep-space habitation mod-
ules. The testing began in March and lasted sever-

A
irbus in July released the conceptual design A bird-of-prey-inspired al months. The prototypes were made by Bigelow
for a new airliner that it said would push design that Airbus says Aerospace of Nevada, Boeing, Lockheed Martin,
will motivate the next
the boundaries of technology and innova- Northrop Grumman, and Sierra Nevada Corp.
generation of aeronau-
tion with its birdlike appearance. Revealed tical engineers to create
of Colorado between 2016 and 2018. During the
on the opening day of the Royal International Air sustainable aircraft. ground testing, NASA evaluated human factors
Tattoo air show in the United Kingdom, the design Airbus such as how astronauts would live and work in the
was dubbed the Bird of Prey due to its wing and tail Gateway and the ergonomics and capabilities of
SpaceX’s DEMO-1 Crew
structures that mimic those of an eagle or falcon. each habitat. A major objective of the prototype
Dragon autonomously
Other unique design features include moveable docked with the Interna-
testing was to produce a refined set of design re-
wingtips inspired by feathers, a next-generation tional Space Station in a quirements for deep-space habitation modules.
hybrid electric propulsion system, distributed pro- first for a U.S. commercial In March, a SpaceX Crew Dragon docked au-
pulsion and components that would be 3D-printed spacecraft. The spacecraft tonomously with the International Space Station
is shown in the hangar at
from state-of-the-art materials. Subscale technol- in a demonstration mission, called DEMO-1, with-
Launch Complex 39A in
ogy demonstrators could incorporate elements of Florida.
out a crew aboard. The docking was the first by an
this concept, but the main goal was to inspire the SpaceX American commercial spacecraft at ISS and the
next generation of aeronautical engineers to help first space launch under NASA’s Commercial Crew
create sustainable and greener aircraft. Program. Crew Dragon leverages the flight heritage
In the space realm, NASA made several awards of Dragon, which completed 16 cargo missions to
in May with the objective of achieving a human and from ISS prior to the DEMO-1 mission. Crew
lunar landing by 2024. Maxar Technologies of Col- Dragon consists of a pressurized capsule with en-
orado received a contract from NASA to design the vironmental control and life support equipment
Power and Propulsion Element of NASA’s lunar capable of carrying up to seven passengers and an
Gateway. The PPE will be a solar electric propul- unpressurized trunk for cargo.
sion spacecraft that will also serve as a communi- In the small satellite launcher market, Virgin Or-
cation relay for the Gateway. bit of California in July conducted the first drop test
Also, 11 companies in eight states were awarded of its LauncherOne rocket, a milestone toward its
contracts under NASA’s Next Space Technologies first orbital launch. In the test, an inert LauncherOne
for Exploration Partnerships. The awardees will was dropped from the Cosmic Girl carrier aircraft, a
conduct studies or produce prototypes of poten- modified Boeing 747, over the test range at Edwards
tial human landing spacecraft, with a focus on de- Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. For a
scent, transfer and refueling. The transfer portion space launch, Cosmic Girl will carry a LauncherOne
will carry astronauts from the Gateway to low-lunar rocket to an altitude above 30,000 feet and release it
orbit. The descent portion will transport them from to boost small satellites to orbit. ★

10 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

costs of space vehicle thermal protec-

tion systems. All five ultraperformance
thermoplastics were able to withstand
aerothermal testing at a heat flux of 100
watts per square centimeter for as long
as 30 seconds without disintegrating.
Based on thermogravimetric analysis
char yield results, Kepstan 7002 PEKK
has the highest char yield of 64% and
ULTEM 9085 has the lowest char yield
of 43%. High char yield usually indicates
material has good ablation performance.
In addition to experimental study, com-
putational fluid dynamics analyzed the

Unique material innovations reduce heat transfer between the specimens under various
scenarios compared with material response obtained

costs in manufacturing experimentally.

In February, Nanoarmor LLC and the U.S. Naval
BY TERRISA DUENAS AND ED GL AESSGEN Research Laboratory manufactured 70% dense
The Materials Technical Committee promotes interest, understanding zirconium carbide composites using additive
and use of advanced materials in aerospace products where aerospace manufacturing. These ultra-high-temperature
systems have a critical dependency on material weight, multifunctionality ceramics, or UHTC, offer superior properties that
and lifecycle performance. enable their use in leading edges and engine com-

T
ponents in extremely high-temperature platforms.
A sample of 3D- his year the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- Existing refractory ceramics do not offer adequate
printed ultraperformance nology and Metis Design Corp. collaborated mechanical and thermal properties to handle ex-
thermoplastic polymer to demonstrate an “out-of-oven” composite treme environments. Furthermore, corresponding
(upper right) was heated
curing process that addresses the limitations manufacturing methods cannot yield customizable
by an oxyacetylene
torch (center) and
of conventional oven- and autoclave-based and cost-effective leading-edge components for
photographed over the processes. Those drawbacks include poor energy high-performance aerospace systems. The Nanoar-
course of 30 seconds. The efficiency, high operational cost, long cure times mor-Naval Research Lab technique produced inex-
post-test pyrolysis zone and geometrical constraints on the components to pensive UHTC zirconium carbide ceramic matrix
(top) and charred surface
be cured. In August, the team demonstrated carbon composites with nanostructured reinforcements
(bottom) are shown on
the left side.
nanotube heaters for conductively curing composite that maximize density, hardness and durability
KAI LLC structures without an oven, achieving equivalent under high temperatures and mechanical stress.
thermophysical and mechanical performance to The polymer-based reaction bonding synthesis
conventionally cured composites, while reducing route yields net shape carbides, nitrides and
cure time by 60% and energy consumption by two borides from compressed powder mixtures of metal
orders of magnitude. The team believes that this precursors and carbon-rich resins with high char
process contributes to the design and manufacturing yields. In addition, the approach is pressureless
of next-generation multifunctional architectures by and incorporates a one-step reactive melt infil-
leveraging nanoengineered laminate capabilities tration process that converts preceramic mixtures
such as sensing, structural health monitoring and into dense custom forms at 1,400 degrees Celsius.
ice protection systems. The approach is significantly less expensive than
In July, KAI LLC, the University of Texas at Austin, existing alternatives. They reinforced the ceramic
RMIT University of Melbourne, Australia, Arkema matrix composites with metals, fibers, nanocarbons
Inc. and Western Washington University collabo- and secondary ceramic phases in order to improve
rated on a study to utilize high-temperature fused their mechanical strength, thermal conductivity,
filament fabrication technologies to manufacture and resistance to oxidation and ablation. Blends
five unique ultraperformance polymers: SABIC PEI of these precursor materials with polymer binders
ULTEM 9085, Roboze PEEK, Smart materials 3D into suspensions with controllable viscosities un-
PEEK, Arkema Kepstan 7002 PEKK and a modified lock capabilities for inexpensive rapid prototyping
PEI (ULTEM 1010) material. These can be used in of customized shapes with tunable dimensions,
low-heat-flux spacecraft application. The goal of geometries and properties. ★
the research was to develop a class of materials and
additive manufacturing processes that could one day Contributors: Boris Dyatkin, Joseph H. Koo and
substantially reduce the manufacturing and assembly Brian L. Wardle

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A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Developers unveil new optimization tools propulsor for NASA’s STARC-ABL configuration,
short for Single-aisle Turboelectric Aircraft with
and system designs an Aft Boundary-Layer propulsor. Throughout the
year, OpenMDAO was used as a platform to build
BY DOUGL AS ALL AIRE, JOHN HWANG AND GIUSEPPE CATALDO
several new analysis tools and libraries with analytic
The Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee provides a derivatives. OpenAeroStruct and OpenConcept are
forum for those active in development, application and teaching of a formal aircraft design tools developed by the MDO Lab at
design methodology based on the integration of disciplinary analyses and the University of Michigan; pyCycle is a propulsion
sensitivity analyses, optimization and artificial intelligence. modeling library developed by NASA’s Glenn Re-

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search Center in Cleveland; Dymos and Ozone are
he year saw important advancements at the two ordinary differential equation integration and
intersections of multidisciplinary design optimal-control libraries. Dymos was developed
optimization and machine learning. by Glenn and Ozone was developed by the Large-
In January, the University of Central Scale Design Optimization Lab at the University of
Florida released an open-source imple- California, San Diego.
mentation of physics-informed neural networks. The year also saw important advances in
The work extends recurrent neural networks to system design. In April, there was the first flight
cumulative damage models and empowers users of an unmanned vehicle testbed designed and
to merge physics-informed and data-driven layers built by a team from the Massachusetts Institute
within one deep neural network. of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
In March, the University of Michigan MDO Lab A&M University and Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences.
made available its suite of tools for aerodynamic The vehicle is being used to demonstrate the use of
shape optimization, MACH-Aero, with two different reduced modeling and machine learning methods
computational fluid dynamics solvers, ADflow and for dynamic data-driven mission replanning. The
OpenFOAM. The University of Michigan MDO Lab reduced models also form the basis for a digital
also created Webfoil, an application with airfoil data, twin of the vehicle, which MIT is developing with
analysis and optimization. Akselos.
In June, the University of California, San Diego, In August, Virginia Tech in collaboration with
The ADflow
Multiscale Multiphysics Design Optimization Lab DK Schmidt and Associates developed approaches
computational fluid released an open-source implementation of effi- to embed dynamics and control of aircraft with
dynamics solver enables cient large-scale 3D topology optimization for highly flexible wings into design environments
the aeropropulsive coupled heat transfer and mechanical stress as well used to perform multidisciplinary analysis and
analysis and design
as coupled fluid structure interaction. This paves design optimization of transport aircraft. Re-
optimization of the
NASA STARC-ABL
the way to design highly efficient heat-dissipating searchers demonstrated that bioinspired internal
aircraft configuration. and load-carrying lightweight aerospace structures. structural layout using curvilinear spars and ribs
Two color maps are NASA’s OpenMDAO, an open-source high- could reduce the structural weight for composite
shown: pressure performance computing platform for systems flying-wing aircraft.
coefficient at the
analysis and multidisciplinary optimization, V2.8, Also in August, in collaboration with ISAE-
surface and normalized
stagnation pressure at
was released in June. Later in the year, OpenMDAO SUPAERO and MIT, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
the symmetry plane. V2.8 was used to solve a set of first-of-their-kind Center in Maryland completed the structural analysis
University of Michigan MDO Lab design optimizations of a boundary layer ingestion module of a multidisciplinary design optimization
framework. This framework was applied
to the analysis of the James Webb Space
Telescope where it was demonstrated that
a multifidelity approach can drastically
reduce analysis cycles for global sensitivity
analyses.
In June, the Multifidelity Modeling in
Support of Design and Uncertainty Quan-
tification workshop brought together 40
researchers and practitioners to discuss
multifidelity modeling challenges and op-
portunities and to highlight the progress
of multifidelity methods combining phys-
ics-based models and machine learning
for design optimization and uncertainty
quantification. ★

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 A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Airmen lower an
engine from a C-5M
Super Galaxy cargo jet
for maintenance at Dover
Air Force Base, Del. More
efficient tools developed
by the non-deterministic
approaches communi-
ty are maximizing the
service life and safety of
jet engines.
U.S. Air Force

Researchers advance probabilistic optimization. These new methods enable com-

putationally efficient implementations of robust

analysis for greater efficiency and safety optimization to ensure safe, efficient designs.
Fleet managers and regulators rely on probabilis-
tic risk analysis to make sure their systems continue
BY ANDREW OLLIK AINEN to maintain safety throughout their service life.
The Non-Deterministic Approaches Technical Committee advances the art, Broader application of these models relies on efficient
science and cross-cutting technologies required to advance aerospace modeling of material failure. In July, researchers from
systems with non-deterministic approaches. the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and

N
École Nationale Supérieur de Mécanique et d’Aero-
ext-generation aerospace systems aim for technique, Poitiers, France, began an analytic study
greater efficiency and safety. However, the of structural material deterministic and stochastic
ever-growing complexity of aerospace sys- failure criteria. Their work focuses on reducing the
tems brings increased test costs. Alternatives dimensionality of material failure analysis under
to traditional, hardware-focused testing complex loading.
are crucial to the cost-effectiveness of developing Following the in-service failure of a commercial
new technologies for flight. This presents significant jet engine in 2018, the non-deterministic approach-
challenges due to the presence of uncertainties es community has been engaged in supporting all
and increasingly expensive-to-evaluate simulation sectors of the aviation enterprise as it addresses the
models. unique challenges of engine sustainment. In May,
In January, the AIAA Certification by Analysis Southwest Research Institute of Texas released a soft-
Community of Practice chartered an international ware package to support the probabilistic damage
team of representatives from industry, academia tolerance methodology required by the upcoming
and governmental agencies to establish formal FAA Advisory Circular AC33.70-5 for FAA certification
guidelines for applying virtual flight modeling risk assessment of axial blade slots in aircraft engine
to reduce the burden of flight-testing. Among the disks containing random manufacturing-induced
areas of focus are model verification and validation anomalies. The methodology was implemented
methods and uncertainty quantification analysis. in the DARWIN probabilistic damage tolerance
Multifidelity methods that enhance information software (developed by SwRI). The software was
with cheaper lower-fidelity information sources are created under the guidance of an industry steering
key to making design optimization under uncertainty committee composed of major international aircraft
computationally feasible. In January, researchers gas turbine engine manufacturers. Released to the
from the multifidelity, multi-information source, steering committee for review in May, the software
multiphysics, or M3, team led by the Massachusetts will be available to licensed users in early 2020. In
Institute of Technology under the U.S. Air Force July, as part of a joint contract with the U.S. Air
Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Force Research Laboratory and the Probabilistic
introduced active learning methods through mul- Analysis Consortium for Engines, SwRI completed
tifidelity Efficient Global Reliability Analysis. In a multiyear project to develop new probabilistic
July, M3 introduced a novel Monte Carlo variance methods and tools for assessing uncertainty in
reduction method via the Information Reuse for turbine engine component life prediction in the
Importance Sampling in reliability-based design presence of limited data. ★

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A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Deployable structures expand the L3Harris Technologies also announced that it

has begun constructing its 100th deployable mesh
capabilities of small satellites reflector antenna. This 12-meter-diameter folded
rib reflector will be used in a European mission to
BY MARK SILVER
measure biomass and carbon in forests around the
world and is scheduled to launch in 2022. While
The Spacecraft Structures Technical Committee focuses on the unique
this milestone is an important one for L3Harris, it
challenges associated with the design, analysis, fabrication and testing of
spacecraft structures. is also an important milestone for the deployable
structures community because it demonstrates
how, with continuous development over the past
50 years, deployable spacecraft structures have
become much more widely accepted by the greater
satellite industry.
Elsewhere in the industry, in March DARPA
launched MMA Design’s 2.25 m-diameter Pan-
tograph Deployed High Gain Reflectarray, or
P-DaHGR, on the Radio Frequency Risk Reduction
Deployment Demonstration satellite. P-DaHGR,
developed and built at MMA’s Colorado facility,
offers high-performance, scalable RF capabili-
ties, from UHF to Ka-band, that are specifically
designed for small-satellite missions. The reflect
array technology can provide equivalent to perfor-
mance to more complex, parabolic-shaped dishes
for missions that do not require large bandwidths.
The use of high-strain composite deployable
mechanisms, which have thin composite materials
that can be rolled or folded, continued to accelerate
over the past year. In June, Roccor’s HSC drag sail
known as ROCFall was launched on the General
Atomics Orbital Test Bed satellite. ROCFall, devel-
oped and built at Roccor’s Colorado facility, will
be used to deorbit the satellite at the conclusion
of its operations in order to meet the 25-year low
Earth orbit lifetime guidelines.

A
Also in June, the crowd-funded LightSail-2
Artist’s rendering of s the role of small satellites in commercial, spacecraft from the Planetary Society was launched
L3Harris’ 5-meter-diam- research and government missions con- from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
eter High Compaction
tinues to grow, deployable structures are LightSail-2 is a 32-square-meter solar sail that uses
Ratio antenna. The design
scales from a 1-meter- further expanding their capabilities. New the energy of incident solar photons to provide a
diameter dish that fits small satellite capabilities that deployable propulsive force. While solar sail propulsion was
into a cubesat volume structures have enabled include high-gain antennas, first demonstrated in 2010 by the Japan Aerospace
to the 5-meter-diameter accelerated deorbit and solar sail propulsion. Exploration Agency’s IKAROS interplanetary
dish shown here, which
The year began with L3Harris Technologies mission, LightSail-2 is the first demonstration of
in stowed form takes
up one-tenth of a cubic of Florida introducing a new generation of high- solar sail propulsion in low Earth orbit.
meter, a fraction of a accuracy, large-aperture small satellite antennas In August, assembly of NASA’s James Webb
small-satellite volume. called the High Compaction Ratio, or HCR, reflec- Space Telescope was completed at Northrop
L3Harris
tor antenna. HCR ranges from a 1-meter reflector Grumman’s California factory. The final assembly
and feed that fits in a 20-by-10-by-10-centimeter step involved joining the Spacecraft Element and
volume suitable for cubesat applications, to a 5-m Optical Telescope Element/Integrated Science
reflector that packages in less than a quarter of an Instrument Module or OTIS. Once additional
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary tests are completed and Webb unfolds in space
Payload Adapter class satellite. The HCR reflector following its 2021 launch, it will be the largest
antenna is designed for high-frequency, high-gain space telescope and the first deployable space
performance of up to 40 gigahertz. It enables a fast telescope. ★
production turnaround to support small satellite
constellation development. Contributors: Phil Henderson and TJ Rose

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 A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Flapping flight breakthrough and the wingtips to be unlocked during flight, before the
demonstrator, based on the manufacturer’s A321

other advances plane, is scaled up further.

Turning to launch vehicles, in April the NASA
BY NATHAN FALKIEWICZ AND D. TODD GRIFFITH Engineering Safety Center examined the applicability
of QSMA, short for Quasi-Static Modal Analysis, for
The Structural Dynamics Technical Committee focuses on the interactions
among a host of forces on aircraft, rocket and spacecraft structures. modeling nonlinear structural dynamic behavior.

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As an alternative to direct integration of the non-
he year saw major developments in the struc- linear equations of motion, QSMA determines the
tural dynamics discipline across industry, dependence of frequency and damping on response
national labs and academia. amplitude using loading behavior from nonlinear
In the field of airplane design, Alba- static analyses. QSMA was exercised on a nonlinear
trossOne, a remote-controlled aircraft made model of test hardware developed for NASA’s Orion
by Airbus in collaboration with United Kingdom Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle program. Excellent
This Orion European universities including Bristol, flew for the first time agreement was observed between the reduced and
Service Module test in February. AlabtrossOne is a scale demonstrator full-order nonlinear models, encouraging future
article was used to with unique in-flight, flapping wingtips that could employment of QSMA to support accurate and
demonstrate application revolutionize wing design. The engineers developed efficient model reduction of structures with bolted
of Quasi-Static Modal
what they call a “semiaeroelastic hinge” concept to joint nonlinearities.
Analysis to a complex,
large-scale aerospace reduce drag and overall wing weight, while combating In August, the University of Texas at Dallas, in
structure. the effects of turbulence and wind gusts. The team collaboration with the University of Virginia, Na-
NASA plans to conduct further testing including allowing tional Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of
Colorado at Boulder, Colorado School of Mines and
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, com-
pleted installation of a one-fifth-scale demonstration
rotor for a new offshore wind turbine concept at
NREL’s National Wind Technology Center. The full-
scale design is a two-bladed, coned, downwind rotor
concept with 105-meter blades and rated power
of 13.2 megawatts. A key feature of the UT-Dallas
structural design is that the subscale 21-m blades are
designed having scaled stiffness, structural dynamics
and loads (including gravitational, centrifugal and
thrust) properties of the full-scale design matched
at subscale. This broad set of scaling requirements,
which is in addition to strict structural safety design
requirements, made this demonstrator design novel
and challenging. The team is focused on initial field
testing to validate the structural, aerodynamic and
aeroelastic performance characteristics of the new
concept rotor along with new control strategies for
loads reduction.
In the area of unmanned aerial systems, research-
ers from the University of Kentucky who are in the
VibroAcoustics Consortium made measurements
close to the surface of a hovering UAS and devel-
oped a process for predicting sound pressure levels
at any distance from the UAS. In addition, U.K.
researchers performed pass-by noise tests on UAS
that may eventually serve as a basis for standardized
measurements. Results were demonstrated to be
repeatable to within 1 decibel. UAS noise has been
identified as resulting primarily from the blade pass
frequency and harmonics. Mitigation approaches
for noise reduction of the primary source may take
several forms including blade design, operational
optimization and structural design. ★

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A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

Structures tested; modeling developed team developed a companion code, SwiftComp, as

constitutive modeling software for virtual structures
BY HARRY H. HILTON and materials testing, as well as for executing finite
element analysis codes for efficient, high-fidelity com-
The Structures Technical Committee works on the development
posite material modeling. This year, the MSG project
and application of theory, experiment and operation in the design
developed an MSG-based multiscale Timoshenko
of aerospace structures.
model, an efficient and accurate multiscale method
for predicting failure envelopes that uses MSG-based

Boeing
thermo-viscoelastic multiscale modeling and AI-as-
sisted, MSG-based multiscale modeling.
Arizona State University continued developing
a computationally efficient multiscale modeling
framework for nanoengineered composites. With sup-
port from the Office of Naval Research, investigators
studied material behavior across multiple length
scales while quantifying analysis uncertainty. These
efforts in nanotechnology led to the fabrication and
application of carbon nanotube-enhanced carbon
fiber reinforced polymer composites and nanoengi-
neered novel architectures (such as radially grown
fuzzy fiber composites). This approach was used
to characterize elevated-temperature mechanical

I
Boeing in January n July, NASA demonstrated that the Orion space- properties of thermosets reinforced with randomly
released an illustration craft launch abort system can jettison astronauts dispersed carbon nanotubes.
of its latest design for
to safety during launch emergencies. The test was GKN Fokker and Gulfstream continued to assess
the Transonic Truss-
Braced Wing aircraft it
another milestone for the Artemis program, which is thermoplastic composites as primary aircraft
is collaborating on with dedicated to sending Americans back to the moon and structures. High out-of-plane strength and sustain-
NASA. eventually to Mars. During the test, a representative ability/recyclability are some of the thermoplastic
Orion crew module was launched from Cape Canaveral advantages. Efforts to develop cost-effective man-
on a modified Peacekeeper missile built by Northrop ufacturing technologies continue across the globe
Grumman. The test version Orion experienced max- — particularly in the Netherlands.
imum expected high-stress aerodynamic loadings, Boeing continued to refine the design of the
traveled to a 6-mile (9.7-kilometer) altitude and reached proposed hypersonic, passenger-carrying airliner it
Mach 1.3 when the planned abort sequence triggered. unveiled at the 2018 AIAA Aviation Forum in Atlanta.
In June, NASA began structural testing of the It is similar to an uncrewed hypersonic surveillance
largest component for the United States’ new deep and reconnaissance concept the company presented
space rocket, the Space Launch System, at NASA’s in January; both have a general delta-wing configu-
Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The ration with dual rear fins, streamlined fuselage and
liquid hydrogen tank, which is 64.6 meters tall and sharp nose. The vehicle could travel at up to Mach
has a diameter of 8.4 m, comprises two-thirds of 5 and cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in two
the rocket’s core stage, and it holds, at minus 217 and three hours, respectively, Boeing said.
degrees Celsius, the approximately 2 million liters of Boeing made public its newest Transonic Truss-
supercooled liquid hydrogen necessary to power the Braced Wing design in January at the AIAA SciTech
RS-25 engines. During those tests, which wrapped Forum in San Diego. Researchers say this aircraft
up in September, dozens of hydraulic cylinders in would fly higher and faster than the previous TTBW
a 66-meter-tall test stand pushed and pulled the concepts. Originally, the TTBW was designed to fly
tank, subjecting the test article to the same stresses at Mach 0.70 to Mach 0.75; engineers modified the
endured during liftoff and flight. design for more aerodynamic efficiency while flying
The Mechanics of Structure Genome project at at Mach 0.80. By adjusting the wing sweep angle,
Purdue University continued its ongoing multiscale the resulting optimized truss can more efficiently
modeling effort that seeks to provide a new, unified carry lift, thus allowing designers to increase the
approach to modeling composite anisotropic heterog- wingspan to 51.8 m with a folding wing concept.
enous structures. MSG simplifies multiscale composite The integrated design is expected to increase the
modeling by determining and executing only necessary aircraft’s cruise speed. ★
analyses to sufficiently capture the relevant physics.
MSG also provides a rigorous yet efficient approach Contributors: Siddhant Datta, Zhenning Hu,
to handling complex buildup structures. The Purdue Bruce D. Willis, Michael Wolff and Wenbin Yu

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 A E R O S PAC E D E S I G N A N D S T R U C T U R E S

1000 aircraft at the Landing

and Impact Research Facility
in Virginia. The aircraft was
released from a height of 31
meters with significant verti-
cal and horizontal velocities.
The primary objective of the
test was the generation of
full-scale crash data in sup-
port of proposed FAA aircraft
crashworthiness guidelines.
Secondary objectives includ-
ed the evaluation of effects on
standard and advanced crash
test dummies designed for
increased biofidelity and with
enhanced instrumentation.
Reducing laser damage, acquiring The effects on these anthropomorphic test devices,
or ATDs, depended on the seat-to-floor load paths
aircraft crashworthiness data and structural deformation, which was measured by
onboard sensors and photogrammetric techniques.
BY AMEER G. MIKHAIL, BRIAN J. BARLOW AND JASON A. SAWDY
Langley researchers developed a 3D model of the
The Survivability Technical Committee promotes air and spacecraft crash for purposes of a simulation that will be im-
survivability as a design discipline that includes such factors as proved through a validation process. The aircraft
crashworthiness, combat and repairability. contained 24 ATDs, five of which were advanced

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experimental. The fuselage and dummies contained
he U.S. Air Force this year continued studying NASA researchers a total of 500 sensors to capture accelerations and
the effects of high-energy lasers on composite swung this Fokker F-28 loads. The test was conducted in cooperation with
MK1000 jet into terrain in
aircraft skins and testing mitigation technolo- the FAA. Additional partners included the U.S. Army,
June to measure the
gies against thermal damage. These tests un- effects on crash test the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
der the High Energy Laser program centered dummies and the and the National Transportation Safety Board.
on back surface fire, penetration vulnerability and structure. In the military space arena, the U.S. Defense
the screening of potential hardening technologies. NASA
Department in March created the Space Devel-
Results of this Joint Aircraft Survivability Program opment Agency to accelerate the development
Office effort will establish a baseline thermal radiant of next-generation small satellite architectures.
field. Various hardening technologies supplied by These proliferated constellations would be harder
the Air Force Research Laboratory, Naval Research to attack than the small number of large satellites
Laboratory and Air Force Institute of Technology that today provide critical services mainly through
were applied to structures to determine their ability the Air Force.
to mitigate or delay laser damage. NASA’s vision for landing humans on Mars by
The Air Force conducted tests on five fuel tanks the late 2030s hinges on achieving survivability to
of various sizes to gather data about their vulnera- two to three years of continuous weightlessness
bility to fuel vapor explosion due to threat-induced and bombardment by cosmic ionizing rays on the
tank ullage ignitions. Five tanks of 950- to 5,300- crew and their capsule. Until effective protective
liter capacity were studied, with testing on the fifth solutions such as astronaut suits and protective
tank completed in October. Ullage conditions and capsule can be developed, astronauts will make use
fuel temperatures were varied to determine ullage of the planned lunar Gateway as a staging station
overpressure ratio curves for each of the tanks. Tests for the eventual human mission to Mars. In May,
were conducted under pressure conditions ranging NASA awarded a contract to Maxar Technologies of
from ambient to under 28 kilopascal. Five hundred Colorado for the Gateway’s Power and Propulsion
tests were completed, and about 650 expected by the Element and in July to Northrop Grumman for the
end of the program. The data will aid the defense habitation module. In preparation, NASA plans to
industry in fuel tank design and structural integrity launch an uncrewed Orion module on a heavy-lift
studies and will be used in the Next Generation Fire Space Launch System rocket in late 2020, followed
Prediction Model. by the first launch with a crew in 2022. ★
In June, NASA’s Langley Research Center conduct-
ed a swing test into terrain with a Fokker F-28 MK- Contributor: Martin S. Annett

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Progress made on U.S. acquisition policy According to Mike Sievers, USC lecturer and
senior systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab
and technical fronts in California, “The USC lab’s work aims to develop
an open architecture and tool set that facilitates
BY JEFFRE Y NEWCAMP plug-and-play experimentation for cyber-physical
systems.” An open architecture for digital twins
The Systems Engineering Technical Committee supports efforts to define,
can expand the market for the technology because
develop and disseminate modern systems engineering practices.

S
creating digital twin platforms is expensive and
ystems engineering leapt ahead in 2019 time-consuming. Sievers and his colleagues be-
with the enactment of a United States Code lieve that digital twin progress this year has been
change, large advances in modular open instrumental for industry, government and uni-
systems architecture research capabilities versity developers. Open architecture could lead
for digital twin technology and a new U.S. to a watershed moment for system development,
Air Force strategy. as other technologies have recently experienced.
In January, Azad Madni, Carla Madni and Scott Building open architecture systems is analogous
Lucero published a comprehensive call to action to opening the floodgate.
for applying model-based systems engineering, or Starting Jan. 1, 10 U.S. Code section 2446a began
MBSE, to digital twin technology. MBSE gives sys- requiring any defense acquisition programs reaching
tems engineers another tool with which to develop Milestone A or Milestone B to design and implement
solutions for complex problems in the digital twin a modular open systems, or MOSA, approach. The
realm. The authors project that digital twins will Defense Department desires highly cohesive, loosely
continue to transcend the obvious applications for coupled and severable modules in new weapon sys-
aircraft and complex machines and grow in fields tems that will increase both flexibility and acquisition
like construction and real estate. This landmark competition. A team of researchers at the Air Force
publication inspired systems thinkers and reflected Research Laboratory’s Munitions Directorate at
the momentum that the topic gained this year. Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, spent 2019 expanding
In May, researchers led by Madni at the Univer- its take on a MOSA. They built the Munitions Open
sity of Southern California founded the Distributed Architecture Test and Evaluation Lab, or MOATEL,
Autonomy and Intelligent Systems Laboratory. where they can test interchangeability of components
According to Madni, executive director for the USC for kinetic weapons.
systems architecting and engineering program, “In MOATEL allows engineers to test adherence to
July, we demonstrated rudimentary digital twin 10 U.S. Code section 2446a and specifically targets
technology for multiquadcopter search missions. module interfaces. For example, MOATEL engineers
[Then] in September, we demonstrated rudimentary can test whether a newly acquired missile’s seeker
Aircraft manufacturers
digital twin technology for autonomous cars.” This can be replaced by a higher tech seeker without nega-
can perfect a design
before prototyping with
groundbreaking research showed the capability to tively impacting system performance. This capability
digital twins. collect data from the autonomous cars to populate may increase system lethality for the Department of
Siemens illustration the digital twin. Defense and decrease system lifecycle cost.
In April, then-Air Force Sec-
retary Heather Wilson released a
science and technology strategy
for the service. It focuses on sys-
tems-of-systems innovation, how
the service manages technological
projects and provides a call to
action for the future. Systems
engineering is a principal actor
to use for solving technical Air
Force problems and will be used
extensively during this strategy’s
implementation.
As 2020 overtakes 2019, the
systems engineering discipline
will become larger, more relevant
and more capable because of the
policy and progress achieved in
the past year. ★

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 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Increasing power, speed and mobility were also briefed at AIAA’s Aviation Forum in June.
Data from the Galveston flights is helping guide
without the negative impacts of noise researchers in preparation for community response
flights by NASA’s X-59 low boom demonstration aircraft.
BY NATHAN E. MURR AY
In July and August, NASA F/A-18 test aircraft flew
The Aeroacoustics Technical Committee addresses the noise produced by over the Mojave Desert where researchers from Volpe
the motion of fluids and bodies in the atmosphere and the responses of and Brigham Young University tested a 30-mile-long
humans and structures to this noise. microphone array in preparation for acoustic testing

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and validation of the X-59.
eeking to understand the interactional noise Turning to conventional jets, analyses of mea-
mechanisms associated with unmanned air sured flyover noise data from a full-scale Boeing
systems and urban air mobility vehicles, re- 737-7 with a NASA-designed advanced inlet acoustic
searchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in treatment demonstrated a 3.2 decibel cumulative
Virginia conducted experiments in September reduction in inlet noise. Research progressed this
in the Low Speed Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel. The re- year toward meeting NASA’s Advanced Air Transport
search team measured the aerodynamic and acoustic Technology goal of 4 db or 37% airframe noise re-
performance of multiple propellers interacting with duction for a high-lift tube and wing configuration.
a traversable, meaning moveable, wing geometry. This progress was enabled by a December 2018 test
In March, the U.S. Transportation Department’s in the 14-by-22-foot Subsonic Tunnel at Langley in
Volpe Center in Massachusetts, in conjunction with which a novel in-wall microphone array isolated
the Helicopter Association International HeliExpo slat noise from other noise sources. This array was
2019 and the Fly Neighborly Committee, released an recessed behind an acoustically transparent screen
online pilot and operator training program through to perform measurements on a 10%-scale high-lift
Co-rotating propellers aircraft model.
are tested in proximity to Sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research,
a traversable wing
researchers from Lockheed Martin, Spiritech and
geometry in the Low
Speed Aeroacoustic
Penn State completed an investigation of the noise
Wind Tunnel at reduction potential of Spiritech’s STAR, for Multi-
NASA’s Langley Research Stream Coupled Throat Variable Rotating, nozzle
Center to assess acoustic concept. The May results showed significant noise
directivity and amplitude
reductions for static takeoff engine power settings
sensitivity to parameters
including relative phasing
when compared with contemporary tactical aircraft
of the propellers as well jet exhaust nozzles.
as spatial location of the website of the FAA WINGS pilot proficiency pro- Also this year, significant facility advancements
the wing relative to the gram. Aircraft noise data and modeling developed in were made. Specifically, improved microphone ar-
propeller disks.
partnership with NASA, FAA and the U.S. Army was ray measurements were realized in May when ATA
NASA
inserted directly into the WINGS training program to Engineering and the University of California, Irvine,
help pilots fly quieter. performed jet noise measurements using a collection
With funding from Uber Elevate, the Advanced of both stationary and continuously moving micro-
Acoustic Model simulation tool, a computer program phones. The technique approached the theoretical
that calculates community noise from aircraft flight limits of a continuous series of sensors using only a
operations, was updated in May by Volpe to support modest number of microphones.
research in the assessment of community noise and Advancements in aeroacoustic wind tunnel testing
audibility of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. were realized in June when NASA’s Glenn Research
In June and July, NASA and FAA conducted he- Center in Cleveland completed a renovation of the
licopter noise abatement tests at Coyle Field, New 9-by-15-foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel using a novel
Jersey, with a Sikorsky S-76D, a U.S. Coast Guard “aerodynamically smooth but acoustically transpar-
HH-65 Dolphin (a variant of the commercial Airbus ent” surface developed in collaboration with Jacobs
AS365 Dauphin), a Leonardo AW139 and a Bell 205 Engineering and Virginia Tech. The new lining makes
with the goal of improving community acceptance the walls of the tunnel seem acoustically invisible and
of helicopter operations. virtually eliminates the problem of separating the
In the area of supersonic flight, researchers briefed noise of the wind tunnel itself from the noise of the
the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Work- flow over the test article mounted inside the tunnel.★
ing Group 1, which is concerned with aircraft noise,
in April about the results of the November 2018 sonic Contributors: Christopher Bahr, Cliff Brown, David
thump community response testing in Galveston, Lockard, Doug Nark, Eric Nesbitt, Juliet Page, Tony Pilon,
Texas. The results of the flights by NASA F/A-18 jets Parthiv Shah, Jonathan Rathsam and Nik Zawodny

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 19

A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Enabling diagnostics for opaque flows, and temperature-sensitive paint, or cntTSP, can
measure boundary-layer transition on complex 3D
complex surfaces and nonintrusive flow wind tunnel models, since the carbon nanotube
layers create homogeneously distributed surface
measurements heating. The cntTSP sensor can visualize the sur-
face boundary-layer temperature distribution that
BY THOMAS P. JENKINS AND DAVID H. PLEMMONS
arises due to the different heat transfer coefficients
The Aerodynamic Measurement Technology Technical Committee advances for laminar and turbulent flow. A wide area of in-
measurement technology for ground facilities and aircraft in flight. terest for the use of cntTSP is the integration of the
different cntTSP layers into complex 3D geome-

I
n January, Huixuan Wu’s group at the University tries like nacelles, which the aircraft industry needs
of Kansas demonstrated a novel magnetic par- to improve the data quality of wind tunnel tests. In
ticle tracking technology, or MPT. Unlike other the research, DLR investigated the applicability of
advanced flow diagnostic methods, MPT tracks cntTSP to a generic nacelle at the cryogenic test fa-
an object with a magnetic field. It does not rely on cility Pilot European Transonic Wind Tunnel. The
optics and can be used in a completely opaque en- team achieved flow visualization of the laminar to
vironment. Meanwhile, it does not involve radioac- turbulent boundary-layer transition appearing on
tive materials or X-rays, so the operation is safe and the nacelle.
easy. Although this idea dates back to at least the In July, as part of a U.S. Air Force-sponsored
1990s, previous researchers relied on optimization project, MetroLaser Inc. demonstrated a diagnos-
algorithms to reconstruct the particle trajectory. tic method for spatially resolved simultaneous
However, optimization is time-consuming, which measurements of density and velocity that can
limits its application. Wu’s group replaced the op- be applied to supersonic flows and that does not
timization-based approach with the use of a non- require flow seeding. The method, named two-
linear Kalman filter, which increased the speed of cell filtered Rayleigh scattering, involves illumi-
Two-dimensional reconstruction by three orders of magnitude and nating the measurement region with a laser sheet
images of the increased the accuracy and resolution. In May, the and measuring Rayleigh-scattered light from the
freestream-normalized
University of Kansas team applied the MPT tech- flow with two cameras, each filtered by an iodine
density (a) and the ve-
locity (b) of a supersonic nique to investigate a sheared dense granular flow vapor cell of a different pressure. The methodolo-
coflow jet consisting of a in a Couette cell. They observed many interesting gy is based on a mathematical model that relates
fast-moving core flow and phenomena, such as the tendency of horizontal the Rayleigh-scattered light collected through the
a surrounding slower con- alignment of rods in the flow. filter to the pressure, temperature and velocity of
centric flow. The coflow jet
In April, DLR, the German Aerospace Center, the flow. The model was used to convert the mea-
is used for demonstrating
these nonintrusive flow applied temperature-sensitive paint to engine sured light intensities to density and velocity for
diagnostics. nacelles to investigate laminar-to-turbulent tran- each point in a 2D image of the flow. MetroLaser
MetroLaser Inc. sition. The combination of carbon nanotubes demonstrated the technique on a supersonic co-
flow jet and correctly captured
the 2D density field both spatial-
ly and quantitatively. The team
also demonstrated feasibility of
measuring the 2D velocity field,
but limitations in the simplified
image registration method used
for this feasibility study result-
ed in some errors in the spatial
velocity distribution. The use of
more rigorous image registration
methods, along with suggested
improvements in the selection of
iodine cell pressures, should en-
able the method to achieve an es-
timated 4% accuracy in both den-
sity and velocity in an optimized
system. ★

Contributors: Christian Klein

and Huixuan Wu

20 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Testing designs to increase aircraft Whether a helicopter station keeps above a

highway to report the traffic or stays in close prox-
fuel efficiency imity to the side of a mountain to deliver supplies
to a remote community, hover is an elegant and
BY NATHAN HARIHARAN
complicated flight condition. Numerical simulation
The Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee emphasizes the of hover is full of challenges but offers the reward
development, application and evaluation of concepts and methods using of great understanding of performance and loads.
theories, wind tunnel experiments and flight tests. Better understanding will lead to more efficient,
capable and safer rotor designs. The upcoming
NASA-sponsored tests at the National Full-Scale
Aerodynamics Complex at NASA’s Ames Research
Center in California will offer an even richer data
set for code and process benchmarking. These tests
are scheduled for mid- to late 2020.
In August, NASA and Boeing, as part of the High
Aspect Ratio Wing Subproject within the NASA
Advanced Air Transport Technology Project, com-
pleted tests on the 4.5%-scale, Mach 0.80 Transonic
Truss-Braced Wing, or TTBW, model in the Ames
11-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel. The objectives
were to acquire a test database to validate the
aerodynamic performance and vehicle stability and
control characteristics. Force and moment, surface
pressure, model deformation, oil flow visualization
and drag rise data were collected to support the as-

A
sessment of stability and control characteristics. Data
A NASA-Boeing 4.5% new NASA design method, referred to as were obtained at Reynolds numbers ranging from
scale of a Transonic
Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar 2 million to 8 million per foot and Mach numbers
Truss-Braced Wing air-
craft is tested in the
Flow, was model-tested in June in the Na- ranging from 0.2 to 0.92. The TTBW concept shows
11-Foot Transonic Tunnel tional Transonic Facility, a high-pressure, promising fuel burn benefits toward meeting NASA
at NASA’s Ames cryogenic wind tunnel at NASA’s Langley system level metrics.
Research Center. Research Center in Virginia. CATNLF carefully de- In May, a new active flow control innovation
Boeing/NASA
signs the leading-edge shape of the wing to enable was tested under NASA’s Advanced Air Transport
natural laminar flow on typical transport wings with Technology project, using a 10%-scale high-lift
high sweep and Reynolds numbers. Laminar flow version of the Common Research Model with
has been studied for decades because of its promise simple-hinged flaps at Langley’s 14- by 22-Foot
for reducing fuel burn via decreased aircraft drag. Subsonic Wind Tunnel. The objective of the test
Laminar flow on typical transport wings would was to investigate a novel high-lift method that
provide the largest performance benefit, but previ- eliminates Fowler-flap mechanism and external
ous laminar flow strategies required the vehicle to fairing on a conventional high-lift configuration.
either fly slower or add a complex suction system, High-lift configurations are needed only during
and both penalties made the technology too costly takeoff and landing phases of any flight and are
to buy its way onto the aircraft. typically retracted during cruise phase of the
Transition visualization techniques used in the flight. Eliminating external fairings associated with
June wind tunnel test showed a near doubling of the conventional Fowler-flaps reduces the drag during
extent of laminar flow over the extents previously the cruise phase of the flight and saves fuel. The
seen in any natural laminar flow experiment on active flow control innovation, High Efficiency
wings with comparable sweep. Encouraging wind Low Power actuators, achieved a targeted lift co-
tunnel results have spawned a series of flight tests efficient increase of 0.50 using a moderate amount
to further advance the CATNLF technology in flight of mass flow and air pressure. The simple-hinged
environment. flap configuration equipped with this actuation
In January, rotorcraft researchers reported making technology was able to match or exceed the lift
significant strides in determining the importance performance of the reference conventional high-
of flow transition and understanding mechanisms lift configuration. ★
of vortex-wake breakdown. The findings were
published at AIAA’s Hover Prediction Workshop in Contributors: John Lin, Michelle Lind,
San Diego. Latunia Melton and Robert Narducci

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 21

A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

In June, the U.S. Air Force Research

Laboratory launched its Demonstration
and Science Experiments, or DSX, mis-
sion to study the radiation environment
of near-Earth space. By July, the mission
had unfurled its long antenna booms, in-
cluding one pair measuring 80 m (262 feet)
tip-to-tip, to become the largest uncrewed
three-axis stabilized spacecraft ever flown.
In February, OneWeb moved closer to
its goal of providing global internet ser-
vices with the launch of its first six sat-
ellites. The satellites were raised to their
final 1,200 km orbit and demonstrated
data rates up to 400 megabytes per second.
These satellites represent the first of an ini-
tial constellation of 650 satellites that will
ultimately grow to a total of 1,980 satellites.

A year of exploration and SpaceX reached a similar milestone in May when it

launched the first 60 satellites of the Starlink con-

commercialization of space stellation into orbit. Starlink seeks to also provide

global broadband services with an approved con-
BY BRIAN C. GUNTER stellation of nearly 12,000 satellites in orbits rang-
ing in altitude from 340 km to 1,150 km. In July,
The Astrodynamics Technical Committee advances the science of trajectory
Amazon’s Kuiper Systems proposed an additional
determination, prediction and adjustment, and also spacecraft navigation
broadband constellation of 3,236 satellites, with all
and attitude determination.
satellites targeting an altitude below 630 km. If all

T
A stack of 60 Star- he astrodynamics community was active three “megaconstellations” reach full implemen-
link satellites ready in a number of exploratory and commer- tation, this would represent 17,000 new orbiting
for launch. SpaceX cialization efforts this year, starting with satellites, significantly increasing the number of
has approval to launch
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s January objects in low Earth orbit and highlighting policy
about 12,000 global
broadband satellites. flyby of Ultima Thule. Following the flyby of Plu- concerns regarding regulation of space activity and
Starlink to by New Horizons in 2015, the encounter with orbital debris.
Ultima Thule, a binary Kuiper Belt object orbit- The private utilization of space took anoth-
ing approximately 6.6 billion kilometers from the er step forward when the Beresheet mission
sun, represents the most distant planetary body launched in February and attempted to land on
ever reached by a spacecraft and returned valu- the lunar surface. Israeli-based nonprofit SpaceIL
able imagery and other data regarding these re- developed the mission, and although the lander
mote and ancient objects. ultimately crashed during the final descent phase,
Exploration of the solar system continued with it represented the first attempt by a private enti-
other notable achievements from ongoing deep- ty to land a payload on the moon. Another lunar
space missions, such as the close approaches to milestone was achieved a few weeks earlier when
the sun by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (the third China’s Chang’e-4 was the first to place a lander
of which was in September) and multiple touch- and rover on the far side of the moon in January. A
downs and sample-collection maneuvers by the separate effort by the Indian Space Research Orga-
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hyabusa2 nization to place the Vikram lander on the lunar
mission at the Ryugu asteroid. surface was attempted in July, nearly coinciding
While not a deep-space mission, the crowd- with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo lunar land-
funded LightSail 2 mission developed by the ing. Communications were lost with the lander
California-based Planetary Society deployed its during the descent; however, the primary lunar or-
32-square-meter solar sail in July and later verified biter, Chandarayaan-2, was fully operational as of
that the satellite was able to raise its apogee by the November and was to proceed with its seven-year
solar radiation pressure on the sail. By demon- mission to study the composition of the lunar sur-
strating “flight by light” for cubesats, the mission face. These international attempts to return to the
has paved the way for future small satellites to ex- moon, complemented by NASA’s Artemis lunar ex-
plore the solar system without the use of tradition- ploration program, show the global renewed inter-
al propulsion systems. est in lunar research and exploration. ★

22 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

The XQ-58A Valkyrie

demonstrator complet-
ed its inaugural flight in
March at Yuma Proving
Ground, Arizona.
U.S. Air Force

Paving the way for autonomous weapons, vehicle fabrication was underway with the plan of
the first test flight from Cecil Spaceport in Jackson-
hypersonics, human spaceflight ville, Florida, in early 2020.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-1 launched
BY CHRISTOPHER D. K ARLGAARD
on a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Kennedy Space Center
The Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee addresses the on Feb. 28 before docking with the International
aerodynamic performance, trajectories and attitude dynamics of aircraft, Space Station on March 3. The uncrewed orbital
spacecraft, boosters and entry vehicles. flight test carried cargo and a simulated passen-
ger. It then undocked on March 8, reentered the

I
n March, the U.S. Air Force’s XQ-58A Valkyrie atmosphere and splashed down in the Atlantic
unmanned combat aerial vehicle took off from Ocean. The success of this test was a milestone in
Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on its first the SpaceX Crew Dragon program, paving the way
flight. San Diego-based Kratos Defense and Se- for a flight test with crew for the Demo-2 mission.
curity Solutions designed and built the XQ-58A In April, the Crew Dragon capsule that flew for the
under contract with the Air Force Research Lab- Demo-1 flight test was destroyed during a ground
oratory as a low-cost strike aircraft demonstration test of the SuperDraco engines, the abort engines
vehicle. The contract was awarded in July 2016. that would carry the Crew Dragon away from a
The Valkyrie design incorporates stealth technol- failing Falcon during launch.
ogy that can carry weapons or surveillance pay- NASA’s Orion program tested its Launch Abort
loads. Four more flight tests are planned in order System, or LAS, in July. The Ascent Abort-2 flight
to further evaluate the vehicle’s performance. test was launched on a modified Peacekeeper
AFRL’s X-60A hypersonic research vehicle pro- first-stage missile from Kennedy Space Center
gram completed its critical design review early in in Florida. The booster carried the capsule and
2019. The X-60A is an air-dropped, single-stage, LAS to an altitude of approximately 30,000 feet at
suborbital vehicle powered by a liquid-fueled rock- Mach 1.15. The LAS then initiated the abort flight
et motor. It was designed as a research platform test, pulling the Orion capsule test article away
for conducting flight tests of hypersonics technol- from the booster and reorienting the vehicle for
ogy in the range of Mach 5-8 at altitudes between splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean. Data ac-
70,000 to 130,000 feet (20-40 kilometers). The X-60A quired during the July test will be used to validate
is designed to be dropped from a NASA C-20A air- preflight models and to prepare for the Artemis-1
craft. AFRL is conducting the project in partnership mission in which a Space Launch System rocket
with Atlanta-based Generation Orbit Launch Ser- will boost an uncrewed Orion capsule around the
vices Inc. With the critical design review complete, moon. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 23

A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Experimental-numerical campaigns give visualizations and pressure measurements at

Mach 2. Results showed that a shock emanating from

insight into complex fluid phenomena the wedge impinges on and wraps around the body
leading to crossflow separation and reattachment,
BY DAVID GONZÁLEZ AND ALBERT MEDINA features that greatly differ from the well-document-
ed 2D/3D canonical shock-wave boundary-layer in-
The Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee focuses on the behaviors
teractions configurations on flat surfaces.
of liquids and gases in motion, and how those behaviors can be
Integrated approaches employing complemen-
harnessed in aerospace systems.
tary experimental and numerical campaigns such
as that described above continue to provide fun-
damental insight. These are critical to developing a
deeper understanding of high-speed fluid dynamic
phenomena and enable the formulation of highly
accurate modeling and advancement of simulation
capabilities. Such complex-modeling proficiencies
will facilitate the development of materials suitable
for the austere environments, the development of
potential flow control techniques to mitigate heat
transfer in key areas of interest and the efficient de-
sign of next-generation high-speed flight vehicles.
Regarding low-speed aerodynamics, research-
ers at AFRL pioneered the use of large-eddy simu-
lation to study the flow processes leading to the on-

A
First-ever measure- dvances in the field of fluid mechanics set of stall for a rapidly pitching airfoil. This effort,
ments of hypersonic serve as testament to the breadth and rigor completed in March, highlighted the importance
boundary-layer transition
of the discipline, with contributions span- of understanding the unsteady boundary layer
on a straight cone under
fully quiet flow conditions.
ning all regimes from low-speed to hyper- development as the pitching airfoil approaches
Heating to the wind tunnel sonics. In a first, researchers at Purdue University the dynamic stall event. The researchers applied
model surface starting observed a hypersonic boundary-layer transition large-eddy simulation over a range of Reynolds and
at 108 cm is caused by on a 2.5-degree half-angle straight cone under fully Mach numbers as well as to finite wings, including
the flow near the surface
quiet flow conditions. These experiments in Feb- sweep effects and standard wind tunnel end-plate
transitioning from smooth,
laminar flow to chaotic,
ruary at the Boeing/Air Force Office of Scientific conditions. The technique resolved a highly com-
turbulent flow. Research Mach-6 Quiet Tunnel documented the plex flow field in which a transitioning, separated,
Purdue University growth, breakdown and transition to turbulence nonequilibrium boundary layer interacts with a
of the second-mode instability. This mechanism locally supersonic flow. The research resulted in an
dominates laminar-turbulent boundary layer tran- innovative flow control concept and insight into the
sition in hypersonic flows and is characterized by unsteady interactions responsible for the dynamic
a trapped acoustic wave. Researchers observed stall event.
the primary manifestation of the increase of heat Between September 2018 and May 2019, re-
transfer near transition onset and its continual sub- searchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in
sequent increase until the end of the cone. New Mexico developed physics-constrained ma-
Shock-wave boundary-layer interactions are chine learning algorithms for spatio-temporal
ubiquitous in high-speed flows, existing on internal modeling of turbulence, owing to a paucity of ma-
and external surfaces of a supersonic/hypersonic chine learning algorithms capable of effectively
flight vehicle. These interactions result in flow sep- modeling 3D datasets. Specifically, they developed
aration, vortical structure formation, pressure loss- neural networks with a combination of convolu-
es, induced pitching moments and other effects tional and recurrent architectures that account
that are often detrimental to the vehicle’s opera- for spatial and temporal nonlinearities in fluids.
tion. Researchers at Florida A&M University, Flori- The resulting model can replicate high-fidelity 3D
da State University and the U.S. Air Force Research turbulence at a computational cost several orders
Laboratory collaborated in April and May in a study of magnitude lower than traditional numerical
involving high-fidelity experiments and numeri- schemes. The performance of these learning algo-
cal simulations for the Air Force Office of Scientific rithms was quantified on well-known cases in tur-
Research to understand the flow physics associat- bulence with strong physics-based metrics. ★
ed with shock-wave boundary-layer interactions
and shock-shock interactions on an axisymmet- Contributors: Stuart Benton, Brandon Chynoweth,
ric configuration. The researchers performed flow Rajan Kumar, Arvind Mohan and Steven Schneider

24 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Facility improvements make progress dynamics Complex at Moffett Field, California,

while also executing several test programs in the
amid heavy year of ground testing facility’s 40-by-80-foot Wind Tunnel in 2019. The
complex suffered a Class A mishap in June 2017
BY PAT GOULDING II
that destroyed all blades on one of its six fan mo-
The Ground Testing Technical Committee focuses on evaluating aircraft, tors. The team continued efforts throughout 2019
launch vehicles, spacecraft, structures and engines in wind tunnels and to repair and retrofit the 80-by-120-foot Wind
other facilities. Tunnel — the largest wind tunnel in the world
— with the intent of restoring the test capability

T
he ground test community saw significant by early 2020. Efforts are also ongoing to design,
facility investments and improvements in procure and install a complete new set of fan
2019, building on efforts begun in previous blades on all six drive motors. This will restore
years, and produced an impressive array of the facility test capability to levels from before
critical test data. the 2017 mishap and drastically extend the ser-
NASA began final verification in September vice life of the drive system.
on its largest investment in aeronautics research Facility improvement projects proceeded in-
in several years — the acoustic improvements to ternationally as well. Throughout 2019, JAXA, the
the 9-by-15-foot Wind Tunnel facility at NASA’s Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, continued
Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Final com- to improve the performance of its new bird-strike
missioning was expected to occur in December. It test apparatus at Chofu and to work toward for-
will cap nearly two years of work to retrofit exist- mal commissioning in 2020. The structure was
ing portions of the wind tunnel circuit and replace installed in March 2018 and uses precisely cali-
the flow liner material in the test section in order brated gelatin balls of specified density to simu-
to reduce background noise by up to 9.3 decibels. late bird strikes. It boasts a test speed range of 50
This dramatic improvement in noise attenuation to 400 meters per second (112-895 mph). JAXA
will permit more accurate test and evaluation of also spearheaded efforts to advance wind tunnel
newer and quieter turbofan propulsion systems, wall interference correction capabilities by ex-
ensuring the facility remains viable and retains panding existing 3D wall panel method codes to
The newly modified
test section in the 9-by-
its status as a premier acoustics research asset for incorporate the unique boundary characteristics
15-foot Wind Tunnel at propulsion systems for decades to come. Custom- of Kevlar wall tunnels. Initial results showed excel-
NASA’s Glenn Research er testing was scheduled to resume in December, lent agreement, and the method stands to provide
Center has an improved following the final commissioning. significant insight to future test customers across
acoustic liner to minimize
Meanwhile, a team from the U.S. Air Force’s a broad array of facilities.
tunnel background noise
and improve acoustic
Arnold Engineering Development Complex con- Back in the United States, NASA saw signifi-
measurement quality. tinued to make progress toward restoring full cant test achievements, particularly in programs
NASA test capabilities at the National Full-Scale Aero- at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia and
NASA’s Ames Research Center
in California. Teams at Langley
completed extensive testing re-
lated to NASA’s Space Launch
System. This testing, complet-
ed in June, included deploy-
ment of a novel laser-based
flow visualization technique in
the Langley Unitary Plan Wind
Tunnel as well as low-speed
lift-off and transition testing
in the 14-by-22-foot Wind Tun-
nel. NASA also ran several tests
at Langley, Glenn and Ames
from March to September that
involved iterations of NASA’s
Common Research Model,
studying high lift, laminar flow
and acoustic characteristics. ★

Contributor: David Stark

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 25

A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

AI advances military drone effectiveness, out: the use of a rotorcraft and autonomous nav-
igation. Dragonfly has an approximate 10-times
lunar exploration advantage in power-to-weight ratio on Titan as
compared to Earth. Dragonfly will have inertial
BY UDAY J. SHANK AR AND KEVIN P. BOLLINO and terrain-relative navigation with an inertial
The Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee advances measurement unit and optical sensors, enabling
techniques, devices and systems for guiding and commanding flight vehicles. navigation and hazard detection in a feature-poor
terrain with soft and diffused lighting. This matu-

I
The Dragonfly rotorcraft ntelligent automatic control relies heavily on ration of drones follows the development of min-
will sample materials artificial intelligence and machine learning. iature sensors, autopilots and hazard-detection
and determine surface The U.S. Department of Defense is making ma- methods. Dragonfly will be launched in 2026 and
composition in different
jor progress in research and development in the arrive on Titan in 2034.
geologic settings on
Saturn’s Titan moon. field of autonomy amid a renewed emphasis on In the 50th anniversary year of Apollo 11,
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics robotics and autonomous systems. three missions sought to land on the moon, with
Laboratory
In March, William Roper, assistant secretary a fourth planned for launch. In January, China’s
of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology Chang’e-4 became the first spacecraft to land on
and logistics, announced Skyborg, the Air Force’s the far side of the moon. The lander released a
future AI-enabled fleet for unmanned combat ae- rover, Yutu-2, which is exploring the basin of the
rial vehicles. Skyborg will augment crewed fighter Van Karman crater. The Queqiao relay satellite
jets with autonomous drones as their “wingmen.” — the first satellite in a halo orbit at the Earth-
This ongoing pursuit of fully autonomous aircraft moon L2 Lagrangian point — relays communi-
that leverage AI and machine learning focuses not cations between ground stations and the space-
only on the combat systems but also on the infra- craft. In contrast to the success of Chang’e-4, the
structure and development environment such as Israeli Beresheet and the Indian Vikram landers
networks and cloud servers to improve overall air- crashed during final descent to the moon. In April,
craft effectiveness. during Beresheet’s critical landing phase, it ap-
In another AI-related initiative, the Air Force is pears its inertial measurement unit reset, shutting
developing the Air Force Cognitive Engine soft- down the main engines. In September, the Vikram
ware application, which was in beta testing in lander appeared to have a nominal descent until
April, as its core infrastructure for AI development its fine breaking phase, when communication was
to stimulate technological advancements in air- lost. The Indian Space Research Organization is
craft, spacecraft and missiles. still looking for answers. Meanwhile, the co-man-
For its next New Frontiers mission, NASA ifested Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, which reached its
selected the Dragonfly rotorcraft in June to ex- lunar orbit in August, is functioning well. Finally,
plore the icy, unique and richly organic world in December, China was scheduled to launch the
of Titan, Saturn’s moon. From a guidance, nav- Chang’e-5 lander and sample return — the first
igation and control perspective, two items stand since Luna-24 in 1976. ★

26 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Achieving advanced CFD capabilities Design in Virtual and Augmented Reality toolKit,
or AArDVARK, an engineering-oriented virtual and
with high-performance computers augmented-reality framework leveraging the CAPS
infrastructure, demonstrated several relevant appli-
BY JAMES MASTERS AND CAROLYN WOEBER
cations, ranging from packaging to modal analysis.
The Meshing, Visualization and Computational Environments Technical These demonstrations highlighted how the appro-
Committee explores the application of computer science to pre- priate utilization of virtual reality can augment tra-
processing, post-processing and infrastructure in support of ditional engineering analysis techniques.
computational simulation in the aerospace community.
Also on the computational environments front,
the Computational Research and Engineering
Acquisition Tools and Environments program re-
leased version 10.0 of Kestrel in May and version
10.1 in August. Support for axisymmetric 2D flow
solutions was added to the primary finite volume
flow solver in version 10.0 and to the high-order fi-
nite element solver in version 10.1. This allowed for
3D bodies of revolution to be simulated in 2D while
still reporting loads consistent with the full 3D con-
figuration. With the newest versions, it is also possi-
ble to restart a simulation with a different mesh sys-
tem and visualization error from the Mach Hessian.
High-order meshing algorithms continued to

A
A CFD grid with 2.4 s problem size and complexity increases, make significant progress. In June, researchers at
million surface triangles the meshing community continues to grap- Mississippi State University demonstrated an ad-
and 202 million volume ple with effective utilization of high-perfor- vancing-layer method for generating curved bound-
cells was generated
mance computing platforms, which was ary layer meshes. Pointwise entered its second year
on a U.S. Navy F/A-18E
Super Hornet with the one of the impediments laid out in NASA’s Computa- of a NASA Phase II SBIR to develop a high-order mesh
landing gear extended tional Fluid Dynamics Vision 2030 study. In January, capability that involves mixed-order degree eleva-
using NASA’s TetrUSS representatives from Pointwise, Symmetric, Cascade tion and adaptation. High-order mesh generation up
grid-generation soft- Technologies and Cambridge Flow Solutions made to degree three is also now available in Capstone, as
ware. The image depicts
strides toward this goal by demonstrating the ability well as the corresponding high-order visualization.
iso-surfaces of vorticity
colored by pressure and to generate and process meshes up to 13 billion el- MIT, Pointwise and Intelligent Light also continued
clearly shows that the ements. Exascale computing on extremely large data to explore high-order visualization. Intelligent Light
wake from the landing sets was further addressed in June when compression won a Phase II SBIR in June to pursue visualization
gear and doors extends algorithms developed at Oak Ridge National Lab- for high-order simulations.
far downstream.
oratories in Tennessee demonstrated the ability to In January, Capstone released version 10,
U.S. Navy
compress time-accurate, unsteady, CFD data from which includes hexahedral elements in the
4.7 terabytes to 568 gigabytes. And Tecplot’s sub- boundary layer and tangential adaptivity for
zone load-on-demand data structure allowed tran- boundary layers, allowing users to generate auto-
sient solutions of 10 billion elements to be saved and matic smooth transitions with the unstructured
stored on an engineering workstation. mesh. Version 10 also enhanced geometry capa-
New Jersey-based Intelligent Light, funded by a bility with new repair techniques.
U.S. Department of Energy Phase II Small Business Pointwise completed an SBIR Phase I contract
Innovation Research grant, developed an uncertain- for the U.S. Air Force in March that focused on access
ty quantification proof-of-concept for large datasets to computational geometry from within the flow
called Spectre-UQ, which demonstrated in January solver. MeshLink, an open source library released
a technique to arrive at the total uncertainty for a in May as part of the contract, solves the problem of
numerical study. geometry-mesh associativity while providing sim-
Computational environments enabling rapid plified access to the supporting geometry during
multidisciplinary design are becoming increasing- mesh manipulation and adaptation.
ly important. In response to this trend, the Com- Finally, researchers from the French National
putational Aircraft Prototype Syntheses research Research Institute made a significant advance-
program, of which the Massachusetts Institute of ment in turbomachinery applications when
Technology and Syracuse University are primary they demonstrated the viability and efficiency of
developers, provided infrastructure to enable mul- unstructured anisotropic mesh adaptation tech-
tifidelity, multidisciplinary, physics-based air- niques to turbomachinery applications including
craft design. In June, the Aerospace Analysis and internal regions with periodic boundaries. ★

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A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Training pilots to handle the worst with August design review. A four-passenger cockpit
with a wrap-around visual system was mated to

realistic simulators the center’s vertical motion simulator. The Vertical

Motion Simulator’s large amplitude motion system
BY DANIEL KEATING enables researchers to explore ride quality in a safe
and cost-effective manner.
The Modeling and Simulation Technical Committee focuses on simulation of
Also, eye-tracking technologies are rapidly
atmospheric and spaceflight conditions to train crews and support design
advancing and finding applications in flight simula-
and development of aerospace systems.

I
tion and training. Several companies are providing
n March, all pilots from scheduled air carriers in eye-tracking systems to measure pilots’ focus in
the United States began using flight simulators response to various stimuli. A study was conducted
to meet federally mandated upset prevention and in August with a level-D full flight simulator — the
recovery training requirements. The FAA ordered highest standard, which includes motion feedback
the simulator training before the two Boeing 737 — at a U.S.-based airline. Eye tracking was used to
MAX crashes that have been attributed to loss of determine the effects of having the flight director
control. Meeting these requirements should improve (the roll and pitch attitude guidance on the primary
the airline safety record, as the rare occurrences of flight display) on or off on pilots’ ability to monitor
loss-of-control in flight still represent the leading the flight path effectively. This study was part of
cause of fatalities in the worldwide commercial a joint FAA/Ames project toward improving pilot
jet fleet. From 2016 to 2019, the FAA approved 400 training for flight path monitoring. Further research
simulators for training after improvements in the is required to identify the usefulness of eye tracking
machines’ aerodynamic modeling. To date, the in training.
overwhelming feedback from airline pilots who Virtual reality technologies from the gaming
have taken the training has been positive. industry are beginning to make their way into various
Turning to urban air mobility, which NASA aspects of flight simulation, and training applications
defines as a safe and efficient system for air pas- in particular. Airline applications include cabin crew
senger and cargo transportation within an urban training, maintenance training and special-purpose
area, passenger acceptance is one of the many pilot training, such as head-up display familiarization
challenges to it becoming a reality. To help ad- where the optics are focused at infinity. At NASA, the
View from inside the
dress this challenge, NASA’s Ames Research Center use of VR for astronaut training will increase with
cockpit of the Ride Quali-
ties Cab simulator cabin.
in California this year prepared a new simulator new training requirements being introduced for
NASA cabin called Ride Qualities Cab to run with the long-duration space missions. In addition, the Air
center’s Vertical Motion Simulator, following an Force is looking to increase the use of VR to bridge
the training-to-experi-
ence gap. An experiment
was performed at Ames
in September to inves-
tigate how performing
a roll control task in VR
compares to performing
the task in a simulator
with conventional visu-
als, and if pilots’ utiliza-
tion of peripheral visual
cues is different. Another
experiment focused on
determining the visu-
al-motion thresholds
for VR sickness, which
is still the biggest factor
preventing the technol-
ogy from reaching its full
potential for training. ★

Contributors: Steven
Beard, Jeffery Schroeder
and Peter Zaal

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Promising technologies from plasmas, of the diagnostic method Electric Field-Induced

Second Harmonic Generation, which applies a
lasers, directed energy femtosecond laser beam to enable time-evolved
electric field measurements in partially ionized
BY SALLY BANE AND JOSEPH W. ZIMMERMAN
plasmas. This technique is extremely valuable as
The Plasmadynamics and Lasers Technical Committee works to apply the the electric field is a critically important parameter
physical properties and dynamic behavior of plasmas to aeronautics, for tailoring plasmas for a wide range of applica-
astronautics and energy. tions, from plasma flow and combustion control
to plasma medicine. The researchers achieved
measurements of electric fields with subnanosec-
ond time resolution and spatial resolution down to
tens of microns, allowing clear measurements of an
ionization wave propagating with a velocity of 0.3
millimeters per nanosecond.
In June, plasma-assisted combustion research-
ers from the Aerospace Department at Texas A&M
University presented on simulations predicting a
decrease of the deflagration-to-detonation transi-
tion time in ducts obtained using localized plasma
perturbations. The plasmas were modeled as sourc-
es of radicals introduced in front of a deflagration
flame propagating in a stoichiometric hydrogen/
air mixture with turbulent flow. These preliminary
results demonstrate the potential of plasmas for de-
creasing deflagration-to-detonation transition time
and increasing turbulent burning velocity.
Researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong University in Chi-
na reported on efforts with new plasma approaches
for both plasma-assisted combustion and plasma
flow control. In February, they presented a new
plasma-assisted combustion approach that uses

T
The Tactical his year was prolific for advanced studies the heating and reforming effects of gliding arc
High-Power Opera- and demonstrations of plasma and directed discharges in a swirl-stabilized burner to extend
tional Responder was
energy technologies in aerospace. the lean ignition and extinction limits. In August,
developed to defend air
bases against swarms of In a leading development, the U.S. Air this same group presented research that applied a
drones. Force Research Laboratory demonstrated the “stream-wise plasma heat knife” installed on the
Air Force Research Laboratory Tactical High-Power Operational Responder, or leading edge of an airfoil model to perform anti-
THOR, anti-drone technology in June. THOR ap- icing and de-icing. The novel technology applies an
plies a high-powered microwave beam to disrupt array of streamwise-oriented nanosecond-pulsed
drone electronics, causing the drone to crash. dielectric barrier discharges to provide rapid-
Researchers envision this transportable system response local heating to the airfoil leading edge.
as a means to counter major military threats, in- Notre Dame researchers working with Inno-
cluding disabling swarms of drones within its vation Technology Applications Co. continued
beam path simultaneously. to report encouraging results from drag-reduc-
In January, Emory University researchers re- tion experiments using arrays of pulsed-direct-
ported advancements in optically pumped rare current dielectric barrier discharge plasma actu-
gas metastable lasers, in which they doubled ators. The plasma actuators produced a spanwise
the optical pumps applied to a resonator volume velocity component in the boundary layer, result-
containing an argon gas discharge to achieve ing in as high as 76% viscous drag reduction over
an output power of 7 watts. Scaling of a similar a surface in the Mach number range of 0.05 to
xenon-based laser was also demonstrated with 1 0.5. The most recent experiments, reported on in
W output. This new laser technology, which op- September, demonstrated this technology em-
erates at near infrared wavelengths, is a potential bedded in a NACA 63-012A airfoil model with free
logistically simplified alternative to the classic stream Mach numbers in the range of 0.3 to 0.5,
high-power diode-pumped alkali lasers. providing 45% reduction in viscous drag as a well
In July, researchers at Princeton University pub- as a net power savings that increased with Mach
lished about new work that pushed the boundaries number. ★

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 A E R O S PAC E S C I E N C E S

Dragonfly will have

eight rotors to fly to
locations on Titan to
search for prebiotic
chemicals.
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics
Laboratory

Advances in thermal management for radiative heat flux.

Multiple advancements were made this year in

hypersonic flight and Titan exploration the area of high-speed flight. In January, DARPA be-
gan an initiative called the Materials Architectures
BY A ARON BR ANDIS, JONATHAN BURT and Characterization for Hypersonics, or MACH,
AND CHARLES BERSBACH
program. MACH seeks to develop new materials
The Thermophysics Technical Committee promotes the study and and designs for cooling the hot leading edges of
application of mechanisms involved in thermal energy transfer and hypersonic vehicles flying more than five times the
storage in gases, liquids and solids. speed of sound, Mach 5. The first goal is to develop

D
fully integrated leading-edge solutions for use in
ragonfly, a mission to send a robotic octo- near-term hypersonic vehicles. In May, researchers
copter lander to Saturn’s largest moon, was at Sandia National Laboratories finished high-speed
selected in June for NASA’s New Frontiers experiments that for the first time characterized
4 program. The Johns Hopkins Applied the vibrational effect of the pressure field beneath
Physics Laboratory leads the Dragonfly a turbulent hypersonic region. The pressure field is
mission, whose goal is to study prebiotic chemistry key to understanding how intermittent turbulent
and habitability of the ocean world that is Titan. Due spots affect vehicles flying at Mach 5 or higher, and
to the dense, calm atmosphere and low gravity on these advancements in understanding may lead to
Titan, an octocopter is an ideal vehicle to explore a better vehicle design.
variety of locations. Thick insulation and heat from In March, Reaction Engines Limited, or REL,
the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric completed the first phase of high-temperature
Generator, or MMRTG, maintain the lander interior ground testing for its pre-cooler heat exchanger. To
at relatively benign temperatures, typical for space rapidly cool air entering a gas turbine engine under
components throughout the mission. The MMRTG is supersonic or hypersonic flight conditions, the
particularly effective on Titan as it emits heat along pre-cooler pumps gaseous helium through several
with charging the batteries that provide the power thousand microtubes. Tests were conducted at an
required for flight. Dragonfly requires sustained REL test facility in Colorado, where the pre-cooler
heat for thermal management because it can’t rely was subjected to the exhaust stream from a General
on solar power on Titan. The moon’s distance from Electric J79 turbojet engine. The pre-cooler was
the sun and hazy atmosphere combine for a surface able to quench 420-degree Celsius intake air to
temperature of minus 179 degrees Celsius. around 100 degrees in less than 0.05 second, for a
Working with scientists led by NASA’s Ames heat transfer rate of approximately 1.5 megawatts
Research Center in California, Dragonfly’s team is at inflow conditions corresponding to a freestream
also proposing an instrumentation suite to obtain Mach number of 3.3. The pre-cooler is intended as
aerothermal data relevant to thermal protection a component of the REL Sabre hybrid air-breathing
system, or TPS, design during the atmospheric rocket engine and for other hypersonic flight appli-
entry phase. The entry instrumentation package cations including vehicle thermal management and
aims to measure near-surface and in-depth TPS extending the operable Mach number range of gas
temperatures, surface pressure, total heat flux and turbine engines. ★

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Developing parachute
systems for
space and military
BY OLEG YAKIMENKO
The Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technical
Committee focuses on development and
application of aerodynamic decelerator systems
and lifting parachutes, pararotators, and
inflatables for deceleration, sustentation and
landing of manned and unmanned vehicles.

P
arachutes for the SpaceX Crew Dragon and
the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft
were tested throughout 2019, aimed at com-
pletion of qualification and reliability tests
to fly humans in early 2020. Both companies have
said they plan on starting human flight in 2020.
NASA declared the results of November’s Star-
liner’s pad abort test to be acceptable, even though A 19,000-kilogram test ponents of the Heavy Equipment Large Low Veloc-
one of the capsule’s three main parachutes did not of a cluster of eight G-16 ity Airdrop System for 27,000- to 36,000-kilogram
deploy due to a loose pin. parachutes. payloads. It also ground-tested the ATAX modular
U.S. Army
The parachutes that will ensure NASA’s Ori- airdrop platform — which uses airbags — culmi-
on spacecraft floats safely back to Earth passed nating in two crane drops in preparation for live
a milestone in September with completion of airdrop testing.
the system acceptance review for the Orion Cap- The U.S. Army Product Manager Force Sus-
sule Parachute Assembly System, or CPAS. The tainment Systems, or PM FSS, completed testing
last major piece of paperwork certifying CPAS is in August of the G-16 cargo parachute, which will
scheduled to be signed in March 2020 after Lock- replace the G-11 cargo parachute that was intro-
heed Martin completes parachute mortar testing. duced 60 years ago. The G-16 can be deployed at
Throughout 2019, the CPAS team at NASA’s John- lower altitudes because it has a new method for
son Space Center in Houston also worked on in- controlling the canopy’s opening. The G-16’s con-
stallation of the flight hardware into Artemis-1 struction can cut the cost over the life of the para-
(formally known as Exploration Mission-1 or chute because of its modularity and simplified re-
EM-1), which is the uncrewed lunar orbital test pair procedures. Zodiac Parachute and Protection
flight of the Orion capsule, expected to be launched America, now called Safran Parachute & Protec-
in late 2021. tion America, developed the parachute with Fox
CCDC SC, short for U.S. Army Combat Capa- Parachute Services under contract to the Army.
bilities Development Command Soldier Center, In April, PM FSS also completed testing of the
was focused during the year on developing tech- Extracted High- and Low-Speed Container Deliv-
nologies to improve cargo and personnel airdrop ery System, or EHLSCDS, which includes the G-15
capabilities. CCDC SC conducted tests in March cargo parachute, 2.8-meter-diameter high-speed
and June on self-guided cargo systems, including extraction parachute and A-24 cargo container.
novel control methods and sensors to increase ac- EHLSCDS can deliver up to eight extracted CDS
curacy in environments without GPS. Follow-up payloads at altitudes as low as 160 meters with
tests were scheduled for October and December. indicated airspeeds of up to 426 kph and is com-
Throughout March and July, CCDC SC conducted patible with both C-17 Globemaster III and C-130J
modeling of flow behavior around various cargo Super Hercules cargo aircraft. Airdrops with high-
aircraft to test the interaction with both cargo pay- speed extraction at low altitude reduces both ex-
loads and human jumpers. Work on added safety posure on the drop zone and threat to aircraft. The
for troop parachutes included the development of G-15 will be a partial replacement for the legacy
an automatic activation device for the T-11 reserve G-12 until future payload certification work will
parachute employed during static line mass assault allow for the G-12’s full replacement. ★
operations and a smart snap hook that notifies air-
crew in the rare event of a towed parachutist. Contributors: Ricardo Machin, Kristen Ryan and
In May, CCDC SC began developing key com- John Watkins

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A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Adapting air traffic control for drones carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to planting
71,031 urban trees.
and urban air mobility Government agencies opened doors to devel-
opment of new types of aircraft and operations.
BY DAVID THIPPHAVONG
The FAA took steps toward establishing standards
The Air Transportation Systems Technical Committee fosters improvements to for the return of civil supersonic flight in the U.S.
transport systems and studies the impacts of new aerospace technologies. In June, it proposed streamlining the process for
obtaining approval to flight test supersonic air-

G
lobal airline industry profits are projected to craft. The FAA expects to publish a proposed rule
dip from $30 billion in 2018 to $28 billion in for noise certification of supersonic aircraft by
2019 because of a projected 14.3% increase March 2020. Besides noise, supersonic operations
in fuel costs and a 5.3% increase in labor will also need to demonstrate safe integration into
costs, according to the International Air Trans- the National Airspace System with existing and
port Association. The return on invested capital of other emergent air traffic operations.
7.4% is projected to be only 0.1 percentage points Beyond airline operations, NASA and its part-
above the cost of capital. In North America, a net ners made progress toward building a framework
post-tax profit of $15 billion is expected in 2018, for safe, routine operation of small unmanned
with a net post-tax profit margin of 5.5%. The rel- aircraft systems in the airspace. In June, NASA,
atively strong economic performance in North the FAA, the Nevada Institute of Autonomous Sys-
America is attributed to the consolidation of com- tems and 18 industry partners completed Techni-
mercial airlines, which has helped maintain high cal Capability Level 4 flight tests in Reno, Nevada.
passenger and cargo loads, and increased an- It consisted of five sUAS completing 150 missions
cillary revenues that have blunted the impact of in downtown Reno and a nearby park. This test-
higher fuel costs. ing was the first of its kind with multiple sUAS
NASA, the FAA, the National Air Traffic Con- simultaneously flying beyond visual-line-of-sight
trollers Association and industry have been de- operations in an urban environment. In August,
veloping concepts and technologies to improve Technical Capability Level 4 testing continued in
the handling of arrival, departure and airport Corpus Christi, Texas, to gather operational data
surface traffic. In July, NASA expanded opera- in a hot and humid urban environment and over
tional testing for its integrated arrival, departure open waters.
and surface, or IADS, program to the North Texas The UAS Technical Capability Level 4 flight
area. NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration tests have also become important to development
2 project developed IADS to save fuel and emis- of UAM, short for urban air mobility, which indus-
NASA researchers sions, reduce congestion on taxiways, and im- try, academia and government are increasingly
work with software in prove compliance with controlled takeoff times pursuing. In October, NASA said recent work had
the agency’s air traffic for managing overhead stream insertion. IADS focused on extending the UTM tests for sUAS to
management laboratory
has been tested at Charlotte Douglas Internation- UAM operations. Also in October, NASA released
as part of Airspace
Technology
al Airport in North Carolina since September 2017 details of how industry could apply to test and
Demonstration 2. and, in two years, saved airlines 1.4 million kilo- demonstrate technology in partnership with the
NASA grams (3.1 million pounds) of fuel and reduced agency through a series of UAM Grand Challenge
activities, with the first event ex-
pected to occur in mid- to late
2020. In these activities, NASA
provides the proving ground to
facilitate the UAM community in
testing and demonstrating their
technologies and other capabil-
ities that address foundational
UAM safety and integration bar-
riers. The UAM community will
need to work together with the
broader aviation community to
demonstrate that UAM vehicles
can be operated safely with re-
gard to other vehicles in the air
and people and property on the
ground. ★

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 A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

There were also a few notable first flights

among electric and small autonomy vehicles. In
January, Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary
completed first flight of its autonomous passenger
air vehicle, an eVTOL configuration, at its Virginia
facility. Germany-based Lilium Jet’s five-seat pro-
totype, with tilting ducted fans, flew in May. H55’s
battery-powered Bristell Energic, a more conven-
tional configuration manufactured by BRM Aero
in the Czech Republic, made its first flight in June
from Sion, Switzerland. The aircraft has an endur-
ance of 1.5 hours, targeting roughly an hour of pilot
training flight time. Also in June, a modified Cessna
337, the Ampaire 337, first flew — its rear engine
replaced with an electric motor, powered by lithi-
Busy year for advancing emergent flight um-ion batteries. The objective is a configuration
with a piston engine optimized for cruise, using
vehicle technology the electric motor to supplement for takeoff and
climb. The California-based startup Elroy Air flew
BY MICHAEL J. LOGAN AND MICHAEL L. DRAKE
its Chaparral, an autonomous cargo VTOL drone,
The Aircraft Design Technical Committee promotes optimization of aircraft in August.
systems, including analysis of their future potential. In commercial transport aviation, Airbus
launched its A321XLR, the longest-range variant

D
Stratolaunch is the eveloper Franky Zapata flew a jet-powered of its A321neo family, targeting to achieve ranges
world’s largest airplane hoverboard across the English Channel up to 4,700 nautical miles. In April, Embraer ob-
by wingspan, stretching in August, crossing roughly where Louis tained regulatory approval from Brazilian, Euro-
117 meters across and
Bleirot made the first flight across the chan- pean and U.S. regulatory agencies for its E-195-E2.
extending 73 meters
from nose to tail with a nel 110 years previously. In April, pilots evaluated The latest variant of the E195 demonstrated over
maximum gross takeoff Stratolaunch, a twin-fuselage, six-engine, satellite 25% lower fuel burn than its predecessor. Also
weight of 590,000 launcher with a 117-meter wingspan, during a in April, the Polish-built Flaris LAR 1, a single-
kilograms. nearly 2½-hour flight from Mojave, California, the engine personal jet, made its first flight. Mitsub-
Stratolaunch
aircraft’s first. ishi announced launch of its U.S. scope clause
This year also saw steady development of ma- compatible SpaceJet M100 in June. The 76-pas-
jor commercial and military programs and intense senger aircraft will be tailored to work within the
activity around electric (or hybrid electric) pro- operational capacity and weight limitations of
pulsion, autonomous and electric vertical takeoff many U.S. operators. Two new business jets were
and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft (many of which are certified during the year. Gulfstream achieved FAA
aimed at the urban air mobility market). Type Certification in June for its G600. In Septem-
Governments continued to nurture potential ber, Cessna announced its FAA Type Certification
new aircraft technologies. In July, the European of the Cessna Longitude.
Aviation Safety Agency released its final Special On the military side, new developments in-
Condition for VTOL aircraft. The rules apply guid- cluded flight of the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, an
ance for distributed propulsion vehicles with lift/ unmanned combat aerial vehicle, in March. The
thrust powerplants, applicable to vehicles with demonstrator was developed under the U.S. Air
up to nine passengers and a 7,000-pound (3,100 Force Research Laboratory’s Low-Cost Attri-
kilograms) gross weight. NASA awarded funds table Aircraft Technology initiative. In March,
for subsonic-transport electric propulsion stud- the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant first flew. The
ies for potential electrified aircraft propulsion, compound helicopter, with rigid coaxial rotors, is
hoping to lay the groundwork for a future flight targeting the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift pro-
demonstrator. Its electric-powered X-57 Maxwell gram objective of vertical lift with substantially
began ground runs of its Mod II in June, testing higher cruise speed and ranges than conven-
the electric motors and propellers in an initial tional helicopters. Shortly after the Defiant’s first
spin test. In August, the United Kingdom’s prime flight, in April, the An-24 replacement Ilyushin
minister announced the Future Flight Challenge, Il-112V light military transport made its first
funding development of technologies for electric- flight. In September, Boeing’s MQ-25, an auton-
powered passenger aircraft, cargo drones and ur- omous aerial refueler for the U.S. Navy, flew for
ban air taxis. the first time. ★

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A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Aviation automation in spotlight; This year also saw significant progress in un-
manned aerial systems operations. A number of
new-entrant evolution continues operators or companies have received special
authorization through the FAA’s public-private
BY TOM REYNOLDS
partnership UAS Integration Pilot Program to
The Aircraft Operations Technical Committee promotes safe and efficient fly drones over people or beyond visual line of
operations in the airspace system by encouraging best practices and sight. In April, Alphabet’s Wing Aviation was the
information-sharing among the community and government agencies. first drone operator awarded an air carrier certi-
fication. In March, UPS and Matternet made the

T
he role of aircraft automation systems and first U.S. revenue-generating drone delivery of
their certification were major issues in avia- medical samples. NASA completed its technical
tion operations this year after the high-pro- demonstrations of increasingly complex UAS
file crashes of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in Oc- Traffic Management operations involving small
tober 2018 and March 2019. In both cases, behavior UAS with Technical Capability Level 4 tests in
of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation Reno, Nevada, in May, and Corpus Christi, Tex-
System, or MCAS, was implicated, and the aircraft as, in August. These demonstrations tested op-
type was grounded worldwide in March. MCAS is eration of UAS in high-traffic urban applications
designed to enhance pitch stability so that the MAX and included beyond visual-line-of-sight and
behaves more consistently with other B-737 vari- contingency-management operations.
ants. Redesign and recertification of the system Companies also continued development of ur-
were underway as of November. Despite the crash- ban air mobility, or UAM, vehicles and traffic man-
es, as of mid-October, the international aircraft agement concepts. In August, Volocopter became
fatality rate was 20% below the five-year average the first company to fly an electric-vertical-take-
reported by the Aviation Safety Network. off-and-landing aircraft at an international airport
The industry also continued planning for (Helsinki) while integrated into the air traffic man-
trajectory-based operations, which leverage agement system. NASA and Uber are continuing
time-based management, information exchange their collaboration, and in October a joint simu-
between air/ground systems and the aircraft’s lation activity used their respective automated
ability to fly precise paths in time and space. The traffic management technologies to land simu-
FAA has recognized that operations in challenging lated vehicles at the same virtual vertiport. In Oc-
weather conditions will play a key role in achiev- tober, NASA kicked off its UAM Grand Challenge
ing maximum benefits. In August, NASA started project, a public-private partnership focused on
transitioning automation technology known as a series of increasingly complex demonstrations
the Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather, or of UAM vehicles and operations. On-demand he-
DRAW, to the FAA to assist in this regard. DRAW licopter services were introduced in select loca-
integrates advanced models of pilots’ behavior The first commercial tions in the U.S. In July, Uber started Uber Copter
launch by a SpaceX
around convective weather cells to predict the services between New York City’s John F. Kennedy
Falcon Heavy in April
future aircraft trajectory and maintain trajecto- carried the Arabsat-6A
International Airport and downtown Manhattan,
ry-based operations that are currently discontin- satellite. while Airbus’ Voom started services across the San
ued in these conditions. SpaceX Francisco Bay Area in September. They join Blade,
which has operated in multiple cities across the
U.S. since 2014.
In terms of commercial space, 2019 saw
the first revenue-generating launches of the
SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Meanwhile, Blue Origin,
Virgin Galactic and other commercial space
companies edged closer to regular operations.
In August, Virgin Galactic declared its base at
Spaceport America in New Mexico ready for
commercial operations, which it plans to start
in 2020. The FAA is developing decision support
systems to help facilitate safe, efficient and eq-
uitable access to airspace as space and other
new entrants evolve. ★

Contributors: Tamsyn Edwards, Gabriele Enea,

Antony Evans and John Koelling

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 A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Raven Aerostar’s
Flight 296 balloon flew
within 160 kilometers
of Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, for 20 days of its
40-day mission.
Raven Aerostar

er spacecraft parachutes for crewed flight, part of

the effort to return spacecraft directly to U.S. soil.
By dropping the Starliner from a high-altitude
balloon, the spacecraft is tested with the correct
shape, mass, airspeed and altitude, a feat that is
difficult to achieve by other means. Early in 2019,
Near Space Corp. began working with U.S. and
international customers on several high-altitude

Demonstrating navigation, persistence;

projects and increased the capabilities of its High
Altitude Shuttle System, which is a lifting-body-

carrying out spacecraft tests

shaped drone that can carry projects to a high al-
titude for testing.
BY PAUL VOSS NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program contin-
ued work toward its goal of reliably launching
The Balloon Systems Technical Committee supports development and 3,500-kilogram or heavier payloads to altitudes
application of free-floating systems and technologies for buoyant flight in exceeding 35 km. In June and July, the program
the stratosphere and atmospheres of other planets. carried out six training balloon inflations in Pal-
estine, Texas, to investigate prior anomalies. In-

R
aven Aerostar balloons logged 7,500 flight flations done under varying weather conditions,
days in the stratosphere as part of scientif- gross inflations and with balloons of different
ic, military and commercial missions, with sizes stepped through all of the phases of the
an average flight duration of over 140 days. launch operations up to actual launch. Starting
In June and August, a Thunderhead 208 balloon in late August, a Fort Sumner, New Mexico, flight
demonstrated persistence in a designated area by campaign had its first six of 12 planned launch-
keeping within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Sioux es of the Balloon-Borne Cryogenic Telescope
Falls, South Dakota, for 28 days. After the balloon Testbed payload, or Bobcat. This is a new class
exited the area, Raven Aerostar brought it back of payload looking at the far-infrared emission
with wind steering and again put it into persistent lines to probe the chemical content, energetics
mode to stay in the area around Sioux Falls. and physical conditions within the interstellar
In June, the company demonstrated waypoint medium of the Milky Way.
navigation with three balloons it launched from In August, CNES, the French space agency, led
Maryland, flew across the country and brought four scientific zero-pressure-balloon launches
down in a predesignated landing area in North- from the Timmins stratospheric base in Ontario,
ern California. After traveling 2,100 nautical miles, Canada, including flights with a pointing gondo-
the balloons landed within 80 km of each other. la carrying the French Pathfinder for an Interna-
In another demonstration of waypoint navigation tional Large Optical Telescope and the Canadian
and persistence, Raven Aerostar launched three Super-pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope.
balloons from the California coast in July and In May and August, the Swedish Space Corp. per-
directed them over the Pacific Ocean for specific formed drop tests from balloons with dummy re-
missions. One was directed to fly back to the Ra- entry bodies as part of the European Space Agen-
ven Flight Operations Center in Sioux Falls; anoth- cy’s ExoMars mission that is scheduled to launch
er was sent to Hawaii, where it performed a fly-by in 2020. A 113,000-meter³ balloon with an 800 kg
and was then directed to Sioux Falls; the third sys- payload and a 330,000 m³ balloon with a 2,000 kg
tem was sent to Hawaii, where it performed per- payload carried out two drop tests at the Esrange
sistence maneuvers. Space Center. ★
In February and June, Near Space Corp. com-
pleted the fourth and fifth flights in a series of bal- Contributors: Russ Dewey, Mike Smith and
loon-based drop tests to qualify Boeing’s Starlin- André Vargas

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A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Integrating various levels of autonomy was a

consistent theme in atmospheric flight testing.
Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky division test flew its
full-authority fly-by-wire UH-60A Black Hawk.
This marked the first stage of Sikorsky’s optional-
ly piloted vehicle, with future tests leading toward
fully autonomous flight without a pilot on board.
Further, a U.S. Air Force and Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity team operated the Testing of Autonomy in
Complex Environments system to enable artificial
intelligence to control various aircraft.
Research efforts to incorporate unmanned air-
craft systems safely into the National Airspace Sys-
tem continued. In August, a University of Alaska
team tested UAS beyond visual line-of-sight with-
out supplemental collision avoidance observers.
Space vehicle, automation testing Also that month, the University of Kansas conduct-
ed flight tests to enhance the collision avoidance
prevalent capabilities of UAS while minimizing trajectory
perturbations. These projects seek to extend the
BY K ARL GARMAN AND ANDY FREEBORN
capabilities of aircraft with varying levels of auton-
The Flight Testing Technical Committee focuses on testing of aircraft, omy, including UAS and urban air mobility flights,
spacecraft, missiles or other vehicles in their natural environments. or UAMs, over densely populated areas.
Details of various UAM test programs emerged

T
NASA tested the Orion he Stratolaunch aircraft was flown for the throughout the year. For example, Aurora Flight Sci-
launch abort system first time in April in Mojave, California. It set ences first flew its autonomous passenger air vehicle
in July. Orion is part of a record for the largest aircraft measured by prototype in January, but it crashed in June on its
NASA’s Artemis program
wingspan, surpassing the 1947 Hughes H-4 fifth flight. In May, Germany-based Lilium conduct-
and future plans for
missions to Mars. Hercules, or the “Spruce Goose.” Paul Allen, who ed the first untethered flight of its electric-powered
NASA died in October 2018, founded Stratolaunch Systems five-seat Lilium Jet, which the company intends to
to carry rockets for air-launch-to-orbit operations. produce for on-demand air taxi services. UAM proj-
Multiple commercial space companies contin- ects such as these tend to demand confidentiality,
ued testing reusable suborbital vehicles. In May, with few details emerging from test programs.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard launched for the 11th Boeing conducted flight tests on the 737 MAX
time from a private site in Texas. This flight, the aircraft throughout most of the year, evaluating
fifth for this particular reusable booster, reached software fixes for the aircraft’s control system. The
an altitude of 65 miles. In February, Virgin Galac- testing centered on software and hardware related
tic’s SpaceShipTwo completed its second test flight to MCAS, short for Maneuvering Characteristics
above 50 miles altitude, one of several definitions Augmentation System, designed to ensure linear
for the boundary of space. This flight also includ- control forces at high angles of attack. The testing
ed the first nonpilot crew member, continuing the program is part of requirements to return the air-
company’s effort to develop commercial space craft to commercial service following fatal crashes
tourism capabilities. In July, Virgin Orbit tested its in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Boeing 747-based satellite launcher, with the goal Boeing and Sikorsky, after a first flight in March,
of making air launch satellite operations routine. continued to expand the envelope of their SB-1 De-
These emerging operations, driven by wealthy in- fiant compound helicopter. The design is supposed
dividuals from mostly nonaerospace backgrounds, to substantially increase cruising speed above that of
demonstrate the prominent role of nontraditional current helicopters. In May, Sikorsky conducted the
businesspeople in commercial space. first flight of its HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicop-
In July, NASA demonstrated the Orion space- ter, intended to replace the Air Force’s HH-60G Pave
craft abort system during the Ascent Abort-2 test Hawk. These widely varied programs represent the
flight at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Flori- broad nature of the flight testing field, including new
da. The test evaluated the Orion capsule’s ability to concepts and iterations of established aircraft. ★
escape from its launch vehicle during conditions of
maximum dynamic pressure. Orion is part of NASA’s Contributors: Brent Cobleigh, Libin Daniel,
architecture for future space exploration, which in- Ken Davidian, Shawn Keshmiri, Bruce Owens,
cludes the Artemis program’s return to the moon. Derek Spear and Terry Weber

36 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Hypersonics research accelerates developed ONR-UTA arc-heated wind tunnel “Leste”

online. It is equipped with an arc heater producing
across 3 continents nominal bulk enthalpies ranging from 1 to 10 MJ/
BY GREG JOHNSTON AND KEVIN KREME YER kg at pressures up to 8 atmospheres. The facility is
designed to operate with M=2, 4 and 6 nozzle inserts.
The Hypersonic Technologies and Aerospace Planes Technical Committee The M=6 nozzle has an exit diameter of 23 cm.
works to expand the hypersonic knowledge base and promote continued In Europe, HEXAFLY-INT, short for High-Speed
hypersonic technology progress through ground and flight testing. Experimental Fly Vehicles-International project,
continued to foster international cooperation in civil
high-speed air transport research. HEXAFLY-INT,
coordinated by ESA-ESTEC, is supported by the Eu-
ropean Union within the 7th Framework Programme
Theme 7 Transport. This year, the German Aerospace
Center, DLR, completed experimental studies in
its High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel Göttingen on the
natural boundary layer transition and the effects
of surface imperfections such as steps and gaps on
the boundary layer of the HEXAFLY-INT hypersonic
glider. The 1:2.6 scaled model of the hypersonic
glider was tested at Reynolds numbers and Mach
numbers that replicated the flight conditions along
a section of the HEXAFLY-INT flight trajectory.

T
Turning to Asia, the Japan Aerospace Exploration
The Office of Naval he U.S. Defense Department research en- Agency in April finished building a subscale hyper-
Research/University of
terprise continued to mature hypersonic sonic engine and flight experimental aircraft called
Texas Arc-Heated Wind
Tunnel in Arlington pro- technologies and concepts through a series HIMICO, short for High-Mach Integrated Control
vides basic and applied of programs executed from within the Office Experiment. Propulsion and wind tunnel testing
research for arc-jet flow of the Secretary of Defense and in the service is scheduled at Mach 4 in 2020. The combustion
characterization and branches, consistent with the National Defense efficiency and heat shield capability of the subscale
thermochemical response
Strategy and the hypersonic modernization priority hypersonic engine was evaluated in September by a
of thermal protection
materials in hypersonic of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for direct-connect experiment at the University of Tokyo.
flight conditions. The Research and Engineering. This year in India, the country’s first flight test
tunnel, nicknamed The X-60A, a planned, above-Mach 5 test plat- of a scramjet powered hypersonic technology
“Leste” after the hot and form, passed its critical design review in January, demonstrator occurred.
dry winds of the Canary
clearing the way for fabrication. Generation Orbit In China, a Mach 10 hypersonic glide vehicle
Islands, was brought
online in June. Launch Services Inc. is building the X-60A under was flown in June, launched from a Dongfeng-17
University of Texas at Arlington/ contract to the U.S. Air Force Research Laborato- ballistic missile, as reported by the China Aerospace
Luca Maddalena
ry’s Aerospace Systems Directorate, High Speed Science and Technology Corp. Also, according to
Systems Division. the U.S.-based National Defense magazine, the
In the civil area, Boeing continued to make State Key Laboratory continued efforts to complete
progress maturing the design of the hypersonic its higher-speed detonation-driven hypervelocity
passenger airplane and propulsion system it re- tunnel for flows as fast as 12 km/s and Mach 25 with
vealed in June 2018. Progress was also made toward accurate densities, heating surfaces of models with
maturing enabling technologies, such as advanced spans as large as 3 meters up to approximately 7,700
titanium and composite structures, and elements degrees Celsius. In April, Xiamen University and the
of an integrated propulsion/thermal management/ Space Transportation Co. launched a dual waverider
power system. design with 3D inward-turning inlets to prove the
Hermeus Corp., the Atlanta hypersonics startup, Xiamen Turbine Ejector-Ramjet combined cycle
in June began testing the prototype turbine-based engine which operates from Mach 0 to 6.
combined cycle propulsion system for its proposed Spaceplanes and hypersonic civil transport
Mach 5 passenger aircraft. systems are being developed by countries across
The University of Arizona completed a 15-inch the globe. ★
(38-centimeter) diameter Mach 5 Ludwieg tube to
facilitate basic and applied research at the test and Contributors: Kevin Bowcutt, Jagadeesh Gopalan,
evaluation scale in August. Barry Hellman, Jesse Little, Luca Maddelena,
In June, the Aerodynamics Research Center of Masataka Maita, A.J. Piplica, Hideyuki Taguchi,
the University of Texas at Arlington brought its newly Alexander Wagner and Michael White

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A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Freeriders Stefan Ager, Andreas Gumpenberger and

Fabian Lentsch lower themselves by rope from an
airship to begin their descent of 2,200-meter Austrian
peak Kleiner Valkastiel.
Mirja Geh and Lensecape Productions

occupancy cabin, the trips, according to OceanSky

CEO Carl-Oscar Lawaczeck, will appeal to travelers
wanting to contribute to “the development of sus-
tainable travel.”
In July, a team led by the International Insti-
tute for Applied Systems Analysis published in the
journal Energy Conservation and Management a
scheme for using airships to usher in a hydrogen
economy. A fleet of automated, unmanned, hy-
No “flight shaming” here: Airships drogen-filled cargo airships would circumnavi-
gate the Earth with the jet stream for propulsion.
leverage eco-friendliness On landing, they would offload their cargo and
about 80% of their hydrogen (for terrestrial fuel)
BY AL AN FARNHAM
and then fly home to pick up more freight. Lead
The Lighter-Than-Air Systems Technical Committee stimulates development author Julian Hunt notes the plan would eliminate
of knowledge related to airships and aerostats for use in a host of the expense and energy cost of having to liquefy
applications from transportation to surveillance. hydrogen for transport.
This year saw the birth of Zeppelin-skiing. In

T
his may go down as the year “flight sham- March, three freeriders (one snowboarder and two
ing” really got off the ground. In September, skiers) flew by Zeppelin from Germany to Austria,
Alexandre de Juniac, head of the Interna- where they hovered over the 2,200-meter Kleiner
tional Air Transport Association, called the Valkastiel peak. They shimmied down a 50-meter
trend — in which environmentally concerned rope, alighted on the mountain and began their
travelers choose trains over planes — the biggest downhill run. Lensecape Productions captured
threat to air travel in Europe and said it would it all on a four-minute video, which was viewed
spread to the United States and other developed 6 million times.
countries. Against this backdrop, advocates for air- Defense and border-protection agencies
ships and airship-related ventures sang the envi- showed new commitment to flying tethered aero-
ronmental merits of lighter-than-air systems. Car- stats for data collection and surveillance. Mary-
ried aloft more by lifting gas than motors, airships land-based TCOM in September announced it had
leave a dainty carbon footprint. Moreover, their lift won a $979 million contract from the U.S. Depart-
and surface area make them promising candidates ment of Defense to support Army aerostats, in-
for electric and solar-electric propulsion. cluding 23 deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and North
In April, England’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. an- Africa. ILC Dover built new envelopes for the U.S.
nounced it would explore electric propulsion via a Customs and Border Protection agency’s Tethered
partnership with Collins Aerospace and the Univer- Aerostat Radar System, delivering two of 420,000
sity of Nottingham, with funding from the United cubic feet (12,000 cubic meters) each and a third of
Kingdom Aerospace Research and Technology Pro- 275,000 cubic feet (7,700 cubic m).
gram. The objective of the project, named E-HAV1, Helium prices spiked for the third time since
is to deliver a full-sized prototype 500-watt elec- 2006, creating gas shortages. Phil Kornbluth,
tric motor for ground testing and eventual use on a president of Kornbluth Helium Consulting, in Au-
production model Airlander 10. gust predicted shortages would persist through
Swedish travel company OceanSky said in the end of 2019 and then would ease somewhat,
June it had selected Airlander 10 as its preferred owing to increased production.
platform for environmentally friendly trips to the The year marked the 90th anniversary of the
North Pole starting in 2023. Up to 16 passengers Graf Zeppelin’s around-the-world flight, which set
would make a three-day passage from an archipel- records for distance and duration that still stand,
ago in Norway to the North Pole and back, landing and the 100th anniversary of R34’s double-crossing
at the pole. Priced at some $79,000 per double- of the Atlantic (complete with stowaway and cat). ★

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 A I R C R A F T T E C H N O L O GY, I N T E G R AT I O N A N D O P E R AT I O N S

Future vertical lift competition on the SB>1, which is aimed at fulfilling the Army’s
need for the future long-range assault aircraft. The
intensifies; eVTOL designs proliferate S-97 Raider also continued to make progress,
getting 55 hours of flight testing. Bell V-280 Valor
BY ERASMO PIÑERO JR.
tilt-rotor demonstrator testing continued apace,
The V/STOL Aircraft Systems Technical Committee is working to advance surpassing 100 flight hours and achieving a speed
research on vertical or short takeoff and landing aircraft. of 300 knots true air speed in March, proving the
high-speed capabilities inherent in tilt-rotors.

I
n a major vertical or short takeoff and landing This year saw the proliferation of pilotless ver-
technology push as part of its modernization tical takeoff and landing vehicles for both private
plans, the U.S. Army awarded contracts in April use and commercial transportation. In early Sep-
to five future attack reconnaissance aircraft tember, the online World eVTOL Aircraft Directory,
competitive prototypes. It was the start of a large sponsored by the Vertical Flight Society, added its
Department of Defense VSTOL acquisition pro- 200th electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft
gram not seen since the early days of the X-35 Joint concept. The directory was launched in 2017 and
Strike Fighter concept demonstrator program. The has since been tracking new electric and hybrid/
companies are: AVX Aircraft, partnered with L-3 electric-powered VTOL aircraft in development by
Communications Integrated Systems, both of Tex- aerospace companies, entrepreneurs and inven-
as; Bell Textron Inc. of Texas; Boeing; Karem Aircraft tors around the globe.
of California, partnered with Northrop Grumman In June, at the third annual Uber Elevate sum-
and Raytheon; and Sikorsky. Each candidate was to mit in Washington, D.C., mock-up concepts gen-
receive approximately $15 million this year and in erated excitement in the media and the public. It
2020. was an opportunity for the air taxi or urban air
Sikorsky continued progress on its SB>1 mobility players to show their future products
Defiant joint multirole technology demonstrator, that they say will eventually meet the demands
conducting the first flight of the aircraft in March of urban air vehicles at costs far below tradition-
at Sikorsky’s Flight Research Center in West Palm al helicopters. Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight
Beach, Florida. Sikorsky is partnered with Boeing Sciences conducted the first flight of an eVTOL
prototype for urban air mobility in January. The
Sikorsky conducted
the first flight of the SB>1
vehicle is configured as an all-electric, four-seat-
Defiant joint multirole er with nine rotors.
technology demonstrator The F-35 program began a period of inten-
in March. sive production in 2018, but one of its production
Sikorsky
partners, Turkey, was no longer involved as of July.
The Bell V-280 Valor
The 2020 fiscal year budget approved by Congress
tilt-rotor demonstrator in May authorized the purchase of 94 F-35s, 16
this year achieved a more than requested. The F-35C, the U.S. Navy
speed of 300 knots true carrier-based version, reached initial operational
air speed.
capability at the end of February, accomplishing
Bell Textron
what the three services set out
to do in 2001.
Four Bell-Boeing MV-22B
Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft from
Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squad-
ron 268 completed a trans-Pacif-
ic flight from Okinawa, Japan, to
Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay,
Hawaii, in May, demonstrating
the long reach and operational
maturity of the V-22. The aircraft
flew more than 5,300 nautical
miles with minimum scheduled
stops to refuel. ★

Contributors: Mark Alber, Paul

Bevilaqua, Geoffrey Jeram,
Mike Hirschberg and Paul Park

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 39

 I N F O R M AT I O N S YS T E M S

Industry disruption, transformation ed as of the end of October, suggesting a year-end

total of eight orders — an extension of the depressed
continue into fifth year orders trend that began in 2015. Commercial GSO
satellite orders totaled 19, 15, eight and five in 2015,
BY TOM BUTASH
2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, after averaging 26
The Communications Systems Technical Committee is working to advance per year during the three years prior. Six additional
communications systems research and applications. GSO orders were received for military applications,
some from commercial operators, suggesting a con-
A frame from the
video feed of SpaceX vergence of the commercial and military markets.
Falcon 9 upper stage In response, the industry increased its focus on
shows a stack of 60 Star- an emerging class of small broadband communica-
link smallsats moments tions satellites, or “micro-GSO satellites,” designed
before they’re deployed.
to fill capacity gaps too small to justify the time,
SpaceX
expense and risk of deploying a traditional 4- to
8-metric-ton GSO communications satellite. De-
velopment of these 250 kg to 2,000 kg micro-GSO
satellites was ramped up by startups Astranis,
GapSat, Saturn Satellite Networks and the SWISS-

S
atellite operators curtailed geosynchronous to12-Tyvak partnership and by established manu-
satellite orders in 2019 for a fifth consecutive facturers including Maxar (which received an Ov-
year, a trend driven by overcapacity and fall- zon-3 order) and Boeing. This trend partially offset
ing prices in many markets, ongoing advanc- the decline in conventional GSO orders.
es in and additions to planned non-geosynchronous In August, Northern Sky Research reported that
orbit megaconstellations, and persistent market at least 16 companies, including Astrocast, Fleet,
uncertainties. The specter of 50,000 NGSO broad- Kepler, Lacuna Space, Myriota and Sky and Space
band smallsats (satellites with mass less than 1,000 Global, were developing NGSO constellations of
kilograms) planned for launch over the next decade between 32 and 200 cubesats (the body dimen-
— promising even greater capacity — further moti- sions of which are low multiples of 10-centimeter
vated GSO operators to delay or cautiously restrict cubes) to provide “internet of things” communi-
additional investments in their fleets. This, in turn, cations services in remote markets. Although the
led to the restructuring of GSO satellite manufac- revenue from these activities represents a small
turing stalwarts, including Maxar Technologies (for- fraction of recent GSO market sales declines, the
merly SSL) and Thales Alenia Space. The downturn initiatives nonetheless demonstrate the industry’s
also prompted the acquisition of AsiaSat, Avanti and willingness to innovate to cost-effectively address
Inmarsat by private equity interests; other operators, emerging opportunities.
including APT Satellite and Sky Perfect JSAT, exam- Supporting this innovation, the launch vehicle
ined alternative business models. industry, led by SpaceX and smallsat launch vehicle
In March, Northern Sky Research reported developer Rocket Lab of California, continued to
that capacity prices declined 18% over the pre- drive costs lower, reducing the expense of install-
ceding year, extending declines of 35% to 60% in- ing additional communications satellite capacity.
curred over the prior two years. The price declines As of mid-November, SpaceX had conducted nine
were once again attributed, in part, to additional Falcon 9 and two Falcon Heavy launches in which
high-throughput satellite launches. Exacerbating booster stages were routinely recovered. Rocket Lab
these challenging market conditions, advances in conducted five Electron smallsat launches in this
planned NGSO broadband megaconstellations timeframe and, perhaps encouraged by SpaceX’s
were seen throughout the year. In February, One- success, announced in August that it was develop-
Web launched the first six of its 648 smallsat constel- ing a reusable booster. During this pivotal month,
lation, while in May, SpaceX launched the first 60 of SpaceX revamped its smallsat ride-share program,
its ultimately 42,000 smallsat Starlink constellation lowering launch costs to $5,000 per kilogram, about
and another 60 in November. Further increasing 20% of the rate that had prevailed for decades. Inas-
prospective capacity, Amazon’s Kuiper Systems much as estimates indicate as many as 100 smallsat
in July filed an application for FCC approval of its launch vehicles are under development worldwide,
3,236 satellite NGSO constellation comprised of the costs of space access and providing additional
784, 1,296 and 1,156 smallsats at 590-kilometer, 610 communications satellite capacity will undoubtedly
km and 630 km orbital altitudes, respectively. continue to decline. ★
Against this backdrop, unsurprisingly, only seven
competitive, commercial GSO orders were record- Contributors: Chris Hoeber and Roger Rusch

40 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 I N F O R M AT I O N S YS T E M S

This highly parallel reduced precision is em-

ployed in several low-end neural processing unit
or tensor processing unit products released in the
past 12 months. The Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier
8G was available in August, and the Google Edge
tensor processing unit was released in March.
Some are targeted at mobile platforms such as
drones, rovers and autonomous cars. Tesla Mo-
tors began shipping its own “Full Self-Driving”
chip in March.
The neural processing and tensor process-
ing units are an evolution of graphics processing
units, which a decade ago morphed into physics
engines and provided a radical boost for modeling
and simulation. Neural processing units and ten-
sor processing unit chips will eventually lead to
more advanced autonomy in planetary explorers.
Summit is designed to facilitate both physics
simulation and artificial intelligence research. In
June, Oak Ridge reported that a Monte Carlo sim-
Transformations in computer ulation of a modular nuclear reactor ran 30 to 40
times faster on Summit than on the Oak Ridge’s
architecture enable advances in Titan supercomputer introduced in 2012. It also
ran the largest cosmological simulations to date,
exploration autonomy providing comparison data for the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope, still under construction.
BY RICK KWAN
Summit also ran large computational fluid
The Computer Systems Technical Committee works on advancing the dynamics simulations. Reported at the AIAA Avi-
application of computing to aerospace programs. ation Forum in June, the FUN3D simulator was
used to run a CFD job of 6.5 billion elements and

T
NASA’s Mars he architecture of terrestrial computing is 200,000 time steps. It previously took 2.9 months
Helicopter flight in a metamorphosis that could eventually on a system of 5,000 Xeon Skylake CPU cores. On
model — the aircraft
prove useful in planetary exploration. At its Summit, using 552 Tesla V100 GPUs (a fraction of
going to Mars with the
2020 rover — at the Jet
core is the rapid adoption of data science what Summit has available), it took four days —
Propulsion Laboratory. — not only by scientists and engineers but even a 20-times speed-up. To get the same speed-up
NASA by retailers sitting on stockpiles of business data. with CPUs would take 112,500 Xeon Skylake cores.
And the underlying statistics and linear algebra Meanwhile, spacecraft computers are find-
increasingly employ shorter precision arithmetic ing their way onto atmospheric flyers. In August,
and logic for greater speed. NASA’s dual-rotor Mars Helicopter was attached
The fastest supercomputer on the Top500 to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover. It is expected
list in 2019 was the U.S. Department of Energy’s to make several test flights in the sparse Martian
Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Ten- atmosphere and give operators a perspective of
nessee. Introduced in June 2018, Summit is built rover surroundings that was not previously pos-
on a combination of IBM POWER9 central pro- sible. The avionics stack includes a Snapdragon
cessing units and Nvidia Volta graphics processing flight processor, TI Hercules high-reliability mi-
units and is rated on High Performance Linpack at crocontroller and ProASIC rad-tolerant field pro-
148.6 petaflops. Beyond physics simulation, the grammable gate array. In June, NASA selected the
Volta GPUs are positioned for machine learning Dragonfly rotorcraft to explore Titan, a Saturnian
and artificial intelligence research through the use moon with thick atmosphere and low gravity. A
of small integers. radiation-hardened RAD750 computer will con-
The vectors and matrices of data science and trol the avionics of this flying laboratory. As with
machine learning aren’t necessarily single- and Earth-based drones, a tight control loop of sen-
double-precision floating points. Much of it can sors, CPU and actuators must adjust the vehicle’s
be done with half-precision 16-bit floats and small flight in real time and follow a mission profile.
8-bit and 4-bit integers. For a given area of silicon But these flights are after months or years of dor-
and power budget, smaller precision allows for mancy in space and targeting different environ-
greater parallelism, hence increased speed. mental extremes. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 41

 I N F O R M AT I O N S YS T E M S

Testing autonomy for lunar Gateway, based on the activities taking place and the health
of the vehicle. The Gateway and vehicle will also
Robonaut 2 and aviation respond to failures with additional safety-oriented
actions, compared to those seen on the Interna-
BY NATASHA NEOGI
tional Space Station. Autonomy will enable the
The Intelligent Systems Technical Committee works to advance the vehicle to assess the available resources and sys-
application of computational problem-solving technologies and methods to tem statuses, return to a more functional state,
aerospace systems. and adjust future activities. The combination of
these capabilities will free up the crew and ground
staff to focus on the most critical tasks.
Additionally, two technology development
demonstrations at Johnson were aimed at future
Robonaut 2 autonomous logistics aboard the
ISS. The first demonstration, in June, focused
on the challenges inherent in operating a ro-
bot aboard the ISS from the ground at Johnson.
These include communication latency, band-
width restrictions and expected losses of signal.
Operators from a remote mission control oper-
ated Robonaut 2 while performing numerous
autonomous tasks such as planning and taking
steps across ISS handrails, locating and posing
in front of objects, and interacting with those ob-
jects. A demonstration at Johnson in September
focused on increasing the robot’s autonomous
interaction in and around variable environ-
ments, including mapping unknown obstacles
and traversing around them, building robust ob-
ject detection, and working with those objects in
a cluttered environment.
In aviation, the Automatic Ground Collision
Avoidance System, which has a set of autono-
mous decision-making and collision-avoidance
algorithms to prevent jets from flying into the
ground, was recommended for installation on the
U.S. Air Force variant of the F-35 Lightning II this
year — five years ahead of initial plans.
In June, the American Society for Testing and
Materials published its first technical report, “Au-
tonomy Design and Operations in Aviation: Termi-
nology and Requirements Framework (TR1-EB),” to
guide the development of standards associated with
increasingly autonomous flight. Administrative

I
Robonaut 2, shown n preparation for its return to the moon in the Committee 377, comprised of four aviation-related
performing a simple task, Artemis program, NASA demonstrated the abil- society technical committees, prepared the report,
may be on its way back
ity of the lunar Gateway to integrate with space- which provides definitions related to automation,
to the ISS.
NASA
craft, such as the Orion capsule and the human autonomy, artificial intelligence, machine learning
lunar lander, and tested autonomy technology and many other relevant terms. It also discusses the
in managing the Gateway’s vehicle systems in potential for levels of automation for aviation. The
September at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in report will help standards committees produce a
Houston. Autonomy will play an important role consistent and cohesive body of standards by pro-
in operating the Gateway with its reduced data viding common terminology and a holistic frame-
downlink capacity, communication delays, and work for discussing and determining requirements
the combination of crewed and uncrewed periods for increasingly autonomous systems. ★
of operation. The September demonstration test-
ed a surrogate vehicle’s ability to prioritize what Contributors: Kerianne Hobbs, Andrew Lacher,
data is most important for the ground to receive Elizabeth Taylor and Alex Sobey

42 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 I N F O R M AT I O N S YS T E M S

Artificial intelligence and hypersonic sensor signals compared to other methods like
physics-based models. We are already seeing this
weapons drive sensing, fusion research innovation potential with the development of ap-
plications ranging from medical diagnosis to pre-
BY RAYMOND S. SWANSON AND KENT R. ENGEBRETSON
dictive maintenance.”
The Sensor Systems and Information Fusion Technical Committee advances The greatest concentration of growth in new
technology for sensing phenomena, fusion of data across sensors or sensors is in consumer applications with the most
networks, and autonomous collaboration between information systems. activity in optical sensing across all applications.
The other primary sensing emphasis has been on

I
n February, the Pentagon released its artificial development of and defense against hyperson-
intelligence strategy with the Joint Artificial ic weapons. The high speed and unpredictable
Intelligence Center at the head of the effort. maneuverability of these weapons creates a dif-
The Pentagon indicated that the Defense De- ficult challenge for existing sensing architectures.
partment will implement AI into existing process- Concerned with the rising threat of hypersonic
es, digitization and smart automation. The doc- weapons from China and Russia, the U.S. Missile
ument urges action “to protect our security and Defense Agency in 2018 awarded contracts for
advance our competitiveness” in developing safe, concepts regarding the Space Sensor Layer, which
ethical and secure AI solutions. The strategy says detects and tracks hypersonic threats from birth
that JAIC will work with government, private sec- to death. In April, MDA asked Congress for an ad-
tor, academia and international partners. ditional $108 million for hypersonic and ballis-
AI has reshaped the sensing landscape. In tic space sensor development in fiscal 2020. The
June, a new Lux Research report titled “Intelligent newly established Space Development Agency,
Sensing: The Impact of AI on Sensor Capabilities” working collaboratively with MDA on the Space
identified the impact of AI on a range of sensor Sensor Layer, revealed in June its fiscal 2020 plans
types, including optical, mechanical and acous- for a proliferated low Earth orbit satellite constel-
tic sensors through analysis of more than 130,000 lation that would consist of about 1,200 satellites
patents since 2012. across five layers: a 200-satellite custody layer, a
“With the advent and proliferation of artificial 658-satellite space transport layer, a 200-satellite
intelligence technologies — concentrated in ma- tracking layer, a 200-satellite deterrence layer and
chine learning — the capabilities of software-de- three advanced maneuvering vehicles. The space
fined sensors are increasing at a breakneck pace,” layer will require not only increased sensor capa-
Cole McCollum, research associate in sensors at bilities but also AI and improved communications
Lux and lead author of the report, said in an ar- to process data and provide battle management
ticle. “AI for analyzing sensor data enables far recommendations to commanders.
more robust predictions and classifications using In addition to defense against hypersonic
weapons, development of
hypersonic weapons also
poses significant sensing
challenges. In June, DARPA
issued a solicitation for the
Extreme Environment Sen-
sors project. The goal is to
develop and validate robust
distributed instrumentation
systems capable of with-
standing the extreme heat,
shock and vibration of hy-
personic flight. ★

The Air-Launched
Rapid Response Weapon
is a hypersonic weapon
prototype in development by
Lockheed Martin under
contract to the U.S. Air Force.
Lockheed Martin

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New focus on safety in software computers caused widespread delays. Though

the problem was resolved, and computers were
BY HANNAH LEHMAN
up within the hour, the incident further empha-
The Software Systems Technical Committee focuses on software engineering sized the importance of safety and redundancy in
issues for complex and critical systems, including requirements, design, airline software.
code, test, evaluation, operation and maintenance. Since 2010, the Air Force has been spearhead-
ing the military’s only jam-proof satellite network,

I
f there were a theme for software this year, it the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system.
would be an increased focus on safe autonomy Through its work with the AEHF, the Air Force has
and cybersecurity. amassed experience to begin production of a new-
Following the trends of previous years, er, cheaper, jam-resistant satellite communication
military and commercial industries continued framework. In August, the Air Force launched the
to increase investment in autonomy, especially fifth AEHF satellite.
learned autonomy. In March, Kratos’ autonomous A discussion of aerospace software would be in-
fighter jet, the Valkyrie, completed its first flight. complete without mentioning the Boeing 737 MAX
This was the first stage in an initiative to allow 8. In the span of six months, two 737 crashes result-
pilots to focus on more critical items by making ed in 346 deaths. The crashes implicated MCAS,
fully autonomous fighter jets that can process large short for Maneuvering Characteristics Augmenta-
amounts of data rapidly without the human get- tion System, a program designed to prevent stall.
ting inundated with information. In May, Boeing’s Though both aircraft that crashed had other initial
Tapestry Solutions won a U.S. Air Force contract failures in sensing and deriving the angle of attack,
worth as much as $259 million for software that the crashes brought to light issues with implement-
will help troops plan missions, including points ing MCAS on the 737 MAX aircraft. After the planes
for weapon launches. And in July, the Air Force in- were globally grounded in March, Boeing worked
creased focus on autonomy as its tanker planning to create a software patch to prevent the problem
software, designed to increase reliability in refuel- from reoccurring. As of November, the planes were
ing, moved into testing. tentatively scheduled for a “phased ungrounding”
The past year also saw more focus on cyberse- and reintroduction into commercial air transit. The
curity in light of developments in airline vulnera- crashes and eventual pinpointing of the problem
U.S. airline pilots are bility. The importance of hacking prevention was led to awareness about the FAA’s regulatory prac-
expected to be training demonstrated in July when the U.K. Information tices, putting increasing pressure on primary, inter-
on full motion simulators Commissioner’s Office said it would fine British dependent safety reviews of all critical components
such as CAE’s 7000XR
Airways 183.39 million British pounds ($225 mil- in commercial aviation.
Series once new software
is approved for Boeing’s
lion) for a 2018 data breach that affected half a mil- On a lighter note, 2019 marked the 50th anni-
737 MAX aircraft. lion of the airline’s customers. In March, technical versary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. As July 20
CAE issues in American Airports Corp.’s air-booking rolled around, NASA reflected on the software that
assisted Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin in bring-
ing the Eagle lunar land-
er down safely. A lot has
changed since the 1960s in
the software world. Com-
puters no longer take up
an entire room, embedded
systems no longer have to
be coded entirely in assem-
bly, and in the 1980s, micro-
processors were invented.
However, the underlying
purpose behind software
remains the same. Just like
the engineers of Apollo 11,
engineers today strive to
create efficient programs
that assist humanity and
make activities enjoyable,
reliable and safe. ★

44 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

of the service module. The com-

bined assembly was to undergo
critical thermal-vacuum testing
in late 2019 at NASA’s Plum Brook
Station in Ohio and return to Ken-
nedy Space Center in Florida in
early 2020 to begin launch prepa-
rations, including installation of
the four solar array wings. The
electrical power source on the Eu-
ropean Service Module consists of
four solar array wings comprised
of three solar panels per wing. The
solar array wings provide approxi-
mately 11.2 kilowatts of total power
at 120 volts. The solar cells are the
latest triple-junction technology,
provided by New Mexico-based So-
lAero Technologies. The solar array

Radioisotope and solar-powered orientation is controlled by the two-axis solar ar-

ray drive mechanism, which can swivel between

missions to Mars, moon, GEO minus 35 degrees and plus 25 degrees on the inner
axis and rotate fully from 0 to plus 360 degrees on
BY GIANG L AM the outer axis to sun-track for maximum power.
The four wings are folded against the crew module
The Aerospace Power Systems Technical Committee focuses on the analysis,
adapter of the service module during launch and
design, test or application of electric power systems or elements of electric
power systems for aerospace use. extend out 7 meters after launch into low Earth
orbit. A Space Launch System rocket will launch

N
The Multi-Mission ASA gave the U.S. Department of Energy the the Orion spacecraft on the uncrewed Artemis-1
Modular Solar Array, go-ahead in July to fuel the Mars 2020 rov- mission around the moon, targeted for before the
unfurled at Lockheed
er’s Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermo- end of 2020.
Martin’s Sunnyvale, Calif.,
factory, powers the LM
electric Generator with plutonium dioxide Lockheed Martin’s A2100TR satellite bus with
2100 satellite bus. in preparation for the launch to the red planet in fourth-generation 25-kW Multi-mission Modular
Lockheed Martin July 2020. The MMRTG’s total mass is about 45 ki- solar Array, or MMA, launched and deployed on
lograms, of which 4.8 kg is plutonium dioxide — orbit in February on the SaudiGeoSat-1/Hellas-
the source of the steady supply of heat to convert Sat-4 communications satellite, designed for 15
into electricity for storage in two lithium-ion re- years of on-orbit operation. SaudiGeoSat-1/Hellas-
chargeable batteries. The electrical power system Sat-4 has electric propulsion Hall Current thrusters
on the Mars 2020 rover produces about 110 watts powered by the MMA to transfer the satellite to its
at launch and will decline a few percent per year geostationary final orbit. The orbit transfer after
for a 14-year operational life. Unlike with solar launch was completed on schedule, and the satel-
panels, with the MMRTG engineers get the flexi- lite was to enter service in late 2019 at its assigned
bility to operate the rover’s instruments at night, orbit at 39 degrees east longitude. In addition to
during dust storms and through the winter. this mission, a second commercial A2100TR sat-
Aboard the Mars 2020 rover as one of the sci- ellite also powered by the MMA, Arabsat-6A, was
ence payloads is the solar-powered Mars Helicop- launched in April on the first Falcon Heavy booster
ter, which was attached to the belly of the rover with a commercial payload. This satellite also used
in August. The drone has a mass of 1.8 kg and will a 25 kW version of the MMA, modularly designed
demonstrate flight stability on the surface of Mars to support both lower- and higher-power satellite
and scout the best driving route for the rover. So- configurations. As of the beginning of October,
lar cells will recharge its batteries, which are six this satellite was also operating nominally in its as-
lithium-ion cells with a nameplate capacity of 2 signed orbit and was to enter service in late 2019.
ampere-hours. A third lower-powered 13 kW MMA variant was
The first European Service Module, built by scheduled to launch in December at the earliest on
Airbus Defense and Space, was mated to NASA’s an A2100TR satellite, JCSat-17. ★
Orion crew module in July. Built by Lockheed
Martin Space, the Orion is attached to the front Contributors: John Gibb and Scott Billets

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 45

P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

In May, NASA awarded the Power and Propul-

sion Element contract to Maxar Technologies. In
August, the 13-kW thruster was tested at full pow-
er. Launch was scheduled for 2022.
Accion Systems Inc. of Massachusetts set a re-
cord for its electrospray thruster chip technology
by firing a test unit for about 2,500 hours without
intervention, achieving approximately 100 new-
tons of total impulse. The test concluded in May.
Midyear, two of Busek’s small capillary-driven
BET-300-P electrospray thrusters each exceeded
70Ns of total impulse, with the second test finish-
ing in September.
In July, an electric propulsion system integrat-
ed test was completed for the Psyche mission. The

Explosive growth in electric propulsion Maxar-Jet Propulsion Laboratory spacecraft,

which is scheduled for launch in 2022, will use a
BY JAMES SZABO modified SPT-140 HET system to rendezvous with
the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2026.
The Electric Propulsion Technical Committee works to advance research,
In September, Aerojet Rocketdyne and sub-
development and application of electric propulsion for satellites and spacecraft.
contractor ZIN Technologies of Ohio finished as-
sembling the first flight string of the 7-kW NEXT-C

A
A 100-kilowatt plasma s the year began, the European Space Agen- gridded ion engine system. In 2021, NEXT-C will
plume from Ad Astra’s cy’s BepiColombo spacecraft continued to- fly on NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test, man-
Variable Specific Impulse
ward Mercury, propelled by QinetiQ gridded aged by the Johns Hopkins University Applied
Magnetoplasma Rocket
ion thrusters. The power processing units Physics Laboratory.
engine is measured with
a series of probes. were developed by Airbus-Crisa. BepiColombo Also in September, Ad Astra Rocket Co. start-
Ad Astra Rocket Co./AASEA was launched in 2018 and is scheduled to arrive ed a Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma
at Mercury in 2025. Also early in 2019, a BHT-200 Rocket, VX-200SS, testing campaign, to complete
Hall effect thruster, or HET, built by Busek Co. of a thermal steady-state 100-kW milestone. Ad Astra
Massachusetts entered operational status on the also bench-tested to full power a 120-kW Tech-
FalconSat-6 satellite, launched in December 2018. nology Readiness Level-5 power processing unit
In February, four Aerojet Rocketdyne XR-5 from Aethera Technologies of Canada, measuring
HET strings were launched on Hellas-Sat. In Au- 98% direct-current-to-radio-frequency efficiency.
gust, another four XR-5s were launched on Ad- Researchers at the University of Tokyo previ-
vanced Extremely High Frequency-5. Arabsat ously reported developing and testing a three-unit
6A, launched in April, and another geostationary cubesat called AQT-D equipped with a 1U water
spacecraft launched during the year will both em- Resistojet system called AQUARIUS. In Septem-
ploy Aerojet Rocketdyne hydrazine Arcjets for ber, AQT-D was launched to the International
North-South station keeping. Space Station.
Also in February, OneWeb Satellites launched its NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California
first six spacecraft out of hundreds planned. One- is developing the Ascendant Sub-kW Transce-
Web’s low-power electric propulsion system, con- lestial Electric Propulsion System, or ASTRAE-
ceived by Airbus, features xenon HETs and innova- US, small satellite HET system for interplanetary
tive electronics and propellant regulation systems. missions, targeting a throttle range of 150 to 1,000
The electric propulsion subsystem is also part of the watts and 100-kilogram xenon throughput, peak
Arrow platform used for other Airbus applications. system efficiency greater than or equal to 50%,
In May, the SpaceX Starlink constellation began to and dry mass less than or equal to 10 kg for the
take shape with the launch of 60 operational satel- thruster, PPU, flow controller and gimbal. Mean-
lites propelled by krypton-fueled HETs. SpaceX has while, a Busek BHT-600 HET duration test accu-
received FCC approval to launch thousands more. mulated 6,300 hours at 600 W through November,
High-power electric propulsion will soon be- demonstrating 860 kilonewtons of total impulse
come part of NASA’s human exploration program. and 60 kg of xenon throughput.
NASA’s Power and Propulsion Element, the first In November, Busek delivered the first
planned element for the lunar Gateway, will carry low-power, iodine-fueled, gridded ion thruster
two Aerojet 13-kilowatt Advanced Electric Pro- flight system. Two more were scheduled for deliv-
pulsion System HETs and four Busek 6-kW HETs. ery before the end of the year.★

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 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Innovations made on NASA initiator, systems were 3D-printed at high rates with fine
layer resolution (approximately 100 microns)
3D printing of propellants, cool gas and tailorable combustion characteristics. The
adopted approach eliminates many of the hurdles
generators commonplace in the industry and can be a trans-
BY JOHN F. ZEVENBERGEN formative fabrication tool, while also supporting
new research in materials development.
The Energetic Components and Systems Technical Committee provides a The holy grail for metal particle combustion
forum for the dissemination of information about propellant and explosive- would be to harness the enormous chemical
based systems for applications ranging from aircraft to space vehicles. potential energy stored within metal fuel par-
ticles at time scales relevant to a detonation
event. Diffusion controlled reactivity limits
aluminum’s energy release potential but with
the development of nanoparticles, time scales
for diffusion-controlled kinetics could approach
detonation. Nanoparticles cannot achieve reac-
tivity at detonation time scales by themselves.
This year, researchers at Texas Tech University

C
and the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in
hanges to the production process for NASA This strand of solid Maryland continued improving the detonation
standard initiators or NSIs, are never made propellant was manufac- time scales. They did this by capitalizing on a 2018
tured with Purdue Uni-
lightly. NSIs provide the initial pulse to begin process breakthrough in which they transformed
versity’s vibration-assist-
critical thermal and mechanical processes ed printing technique. It’s the inert alumina passivation shell surrounding
in both human-rated and uncrewed mis- shown burning at 10.34 the aluminum core into a highly oxidizer-rich
sions. For example, the “seven minutes of terror” megapascals with 300 salt called aluminum iodate hexahydrate, or
required for landing a rover on Mars depends on milliseconds between the AIH, through surface chemistry. In May, the
frames.
the NSIs functioning perfectly. Texas Tech and Aberdeen team prepared the
Purdue University
The first NSI production lot utilizing a new auto- aluminum particle surface with plasma surface
mated manufacturing process was acceptance-tested treatments prior to AIH surface chemistry. The
and delivered to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in plasma etches the surface layer so that AIH for-
Houston in September by Chemring Energetic mation and concentration are more controlled
Devices of Illinois. CED completed the qualification and repeatable. Plasma surface treatment im-
program in late 2018 to become the only certified proves the particles’ safe handling and stability
NSI producer in the world. under ambient conditions by producing a more
The company’s qualification included imple- consistent and repeatable coating. AIH-coated
mentation and verification of new manufacturing Al particles improve the detonation velocity of
technology. Robotics were employed for bridgewire TNT by 30%.
welding and energetic printing, which eliminated In July, ExxFire of the Netherlands finalized
the traditionally operator-dependent processes and installation of 105 of its fire-suppression systems
improved manufacturing safety. Test results showed at Zee Media in New Delhi — the largest ship-
the new process significantly increased the manu- ment ever and a clear vote of confidence from
facturing uniformity and reduced the performance the market. Zee Media is the largest streaming
standard deviation, especially in the actuation timing media company in India and part of the Essel
at minus 251 degrees Celsius. Turning to additive Group. The ExxFire systems use cool-gas gener-
manufacturing for solid propellant fabrication, ator technology from the Netherlands Organi-
these techniques enable structural and compositional sation for Applied Scientific Research, or TNO,
gradients that can improve combustion performance. for suppressing fires in closed volumes such as
However, until this year, additive technologies were server racks and switching cabinets in production
only compatible with materials whose oxidizer mass facilities. The extinguishers produce nitrogen gas
fractions were less than 60 volume %. Research by that lowers the oxygen level and suffocates the
Purdue University this year led to the development fire. While today’s high-pressure cylinders require
of a new additive technique called vibration assisted maintenance, ExxFire’s cool-gas generators store
printing or VAP. This direct-write technique has re- nitrogen gas in solid form in unpressurized cyl-
moved prior material limitations. The Purdue group inders requiring no maintenance. ★
demonstrated in January the additive manufacturing
of solid propellants with oxidizer volume fractions Contributors: Steve Son, Emre Gunduz, Michelle
in excess of 76 vol.%. Furthermore, these material Pantoya, Hobin Lee and Harm Botter

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 47

P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Record-setting engine technologies damage observed in three to four years of flight time
on the Airbus A320neo with just three months of
pave way for third era of aviation testing. An average loading of dirt, determined by
examining thousands of flights, replicated realistic
BY MICHAEL G. LIST
severe operating conditions. Dirt supplied at these
The Gas Turbine Engines Technical Committee works to advance the science and concentrations mimics flight exposure, especially in
technology of aircraft gas turbine engines and engine components. the eastern equatorial region of the world, specifically
in Africa, Middle Eastern countries, India, China and

G
as turbine engine manufacturers continued the Pacific Islands.
developing technologies to improve engine Rolls-Royce of England tested an M250 turbine
performance and durability and to reduce engine in a hybrid electric propulsion system at a
maintenance and environmental impact this test facility in Indianapolis in March. The test matured
year, setting many records along the way. the hybrid electric system for future aircraft and
In June, Pratt & Whitney of Connecticut completed served as a prototype for larger aircraft. The M250,
an accelerated endurance test to assess PW1100G which typically powers helicopters, demonstrated
geared turbofan engine hot-section durability. Half operation in series hybrid, parallel hybrid and tur-
of the new airline passengers over the next 20 years bo-electric modes.
are expected to come from the equatorial and Asian In June, Rolls-Royce and Aeroflot of Russia cel-
region, an area of significant atmospheric dust and The Passport engine ebrated a record for a widebody engine in service.
from GE Aviation was
pollutants that affect engine life. Pratt & Whitney’s One of Aeroflot’s Trent 700 engines completed 50,000
installed on a Bombardier
newly developed severe environment testing in West engine flying hours without requiring an overhaul.
Global 7500 that set
Palm Beach, Florida, coupled with modeling technol- several speed records. The engine first entered service in 2008 and powers
ogy, expedited design enhancements by duplicating GE Aviation an Airbus A330 aircraft.
GE Aviation of Ohio accrued 300 hours of flight
time on the GE9X engine during a second wave of
flight testing that concluded in May on GE’s 747
Flying Test Bed in Victorville, California. In total, GE
flight-tested the GE9X for about 500 hours. GE also
announced in July that the GE9X set a new Guinness
World Records title after reaching 134,300 pounds
of thrust (597 kilonewtons) in a November 2017 test
at its Peebles, Ohio, test stand.
GE Aviation announced in June at the Paris
Air Show several records set by the 18,000-pound
thrust (80 kN) Passport engine. Since begin-
ning operation in December 2018, the Passport-
powered Bombardier Global 7500 set multiple
records for a business jet, including a speed record
from New York to Los Angeles with flight time of 3
hours, 54 minutes and a top speed of Mach 0.925
in March. Bombardier, headquartered in Montreal
also set a nonstop distance record with the Global
7500 of nearly 15,100 kilometers, flown between
Singapore and Tucson, Arizona, in March.
At the Paris Air Show, GE Aviation, Rolls-Royce
and United Technologies Corp. (parent company of
Pratt & Whitney) announced with several airframe
suppliers a commitment to continue developing
technologies to aggressively reduce emissions by
2050. Reductions, as stated in “The Sustainability of
Aviation” are “enabled by advances in new architec-
tures, advanced engine thermodynamic efficiencies,
electric and hybrid-electric propulsion, digitization,
artificial intelligence, materials and manufacturing.”
The announcement demonstrated the strong com-
mitment of the aviation industry to rapid technology
growth for decades to come. ★

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studies for a Mach-8 quiet wind tunnel to be con-

structed at the university.
In July, Space Engine Systems Inc. of Edmonton,
Alberta, which aims to build a single-stage-to-orbit
scramjet vehicle, tested a complete engine at a
4-kilonewtons thrust scale, simulating conditions
from takeoff to Mach 5 at an altitude of 98,000 feet.
Performance of the connectionless titanium heat
exchanger was demonstrated this year by removing
3.9 megawatts for just under 11 milliseconds. Heat
transfer rates were increased by 40% by injecting
nanoparticles in upstream hydrogen, confirming the
selection of Boron Carbide nanoparticles for rapid
pre-cooling, shockwave control and augmented
combustion performance.
In Europe, the Institute of Space Propulsion at
DLR, the German Aerospace Center, conducted
experiments to investigate acoustic flow instabil-
ities and the applicability of transpiration cooling
Lighting fires that can’t be extinguished systems in scramjets and the interaction between
a wedge/flame holder and coolant secondary flow.
BY GREG JOHNSTON, KHALED SALL AM AND ALE X CINTRON
The DLR’s test facility in Lampoldshausen, can
The High-Speed Air-Breathing Propulsion Technical Committee works to advance achieve combustion chamber inlet conditions
the science and technology of systems that enable supersonic and simulating flight speeds ranging from Mach 5.5
hypersonic air vehicle propulsion. to 8. In January, the facility was upgraded with

I
optical measurement capabilities; high-speed and
The Aerodynamic and n August, the U.S. Air Force announced that a pseudo-color background-oriented schlieren. The
Propulsion Test Unit Northrop Grumman-built air-breathing hyper- facility’s shock generator positions were explored
at Arnold Engineering
sonic engine set an Air Force record for thrust. for shock-boundary layer interactions using gaseous
Development Complex
in Tennessee, where a The supersonic combustion ramjet or scramjet hydrogen as a secondary coolant through different
scramjet set a record. engine achieved over 13,000 pounds (58,000 porous wall segments made of sintered stainless
U.S. Air Force newtons) of thrust during nine months of ground steel and carbon fiber reinforced ceramics. The
testing by the Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test Unit cooling efficiency of the hydrogen was increased
at the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development by these interactions, while the reflected/impinging
Complex in Tennessee. shocks and interactions led to coolant ignition.
The 5.5-meter-long engine demonstrated an DLR, in May, also focused on acoustically gener-
unprecedented and remarkably large increase in ated instabilities in the combustion chamber flow,
mass flow capacity, compared to the service’s last nozzle flow and inlet flow, where it was proved that
major scramjet initiative, the flights of the X-51. “A screeching frequencies can cause issues to nozzle
new engine with 10 times the flow of the X-51 would and inlet flows, but were mostly swallowed by the
allow for a new class of scramjet vehicles,” said combustion chamber.
Todd Barhorst, an Air Force Research Laboratory Turning to Asia, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace
aerospace engineer, in an Air Force news article. Exploration Agency, in April finished building a
Barhorst is the lead for the Medium Scale Critical subscale hypersonic engine and experimental flight
Components Scramjet program. vehicle known as HIMICO, short for High-Mach
Engineers were pleased that the engine endured Integrated Control Experiment.
an accumulated half hour of combustion over the India’s Defense Research and Development
course of the test program. Organization in June conducted a flight test of its
The tests were made possible by a two-year Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle, an
upgrade to the Aerodynamic and Propulsion Test unmanned scramjet demonstration aircraft with
Unit’s facility. a short operating capability of about 20 seconds.
NASA, in September, completed fabrication The trial was carried out from Abdul Kalam Island
of the Isolator Dynamics Research Laboratory in the Bay of Bengal. ★
at Langley Research Center in Virginia, which is
capable of Mach 2.5 cold flow. Contributors: Todd Barhorst, Brandon Chynoweth,
In June, Purdue University received a $5.9 million Robin Hunt, Jesse Kadosh, Masataka Maita,
contract from AFRL for risk-reduction and design Sean Smith, Friedolin Strauss and Hideyuki Taguchi

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P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

tinued to lead technology development

for a Mars Ascent Vehicle intended to
deliver samples from the surface of
Mars into orbit. To this end, Whitting-
hill Aerospace of California carried out
full-scale motor testing of a wax-based
fuel with MON-25, a mixed oxide of ni-
trogen, in April and July at the Mojave
Spaceport. Test motors and oxidizer
were conditioned to an assumed Mars
operational temperature of minus 20
degrees Celsius. In this study, research-
ers achieved high-performance, stable
burns with durations of 60 seconds. The
Space Propulsion Group of California

Advanced manufacturing extends

and Montana performed similar but smaller, sep-
arate tests in Butte, Montana, in January and April

operational boundaries of hybrids and had the same results. In addition, researchers
at Purdue University in August presented findings
BY TIMOTHY MARQUARDT AND JOSEPH MA JDAL ANI that they demonstrated the hypergolic ignition
and multiple relights of a paraffin-based hybrid
The Hybrid Rockets Technical Committee studies techniques applied to motor with various hypergolic solids added to
the design and testing of rocket motors using hybrid rocket systems. the headend of the fuel grain containing MON-
25. Tests showed good agreement with previously

V
Virgin Space Ship irgin Galactic in February launched Virgin completed MON-3 testing, with some tests experi-
Unity in space with three
Space Ship Unity into space with a crew encing ignition delays.
crew members aboard.
of three aboard, 10 weeks after its first trip The additive manufacture of advanced hy-
Virgin Galactic
beyond the 80-kilometer space boundary. brid rocket motors to enhance burn rates and
Powered by a hybrid motor that provided 320 efficiencies continued to grow. This year, the Aero-
kilonewtons of thrust for nearly 60 seconds, this space Corp. of California produced hollow liquid
spaceship reached Mach 3.04 and an apogee fuel grains that used 3D-printed features to me-
of nearly 90 km before returning to the Mojave ter the delivery of liquid fuels such as kerosene.
Spaceport in California. This arrangement combined the capabilities of
Researchers at Stanford University demon- liquid-engine performance with the safety and
strated laser ignition of a hybrid fuel grain in a simplicity of hybrids. In the first half of the year,
lab-scale slab burner. They presented high-speed Aerospace Corp. flight-tested an advanced hybrid
imaging results in July that identified the under- rocket with these new liquid grains and a 54-milli-
lying ignition mechanism as the entrainment and meter rocket motor.
laser heating of small soot particles formed during In a separate program, Aerospace Corp. and
fuel pyrolysis or chemical decomposition. A small Penn State continued development of a hybrid
and lightweight laser diode, combined with a few propulsion unit for cubesats. Collaborators at
simple optical elements, provided energy to a Penn State demonstrated start, stop and restart
specific point on the fuel surface and heated soot capabilities of the unit early in the year before
particles well beyond the temperature required returning it to the Aerospace Corp. for further
for fuel pyrolysis. These particles then transferred development. The propulsion unit consists of a
energy to the vaporized propellant mixture, ignit- 3D-printed solid fuel grain in a combustion cham-
ing the motor. Experiments have confirmed that ber integrated into and surrounded by a toroidal
only those fuels that produced soot were com- oxidizer tank. The chamber/tank component was
patible with this technique, but the method holds created with direct metal laser sintering, a form of
promise for broader applicability. Tests in a sin- 3D printing that melts metal powder together with
gle-port motor that aimed the laser at a small tar- lasers. This technique eases the production of in-
get area of a compatible fuel embedded in a larger, tricate parts that possess the necessary thermal
non-soot-producing fuel grain demonstrated ig- and mechanical properties for use in propulsion
nition of the motor at both atmospheric and vacu- systems.★
um exit conditions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California Contributors: David Dyrda, Andrew Cortopassi and
and Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama con- George Story

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 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

2 supersonic aircraft programs reach The functional design and analysis of the inlet was
completed in nine months, with the model fabri-
testing milestones cation taking an additional three months. A short-
ened development phase was made possible by
BY JONATHAN S. LITT, TIM CONNERS AND JEFFREY D. FL AMM
baselining the design from a known successful ex-
The Inlets, Nozzles and Propulsion Systems Integration Technical Committee ample, Concorde’s wide-throat slot inlet; by judi-
focuses on the application of mechanical design, fluid mechanics and cious use of well-understood computational tools
thermodynamics to the science and technology of air vehicle propulsion and methods along with the ability to upsurge
and power systems integration. CPU demand as needed using cloud computing;

B
and by restrained parametric surveys that allowed
oom Supersonic made substantial prog- rapid convergence toward a high-performance,
ress in the design, assembly and testing of though not necessarily optimized, design.
its XB-1 supersonic demonstrator aircraft. Another noteworthy XB-1 development at
This work culminated in engine ground Boom this year is the design of the vehicle’s
testing, which concluded in February at the U.S. aerodynamically complex secondary flow path
Air Force Academy in Colorado. The test demon- through the extensive use of computational tools.
strated that measured inlet distortion levels were This involved modeling the throat bleed manage-
acceptable for XB-1’s three GE J85-CAN-15 en- ment, engine bay cooling flow, pressure relief sys-
gines. This achievement followed wind tunnel tems, integrated ejector nozzle and J85 variable
testing of the inlet at the Boeing Polysonic Wind nozzle geometry. Ejector nozzle performance
Tunnel in St. Louis in late 2018. was characterized using high-fidelity computa-
The XB-1’s 2D hybrid compression inlet mod- tional fluid dynamic models of the fully coupled
el was designed for sustained Mach 2.2 operation secondary flow path. This effort improved ae-
and uses modular fore and aft ramps, spill door ro-model fidelity and reduced uncertainty of the
geometry and a wide-throat bleed slot that was overall vehicle mission performance. Along with
based on Concorde’s. An aft-mounted auxiliary axisymmetric inlet concepts, the test-verified 2D
The X-59 Quiet Super-
intake effectively reduces low-speed distortion, sonic Technology 9.5% inlet geometry and architecture are supporting
although it is not required to meet flow demand. scale model was tested conceptual design studies for Overture, Boom’s
Analysis of test data proved that high throat bleed at Mach numbers from commercial supersonic airliner.
gives the inlet a modest amount of efficient inter- 0.3 to 1.55 in the 8-by- In preparation for the X-59 Quiet Supersonic
6-foot Supersonic Wind
nal compression and produced test-based pres- Technology critical design review, which occurred
Tunnel at NASA’s Glenn
sure recoveries across the operating range that met Research Center. in September, engineers from Lockheed Martin,
or exceeded Concorde’s published performance. NASA General Electric and NASA completed NASA’s
low-boom flight demon-
strator inlet dynamic
distortion test entry at
the 8-by-6-foot Super-
sonic Wind Tunnel at
NASA’s Glenn Research
Center in Cleveland in
May. The test verified
the acceptability of the
unsteady inlet distor-
tion characteristics. The
9.5% scale model was
tested at Mach numbers
from 0.3 to 1.55. A mass
flow plug was used to
vary inlet mass flow. In-
strumentation included
an 80-probe rake at the
aerodynamic interface
plane: 40 pitot pressure
probes and 40 high-re-
sponse Kulite probes in
side-by-side arrange-
ment. ★

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P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Commercial Crew, engine tests gines to be used on the European Service Module
supporting the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis-2
mark an active year mission.
In Europe, Ariane Group qualified its cryogen-
BY DAVID J. COOTE AND VINEET AHUJA
ic propulsion systems for the Ariane 6; the upper
The Liquid Propulsion Technical Committee works to advance reaction stage Vinci engine passed its final qualification
propulsion engines employing liquid or gaseous propellants. review in June, and the lower stage Vulcain 2.1
engine completed qualification testing in July, ac-
cumulating a total operation burn time of 13,800
seconds. Prometheus, a European Space Agency
future launcher preparatory development effort
to create a reusable LOX/methane engine, com-
pleted its subsystem’s manufacturing readiness
reviews in 2019, and two demonstrator engines are
planned for hot-fire testing in 2020. JAXA, the Ja-
pan Aerospace Exploration Agency, continued the
development of the first-stage LE-9 engine and the
second-stage LE-5B3 engine for its first H3 flight
in 2020. The LE-9 engine completed engineering
model hot-fire testing in October and was to start
qualification testing in December at Tanegashi-

S
The Space Launch ignificant progress was made this year in NA- ma Space Center. Testing of the Battleship H3 first
System’s core stage SA’s Commercial Crew program. In March, stage (two LE-9s), initiated in December 2018, was
pathfinder is positioned
SpaceX launched to the International Space to finish in December at the Tashiro Test Complex.
in the B-2 Tes t Stand at
NASA’s Stennis Space
Station an uncrewed Dragon capsule on a The LE-5B3 finished qualification testing in Febru-
Center in Mississippi. Falcon 9 rocket and then recovered the rocket. The ary at the Kakuda Space Center and Tashiro.
Crews practice handling Falcon 9 first stage that will launch the first crewed In small thruster news, in January, Aerojet Rock-
skills with a pathfinder mission completed static hot-fire acceptance test- etdyne’s monopropellant hydrazine propulsion
before working with the
ing in April. In other Commercial Crew activities, system powered the New Horizons spacecraft on
real core stage.
NASA
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner completed key pro- the most distant solar system flyby as it passed
pulsion system mission static testing in May, sim- within 3,500 kilometers of Kuiper Belt object Ulti-
ulating on-orbit maneuvering and high-and-low ma Thule, 3½ years after its Pluto flyby. In June, as
altitude abort. Blue Origin flew the New Shepard part of a joint effort among Aerojet Rocketdyne, Ball
suborbital vehicle in May in preparation for its first Aerospace, NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research
human flight. In May, Blue Origin unveiled its BE- Laboratory, the Green Propellant Infusion Mission
7, a highly efficient, deep-throttling engine with was launched. It’s a 13-month demonstration of the
restart capability that can power in-space systems. AFRL’s revolutionary “green” propellant, AF-M315E.
In other commercial activities, United Launch In additive manufacturing activities, a full-
Alliance’s next-generation launcher, Vulcan Cen- scale, 3D-printed high-pressure liquid oxygen/
taur, powered by BE-4 engines in the first stage kerosene rocket engine combustion chamber
and RL-10 engines in the upper stage, completed incorporating additive copper alloy GRCop-84
its final design review in May. In January, Blue Ori- completed testing in February at NASA’s Mar-
gin initiated the process to build the BE-4 engines shall Space Flight Center in Alabama for Virgin
that will also be used to power its New Glenn rock- Orbit, delivering 8,900 newtons (2,000 pounds) of
et. In August, Sierra Nevada Corp. announced it thrust in 24 60-second test firings. In April, Aero-
would use the Vulcan for its Dream Chaser space- jet Rocketdyne also completed initial testing of
craft, which completed its final design review in its next-generation RL10C-X engine that uses a
December 2018. 3D-printed injector and thrust chamber.
In August, NASA’s Space Launch System core In April, the University of Southern California’s
stage pathfinder was fit-checked in the B2 test Rocket Propulsion Laboratory designed, built and
stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi launched a rocket that passed the Karman line,
in preparation for installation and hot-fire testing believed to be a first for a student team. ★
of the SLS Exploration Mission-1 core stage in May
2020. In February, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne Contributors: Colin Cowles, Steven Baggette,
resumed hot-fire testing of the RS-25 engines at Christoph Kirchberger, Scott Miller, Koichi Okita,
Stennis. Aerojet Rocketdyne also delivered eight 490 Timothee Pourpoint, Dieter Preclik and
newtons (110 pounds) of thrust R-4D auxiliary en- Chandrashekhar Sonwane

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 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

propulsion that does not expel mass and only

uses electrical power. CSU-Fullerton has been
developing and testing Mach effect devices for 25
years as well as refining the theory of operation.
Experiments in Germany, Canada and Italy and
by multiple independent researchers in the U.S.
are heavily focused on thrust balance calibration,
experimental procedure, signal amplification and
corrections to the theory. The forces generated from
these devices are generally less than 10 micronew-
tons, but the true nature and source of the signals
remains inconclusive. If the theory is found to be
legitimate, Mach effect research could pave the way
Nuclear propulsion planning focuses on for new propulsion physics and have applications
well beyond space systems.
modular, sustainable designs Researchers from Quantum Fields LLC in Illi-
nois; the Institute for Advanced Studies in Texas;
BY BRYAN PAL ASZEWSKI
and the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and
The Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committee works to Engineering Research at Baylor University in Texas
advance the implementation and design of nonchemical, high-energy published new results in August on producing and
propulsion systems other than electric thruster systems. accessing the negative quantum vacuum energy

S
densities theoretically required by general relativity
An artist’s rendering ince 2016, NASA has been exploring low- to produce novel propulsion schemes such as warp
shows a modular and enriched uranium, LEU, reactors for nuclear drives and worm holes. This work noted the star-
sustainable nuclear
thermal propulsion or NTP. The LEU NTP tling fact that the theoretical quantum inequality
thermal propulsion space
vehicle for crewed
project, led by NASA, is aimed at developing restrictions needed to generate such energies have
missions to Mars. Hydro- a demonstrator to fly before 2030 as a test for not been experimentally tested. The researchers
gen fuel would be heated crewed missions to Mars. Significant conceptional analyzed the various technical schemes known
by three nuclear fission design evaluations and work were completed toward to produce “squeezed vacuum states” with the
reactors and exhausted
LEU NTP in 2019. technique called a “squeezed light” and discovered
through converging-
diverging nozzles to
In February, the LEU NTP project received ad- that the restrictions were violated in the evaluated
produce thrust. ditional funding and initiated several studies with published quantum optics squeezed light experi-
Aerojet Rocketdyne industry and U.S. Energy Department labs. ments (represented by 25 years of published data).
In May, Aerojet Rocketdyne refined its predicted The Casimir effect (with negative vacuum energy
performance modeling of an LEU NTP engine. density in the space between the two Casimir cavity
In July, researchers at NASA’s Marshall Space walls) is also expected to demonstrate experimental
Flight Center in Alabama revisited demonstrator violation of quantum inequality, but this experiment
vehicle concepts through various design cycles. has yet to be demonstrated in the lab because of
In August, retired nuclear engineer David Black numerous technical challenges. The consequence of
published a study concluding that low-enriched ura- the experimental violations of quantum inequality
nium reactors, though higher in mass than a highly was that nature does not impose any truly signifi-
enriched uranium reactor, can be designed to meet cant constraint on technologically producing and
the mission, lifetime and operability requirements accessing negative vacuum energy density; this
of NTP missions while simultaneously offering less result implied that there should be no roadblock to
stringent safety, security and proliferation concerns. artificially producing a warp drive or a traversable
Also in August, the Energy Department’s Sandia wormhole to achieve faster-than-light propulsion
National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Lab- for interstellar flight.
oratory and Idaho National Laboratory worked In August, Stan Borowski presented a summary
with Marshall and BWX Technologies of Virginia to of recent design studies in both nuclear thermal
develop a path forward for LEU NTP fuel selection propulsion and in-situ resource utilization that
and reactor design. could lead to viable experiments blending the two
In other advanced propulsion areas, NASA’s Inno- technologies. This work will be critical for planning
vative Advanced Concepts office in April conducted and modeling missions using NTP. Borowski retired
a Phase II midterm review for a proposal awarded in December 2018 from NASA’s Glenn Research
in 2018 to California State University-Fullerton to Center after a 30-year career. ★
continue its experimental efforts examining the
Mach effect, a theoretical form of gravitational Contributors: Eric Davis and Greg Meholic

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 53

P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Advances in science and technology of to condition the exit flow for a downstream turbine.
NASA researchers continued in-house numerical
pressure gain combustion investigation and optimization efforts in resonant
pulse combustion and RDE systems for applica-
BY AJAY AGR AWAL AND DON FERGUSON
tion to gas turbine engines. Additionally, under
The Pressure Gain Combustion Technical Committee advances the an internal Center Innovation Fund, a rotating
investigation, development and application of pressure-gain technologies detonation rocket engine nozzle optimization
for improving propulsion and power-generation systems and achieving study and high-level rocket system benefits model
new mission capabilities. development were initiated. In May, NASA solicited
development proposals under Phase I Rocket Engine
and Research, Development, Demonstration, and
Infusion Early-Stage Innovations grants programs.
In August, researchers at Purdue University re-
ported development of an axial and outflow radial
turbines suitable for small core RDEs. In an effort
to assess the performance of the turbine-combustor
interactions, an optically accessible test rig was
developed in cooperation with Spectral Energies.
In February, University of Michigan researchers
identified and quantified regions of parasitic and
commensal secondary combustion that affect the
detonation wave in an RDE and identified the pres-
ence of secondary waves. Secondary combustion

F
and secondary waves couple together, ultimately
A rotating or propulsion and power-generation systems, changing the stability and structure of the primary
detonation engine detonation-based pressure-gain combus- detonation wave.
was tested at Nagoya
tion has the potential to deliver higher fuel In March, a team of researchers at the Univer-
University in Japan in
preparation for a
efficiency at reduced weight and footprint. sity of Alabama used time-resolved particle image
sounding rocket This makes PGC attractive for terrestrial velocimetry to measure the exhaust flow of an RDE
experiment planned for systems, as well as aerospace applications such as operated on methane and oxygen-enriched air
2020. rockets and hypersonics. Recent investments have mixtures and demonstrated that the circumferential
Nagoya University
enabled quantitative flow and combustion diagnos- flow oscillations decreased by operating the RDE at
tics and improved the technology readiness level by high pressures, and a downstream diffuser further
transitioning laboratory concepts toward practice. homogenized the flow for turbine applications.
Government, industry and academic institutions Activities at the Naval Postgraduate School from
around the globe this year continued to advance April through June focused on RDE parametric
PGC to a new and higher technical level. studies of combustor inlet area ratios, channel width
The U.S. Air Force, Navy, Department of Energy and back-pressurization conditions to determine
and NASA continued to support several PGC research pressure-gain performance. This was done through
efforts. In June, the Air Force Research Laboratory and the application of equivalent available pressure
Innovative Scientific Solutions Inc. conducted a ground which is an important parameter in evaluating the
demonstration of a rotating detonation engine,or RDE, performance of a PGC device.
capable of propelling a Long-EZ aircraft. This effort In Japan, Nagoya University, Keio University,
demonstrated adequate thrust for takeoff and cruise Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan
operation, and acoustic measurements confirmed a Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Muroran Institute
safe noise level for ground operations. of Technology fabricated the preflight model of a
The Department of Energy’s National Energy detonation engine system toward a sounding-rocket
Technology Laboratory funded RDE development spaceflight test scheduled for August 2020.
efforts by Aerojet Rocketdyne with teammates from At Tsinghua University in Beijing, the effects
Purdue University, University of Michigan, Univer- of a perforated wall on the hydrogen/air rotating
sity of Alabama, University of Central Florida and detonation were studied emphasizing analysis of
Southwest Research Institute. In May, the campaign acoustics and propagation stabilities. Experiments
conducted hot-fire testing of a 30-centimeter di- were also performed on kerosene/oxygen-enriched
ameter natural gas and air RDE at Purdue’s Zucrow air rotating detonation. Using an Eulerian-Lagrang-
Labs. Using multiple hardware configurations, the ian two-way coupling model, a 2D simulation of
team demonstrated detonation combustion with a two-phase kerosene-air rotating detonation was
low loss injector and an exhaust diffuser designed conducted using high-order numerical methods. ★

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 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Expanding ignition and combustion limits soot and fuel spray. Preliminary results with numer-
ical simulations are encouraging, and the design
and alternative fuels for the future must be numerically optimized and experimentally
tested. The LFP injection system offers a route toward
BY TIMOTHY OMBRELLO AND CL ARESTA DENNIS
the application of a premixed combustion mode
The Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee works to advance for significant advancement of aircraft propulsion.
the knowledge and effective use of propellants and combustion systems Results were published at the ASME Turbo Expo 2019
for military, civil and commercial aerospace systems. and the AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 2019.

M
Following the theme of lean combustor operation,
ultiple milestones were achieved this an on-going project funded by AFRL studied lean
year that demonstrated the unique ad- blowout, or LBO, and intrinsically flame stabilization.
vantages of repetitive pulsed discharges Transient sequences of a laboratory-scale premixed
for ignition in reacting flows relevant to flame were undertaken and identified the role of
a variety of engines. the swirling flow inner recirculation zone during
The milestones were achieved through collabo- the LBO. Premixed simulations were performed
ration among the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to resolve the flame-front thickness at nearly the
in Ohio, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Kolmogorov scales throughout the domain. The
Oregon State University, Texas A&M University, Uni- overall dynamics and simulation results favorably
versity of Central Florida and University of Dayton. compared with experiments.
In January, infrared imaging thermometry Shifting to sustainable aviation fuels, or SAF, work
showed that the synergy between pulses at frequencies this year under the multiagency National Jet Fuels
greater than or equal to 10 kilohertz produced elevated Combustion Program, a European collaborative
temperature ignition kernels, which explained the program, and a Navy program developed a two-tiered
higher ignition probabilities and more rapid kernel prescreening methodology to predict and measure
growth rates observed in previous years’ efforts. properties and, in turn, predict the effect of these
Complementing the temperature measurements, properties on critical high volume and cost approval
50-kHz planar laser-induced fluorescence measure- tests. ASTM D4054, the process for SAF approval is
ments, in April, confirmed that sustained elevated complex. The proposed prescreening methodologies
concentrations of hydroxyl radicals are present in do not replace the established ASTM process, but
developing ignition kernels for greater than or equal can provide a producer with increased confidence
to10 kHz pulsation rates. of approval and perhaps accelerate the process. The
In July, optical emission spectroscopy measure- United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization
ments revealed that pulsation frequencies of 250 kHz identifies the market adoption of SAFs as the major
nearly doubled the translational temperature over opportunity to mitigate the environmental impact of
single pulse temperatures. The results thus far have aviation transportation; hence, there is market interest
shown that high-frequency repetitive pulsing allows and importance to these new developments.
enhanced and optimized ignition in reacting flows. In support of the SAF prescreening proposal, re-
In a quest to decrease emissions for commercial searchers at the University of Dayton, Purdue University
aircraft engines, a six-month computational effort and the German Aerospace Center, DLR, in September
Hydroxyl radical
planar laser-induced
funded by NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Ohio developed software to read gas chromatograph results
fluorescence images of ended in February after developing the initial de- to predict critical fuel properties while requiring only
ignition at 100 microsec- sign of a novel injection system, called Lean Fully microliters of volume, and researchers at Stanford Uni-
onds after the last spark Premixed. This injection method achieves fully versity were planning to apply midinfrared absorption
discharge in 10-pulse
premixed combustion with the key advantages of capabilities to predict properties; manuscripts have
bursts at 8, 10 and 20
minimizing NOx (nitrogen oxides) and eliminating been submitted for publication describing the new
kilohertz pulse repetition
frequencies applied in a process. A Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels
premixed methane-air Initiative technical guidance document (www.caafi.
flow. Elevated hydroxyl org) posted in September summarized some of these
radical concentrations
results. Collectively, these prescreening results and
for pulse repetition
frequency greater than
methodologies significantly lower the barrier for early
or equal to 10 kHz lead to SAF evaluations and offer the opportunity to expedite
higher ignition proba- the approval process of novel SAFs. ★
bilities and more rapid
kernel development to
Contributors: Campbell Carter, Med Colket, Stephen
enhance ignition across
a broad range of engine
Hammack, Ron Hanson, Joshua Heyne, Gozdem Kilaz,
combustors. Joseph Lefkowitz, Patrick LeClercq, Paul Palies and
U.S. Air Force Bastian Rauch

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P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Northrop Grumman
provided a modified
Peacekeeper solid rocket
booster and the abort
and attitude control
motors for the launch of
the Orion capsule, seen
here just after liftoff for
an in-flight test of the
launch abort system.
Aerojet Rocketdyne built
the jettison motor.
Northrop Grumman

Solid rocket motor waves from around and testing of the Orion launch abort system,
Northrop Grumman conducted several tests of

the world other solid rockets. In April, the company con-

ducted the second ground test of the newly devel-
BY ORIE CECIL AND JOSEPH MA JDAL ANI oped 63-inch-diameter (160 centimeter) Graphite
The Solid Rockets Technical Committee studies techniques applied to the design, Epoxy Motor. Known as GEM 63, it is a strap-on
testing and modeling of rocket motors based on solid propellant grains. solid booster motor that will provide extra power
to United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V. Additionally, in

A
erojet Rocketdyne expanded this year with May, Northrop Grumman tested the first stage of
two new solid rocket motor facilities. In its new OmegA rocket in Promontory, Utah. The
April, the company began construction on motor fired for 122 seconds, producing more than
a 17,000-square-foot (5,100 square meter) 2 million pounds (8.9 million newtons) of thrust.
engineering, manufacturing and development The European Space Agency, French National
complex for large solid rocket motors in Camden, Center for Space Studies and Europropulsion col-
Arkansas. The company opened a 136,000-square- laborated on a test for the first qualification model
foot (41,000 square meter) advanced manufactur- of the P120C solid rocket motor in January. This
ing facility in June in Huntsville, Alabama. stands as the second test of the P120C; the first
Beyond new buildings, Aerojet Rocketdyne was in July 2018. ArianeGroup and Avio co-devel-
also achieved a hardware milestone in June when oped the P120C in support of the Ariane 6 and Ve-
it delivered the jettison motor for Lockheed Mar- ga-C rockets. It is housed in a monolithic carbon
tin’s Orion spacecraft. The jettison motor is re- fiber case, making it the largest such rocket in the
sponsible for separating Orion’s launch abort world.
system from the crew module after a launch or China’s Smart Dragon-1 rocket was launched
after the crew module has been detached from for the first time in August. China Rocket Co. devel-
the main vehicle and reoriented in the case of a oped Smart Dragon-1, which is designed to deploy
launch failure. small commercial satellites (about 200 kilograms)
Northrop Grumman also played its part in the into orbit using four solid-propellant stages. Also
ongoing development of the Orion capsule. In July, faring from China, iSpace in July became the first
when Orion underwent a test of both the capsule private Chinese company to launch a payload into
and launch abort system, Northrop Grumman pro- orbit. The payload consisted of several small sat-
vided a modified Peacekeeper booster to lift the ellites and was propelled into space on board the
capsule and launch abort system, which exposed Hyperbola-1, which was comprised of four stages,
both systems to atmospheric flight conditions. In the first three using solid propellants. ★
addition to the booster, Northrop Grumman pro-
vided the abort and attitude control motors. Contributors: Clyde Carr, Michel Berdoyes and
Apart from its role in the development Scott McHenry

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 P R O P U L S I O N A N D E N E R GY

Progress made toward hydrogen- of hydrogen with incoming air. These combustors
have been proposed to offer lower NOx emissions
powered aircraft and biofuels and good flame stability limits. If successful, these
combustors could pave the way for future hydro-
BY BHUPENDR A KHANDELWAL AND K ATHARINE COGGESHALL
gen-powered aircraft.
The Terrestrial Energy Systems Technical Committee works to advance the application On another front, researchers at Los Alamos
of engineering sciences and systems engineering to the production, storage, National Laboratory identified ideal algal strains
distribution and conservation of energy for terrestrial uses. for producing cost-effective, refinery-compatible

G
diesel and jet fuel precursors.
lobally, the decrease in fossil fuel reserves Biologist Christina Steadman of LANL designed
and the advent of a climate emergency are a new suite of flow cytometry techniques and de-
pushing society toward different energy scribed them in a November paper in the journal
sources for propulsion. Renewable power Algal Research. These methods fast-track the process
sources may always lack sufficient ener- of identifying ideal strain candidates for genetic
gy density for some aerospace applications, and enhancement. Steadman can track algal physiology
therefore additional options need to be explored. and function within a given strain.
Compressed or liquified hydrogen has high Beyond the identification of strains well-suited
specific energy and energy density, making it a good for bioengineering, Steadman’s techniques also
candidate for powering gas turbines in aircraft. aid in evaluating how algae strains react after bio-
However, due to emissions and onboard storage engineering takes place. Complicated metabolic
challenges no more study has explored the use of interactions cannot always be predicted.
hydrogen as an aviation fuel since the multinational Also, Amanda Barry, a LANL biologist and pro-
CRYOPLANE Project of the 1990s and early 2000s. gram manager, furthered her groundbreaking 2018
This year saw a renewal of interest in hydro- research by identifying additional algaes that have the
gen as a potential source of propulsive power for ability to break down raw plant biomass, revealing
aircraft. In a variety of conference presentations this characteristic to be more common across algae
and journal papers between June and September, genera than previously thought.
The Los Alamos Na- researchers from the University of Sheffield and Barry’s 2018 research on Auxenochlorella proto-
tional Laboratory’s pond Cranfield University in the United Kingdom and FH thecoides, described in the September 2018 issue of
simulator photobioreactor Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Germany Algal Research, established the first report on direct
mimics outdoor condi-
proposed new micromix-based combustor concepts degradation and utilization of raw plant hemicellulose
tions in algae cultivation,
enabling rapid-paced
in which thousands of small flames would maintain by a freshwater alga. She showed that the algae can
energy security research. combustion. Such designs would produce limited grow, both phototrophically and heterotrophically, by
Los Alamos National Laboratory NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions from the burning feeding on dried and chopped switchgrass (common
lawn residue).
Feeding algae with
lawn clippings could
help make algal biomass
production economical,
given that lawn clippings
are inexpensive or free.
The costs of producing
biomass from algae
compared to the current
cost of fossil fuels has
been the limiting factor
for viable biofuel com-
petition. Both Stead-
man’s bioengineering
approach and Barry’s
all-natural approach
promise increased al-
gae biomass and lipid
production, which are
needed to produce diesel
and jet-fuel precursors,
at a reduced cost. ★

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S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

sonalized treatment, such as gene therapy, to pre-

vent or reverse adverse effects.
Immunity has long been a concern for astro-
nauts, not least because microbes reproduce differ-
ently in microgravity. Researchers are also learning
more about the human immune response in space;
for example, the twins study found that a flu vac-
cine can be administered and effectively provide
immunity in space. This encouraging result is offset
by findings that Scott Kelly’s immune response and
inflammation were negatively affected by the stress-
es of landing and reintroduction of Earth’s environ-
ment after long-term adaptation to spaceflight.
Telomeres are the critical end sections of our
chromosomes, thought to be related to aging and
other biological processes. Scott Kelly’s white
blood cell telomeres unexpectedly lengthened
in space, but were then shorter than their orig-
inal length upon his landing and eventually re-
turned to baseline length after a few months on
the ground. These results suggest that long-term
spaceflight may affect aging and other aspects of
genetic stability. NASA is planning follow-up stud-
ies to further confirm and characterize these pre-
Kelly twins’ year-in-space study viously unknown effects.
Researchers also found that significant cog-
yields data nitive degradation develops over a year in orbit
and then remains after months of adaptation
BY JONATHAN G. METTS
back to conditions on Earth. Metrics that don’t
The Life Sciences and Systems Technical Committee advances technologies seem to recover quickly, if at all, are particularly
required to keep people healthy and safe as they explore space. concerning to NASA mission planners, who need
to keep a flight crew healthy and savvy for Mars

I
Astronaut Scott Kelly n April, the journal Science published multidis- surface operations after enduring several months
self-administers a flu vac- ciplinary results of “The NASA Twins Study: A in deep-space transit.
cine on the International
multidimensional analysis of a year-long human In October, NASA sought industry feedback
Space Station as part of
NASA’s Twins Study.
spaceflight.” This broad suite of bioastronautics on plans to eventually outsource its new space-
NASA research focused on a pair of identical twins, both suit for lunar and planetary exploration, named
now retired astronauts, Scott and Mark Kelly. For xEMU. The agency is committing to build and
the 27 months of study, numerous samples and test the first suits of this new design, already
metrics were voluntarily collected from the broth- many years into development. These initial, NA-
ers before, during and after Scott’s 340-day mission SA-produced suits will be flown on ISS in 2023
aboard the International Space Station. The par- and are scheduled to be worn when humans once
ticipation of both twins allowed Mark to become again walk on the moon as early as 2024, as part
a genetically identical baseline against which to of the Artemis 3 mission. Looking beyond, NASA
compare the spaceflight-induced changes that plans to hand over subsequent suit production to
Scott experienced throughout his year in space. industry partners, and its solicitation addresses
The study examined epigenetic changes, commercialization of suit upgrades, tools, vehi-
which are the body’s reaction to an environment cle interfaces and spacewalk opportunities for
through selective expression of genes. Post-land- non-NASA customers.
ing samples helped researchers learn that while NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina
living in space does affect gene expression in myr- Koch performed the first all-female spacewalk
iad ways, most of those changes reverse within in October. They installed a new power charging
a few months of returning to Earth. Conversely, unit outside the ISS. NASA had planned an all-fe-
some epigenetic consequences of long-duration male spacewalk for March, but those plans were
spaceflight appear to be permanent. Identifying deferred for lack of a second medium-size torso
which genes are most affected, and when those piece of the American spacesuit, known as the ISS
expressions onset and stabilize, may lead to per- Extravehicular Mobility Unit. ★

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 S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

burned fuel with inert gas to study

the quantity of soot produced under
different flame conditions. The soot
clusters produced by a flame glow
yellow when hot and they grow larger
in microgravity because the soot
remains within the flame longer.
The research is aimed at reducing
pollutant emission in practical ter-
restrial combustion and spacecraft
fire prevention research.
Microgravity effects on humans
are of concern for long-term resi-
dence on the ISS and potential deep
space missions. Scientists at the
University of Washington School of
Pharmacy and UW Medicine, with
collaborators, designed an experi-
ment to study microgravity effects
on human kidney health, specifically
on segments of renal tubules (the
renal tubule receives plasma filtrate
and processes it into the urine). The
researchers launched the Kidney-
on-a-Chip Space Project to the ISS
in May. The 24 credit-card-size chips

Microgravity research advances have fluid microchambers that are

lined with human-derived kidney cells for examin-

physical, biological and material ing two segments of the renal tubule with different
aspects of filtrate absorption. Experimenters will
sciences analyze the chips upon their return to Earth.
March marked the third anniversary of additive
BY SUNIL CHINTAL APATI manufacturing on the ISS, where machinery has
produced 115 tools. Additionally, this year saw the
The Microgravity and Space Processes Technical Committee encourages
the advancement and public awareness of low-gravity studies in physics, launch of an innovative 3D printer by Techshot Inc.,
materials, biological sciences and related fields. an ISS commercial facility partner, and nScrypt, a

A
manufacturer of industrial 3D bioprinters and elec-
A flame ignited in the stronauts on the International Space Sta- tronics printers, to manufacture human tissue in
Combustion Integrated tion carried out about 300 microgravity microgravity. In August, astronauts began operating
Rack on the International
experiments this year. The commercial the 3D BioFabrication Facility, which “uses adult hu-
Space Station to investi-
gate the amount of soot
and research experiments included those man cells (such as stem or pluripotent cells) and adult
that is produced. The in physical and life sciences and advanced tissue-derived proteins as its bioink to create viable
soot clusters glow yellow manufacturing. tissue,” according to a Techshot news release. Manu-
when hot. These clusters Scientists from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in facturing of soft human tissue on Earth is hampered
grow larger in micrograv-
Ohio oversaw the flame design experiment, which due to soft tissue collapse in gravity. Experimenters
ity than on Earth because
the soot remains within
aims to optimize oxygen-enriched combustion by aim to use the 3D BioFabrication Facility to print soft
the flame longer. examining the production of soot. Flame design is tissue and strengthen cell-culturing systems before
NASA part of the Advanced Combustion via Microgravity sending them back to Earth to potentially create
Experiments. The flame design experiment was patient-specific replacement tissues.
conducted in the Combustion Integrated Rack, This year also marked the 15th flight oppor-
or CIR, which provides an isolated environment to tunity for the Students Spaceflight Experiment
conduct combustion-related experiments. A flame Program. Each year, this program gives hundreds
in reduced gravity tends to be spherical. While on of students a chance to design experiments to fly
Earth, hot gases from the flame rise, while the cooler aboard the ISS. This year, 3,683 students submitted
dense gas is pulled down by gravity. proposals and 41 experiments flew to the ISS. A
Astronauts conducted the flame design ex- total of 23,117 students from fifth grade through
periment from March to October. Experimenters college were involved. ★

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A camera aboard
the MarCO-B cubesat
snapped this image of
Mars as it flew by the
red planet in November
2018 after completing its
telemetry relay contri-
bution to NASA’s Mars
InSight mission. In Feb-
ruary, NASA announced
that both MarCO satel-
lites had gone silent.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Small satellites deliver science, of its prototype small satellites on a Soyuz-ST-B

communications, commercial missions Fregat mission. The company has a planned con-
stellation of 648 microsatellites of 125 kg each.
BY MARTIN LINDSEY The first six satellites were dedicated to connect-
ing remote schools throughout the world. OneWeb
The Small Satellite Technical Committee works to advance the science and also announced in September that it would be
engineering of satellites, launch vehicles and ground systems to enable the
the first company to provide 300 gigabytes-per-
development of small and highly capable spacecraft.
second communications capacity to Arctic re-

S
mall satellites arrived big time on the stag- gions above 60-degrees north latitude by late 2020.
es of global commerce and interplanetary Although the communications satellites would not
research in 2019, and many anticipated technically be small satellites at 227 kg each, One-
regulatory changes promise to further has- Web announced its Arctic plans after SpaceX began
ten the revolution. launching its global internet constellation, Star-
Several companies expanded their commer- link, in May with 60 satellites of a planned constel-
cial offerings focused on information derived from lation in the thousands.
frequent Earth observations in many phenome- Small satellites continued expanding their in-
nology. Although the first synthetic aperture radar terplanetary research contributions as well. The
small satellite demonstration missions occurred Mars Cube One, or MarCO-A and -B satellites, NA-
in previous years, this year saw the first realization SA’s first interplanetary cubesats, completed their
of their commercial potential. The 70-kilogram mission in January providing near real-time te-
ICEYE X3 launched in May, and X4 and X5 launched lemetry relay of Mars InSight’s entry, descent and
in July, providing 1-to-10-meter resolution X-band landing. MarCO-B, carrying a commercial camera
SAR imagery for government and commercial cus- with a fish-eye lens, returned a stunning “farewell”
tomers. San Francisco-based Capella Space is also image of Mars after completing its primary mis-
poised to provide ubiquitous SAR imagery to the sion. The first commercial lunar lander mission,
commercial market. With its first demonstration Beresheet at 150 kg, made it to lunar orbit in April
launch in December 2018 and first commercial but suffered an engine failure on descent to the lu-
launch scheduled before the end of 2019, Capella nar surface and crashed upon its attempted land-
had raised $50 million as of June toward realizing ing in Mare Serenitatis.
its mission of flying 36 satellites with a resolution This past year also saw quicker launch cadence
of 50 centimeters and one-hour revisit rates. San and a promising increase of launch opportunities
Francisco-based companies Planet and Spire and for small satellites. As of October, Rocket Lab had
Virginia-based companies Black Sky and Hawk- launched five small-satellite-dedicated missions in
Eye360 and several other commercial ventures ex- 2019, deploying 15 small satellites. Virgin Galactic’s
panded their on-orbit constellations and firmly es- Launcher One was slated for its initial test flight be-
tablished the commercial market for imagery and fore the end of 2019. ★
business intelligence products.
Global broadband internet took two large steps Contributors: Scott Palo, Bryan Rogler and
forward in 2019. In February, OneWeb launched six Michael Swartout

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 S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

Portals to lunar exploration take shape 20 years.” It comprised two modules: a dedicated
habitat and an airlock that could provide addi-
BY BARBARA IMHOF AND THEODORE W. HALL
tional living and working volume. The modules
The Space Architecture Technical Committee focuses on the architectural would ride to lunar orbit aboard NASA’s new Space
design of the environments where humans will live and work in space, Launch System under the Artemis program.
including facilities, habitats and vehicles. Sierra Nevada Corp. opened its model in July,
also at Johnson. It adopted inflatable technology
originally pioneered by NASA and Lockheed Mar-
tin, subsequently licensed by Bigelow Aerospace,
and for which the patent has now expired. Sierra
Nevada dubbed its module the Large Inflatable
Fabric Environment. Fully inflated, it measures 8
meters (27 feet) in diameter and length, providing
about 300 m³ of pressurized volume, divided into
three decks parallel to the cylinder axis. Despite
its large deployed volume, it could pack into a 5 m
payload fairing on a commercial rocket.
Considering the merits of all of the concepts
demonstrated, in July NASA awarded a sole-
source contract for a minimal habitation mod-
ule to Northrop Grumman, stating that it was
“the only NextSTEP-2 contractor with a module
design and the production and tooling resources
capable of meeting the 2024 deadline,” in view of
the progress already made in Northrop’s Cygnus
spacecraft development.

L
A design for the unar Gateway development was a nexus of Nevertheless, Bigelow Aerospace demonstrated
“Moon Village,” a concept space-architecture activity this year. In the its B330 module in August and September at its fa-
for the first full-time United States, five contractors constructed cility in Nevada. The largest of all of the NextSTEP
human habitat on the
full-scale habitat ground-test models for entrants, the module provides 330 m³ of pressur-
moon.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
evaluation at several locations as part of the Next ized volume yet packs for launch within a 5 m pay-
Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships load fairing. A volumetric demonstration unit open
program, or NextSTEP. In Europe, consortiums of to the press was built in steel rather than inflated
space systems companies advanced designs for liv- fabric in order to sustain the Earth gravity loads.
ing in deep space. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency and its
Lockheed Martin was the first to open its hab- contractors continued plans to provide interna-
itat model for evaluation, in February and March, tional elements to the Gateway. In October, Air-
at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Lock- bus completed study contracts for two elements:
heed based its concept on a repurposed “multi- I-Hab, the international living and research mod-
purpose logistics module” from the space shuttle ule; and Esprit, the infrastructure module that in-
era. Modularity to support a diversity of missions cludes a propellant storage and refueling system,
was a top priority. interface to payloads and a scientific airlock. Thales
Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems was Alenia also in October separately completed study
next, in April and May, at NASA’s Johnson Space contracts for the same two elements. The space ar-
Center in Texas. Northrop derived its concept chitecture firm Liquifer Systems Group, based in
from its Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which is already Vienna, worked on a subcontract from Airbus to
in production. The company has made progress to support the habitat engineering configuration.
evolve Cygnus into a habitable spacecraft, includ- Besides the orbital Gateway, the lunar surface
ing the design and placement of docking ports was the focus of other architectural attention, and
and radiators. It remains compact enough to fit a terrestrial architectural firm has taken a leading
within the existing payload fairings of commercial role. In April, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill released its
launch vehicles. concept for the “Moon Village,” which it is planning,
Boeing followed in June at NASA’s Marshall designing and engineering in partnership with ESA
Space Flight Center in Alabama. Its press release and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ★
noted that the concept “builds on the company’s
experience from designing, building and operat- Contributors: Maria João Durão, Matthew A.
ing the [International Space Station] for more than Simon, Daniel Inocente and Zachary Taylor

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S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

the receptacle will house two robotic external

leak locator units, developed by the division in
partnership with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in
Texas.
In August, Russia launched a final experi-
mental demonstration object research robot
named Skybot F-850 to the ISS for testing, where
it demonstrated interaction and tool exchange
in collaboration with cosmonauts Aleksander
Skvortsov and Alexey Ovchinin.
In July, the India Space Research Organization
launched the Chandrayaan-2 lunar exploration
mission, which included the Vikram lander and
the Pragyan lunar rover. The Pragyan rover was

Robots assisting astronauts, servicing intended to travel up to 500 meters over one lunar
day and would have collected data determining

ISS and assembling elemental abundance. However, in September,

the agency lost contact with Vikram as it attempt-
BY ERIK KOMENDERA, JIAN-FENG SHI AND GARDELL GEFKE ed landing.
NASA’s Mars Helicopter flight hardware com-
The Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee works to advance
pleted flight testing in the 25-foot-wide (7.6 me-
the development of automation and robotics technologies and their
ter) thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Pro-
applications to space programs.
pulsion Laboratory in California in January. It was

I
Astronaut David Saint- n June, “Bumble Bee” became the first of three attached to the Mars 2020 Rover in August for
Jacques of the Canadian Astrobee robots to fly under its own power in launch in July 2020.
Space Agency watches
space. The Astrobees are designed to operate In May, a power switching unit failure on the
an Astrobee robot fly
for the first time inside
inside the International Space Station using ISS caused several subsystem power outages and
the International Space electric fans for propulsion and computer vision grounded a SpaceX resupply launch. A high-prior-
Station. for navigation. The robots can be equipped with ity removal and replacement operation was con-
NASA a small arm that allows them to grasp handrails or ducted in three days with the Canadian Dextre
carry small items to perform tasks, such as inven- robot replacing the failed unit and restoring the
tory, sensor surveys and mobile camera work. ISS to full power. In February, Canada announced
Early this year, the Satellite Servicing Projects it would join NASA’s Artemis lunar Gateway pro-
Division’s Restore-L, which will robotically in- gram with Canadarm 3, which will use artificial in-
spect, refuel and relocate a satellite not designed telligence to operate autonomously. In August, the
to be serviced, completed its spacecraft bus criti- Canadian Space Agency awarded Canada-based
cal design review. In September, NASA awarded a MDA, the maker of the first two Canadarms, Phase
contract to Colorado-based Maxar Technologies A work for the Gateway external robotic interfaces
to add an additional payload to Restore-L that will of the Deep Space Exploration Robotics program.
demonstrate boom manufacturing and in-space In June, MDA delivered the European Space Agen-
assembly of a fully functional communications cy’s Exo-Mars chassis and locomotion subsystem
antenna with a robotic arm. In August, the divi- for the rover’s launching in 2020. By the end of July,
sion’s Robotic Refueling Mission 3 completed an the MDA-built OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter instru-
initial set of tool operations, bringing in-space ment had made 2 billion measurements on NASA’s
refueling closer to reality. ISS’s Dextre robot op- mission to sample the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.
erated and demonstrated the first of three tools NASA’s Active Response Gravity Offload Sys-
needed to transfer liquid methane from one tank tem was used for development and training for
to another. The ability to transfer and store cryo- the ISS antimatter measurement payload, Alpha
genic fluid such as liquid methane in space could Magnetic Spectrometer or AMS-02, repair mis-
help enable human travel to the moon, Mars and sion. The ARGOS robot simulated a microgravity
beyond. Robotic Refueling Mission 3 launched to environment, allowing engineers and crew mem-
the ISS in December 2018 and, after four months, bers wearing fully pressurized space suits to devel-
demonstrated the longest zero boil-off storage of op and train for the complex repair procedure on
liquid methane. In August, the Satellite Servicing a high-fidelity mockup of the AMS-02 payload. ★
Projects Division completed the development,
build and delivery of the robotic tool stowage Contributors: Terry Fong, Robert Savely, Paul Valle,
payload. When affixed to the outside of the ISS, Stayne Hoff, Joseph Parrish and Brook Sullivan

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 S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

Supplying the space station, preparing Technologies a contract to build Gateway’s Power
and Propulsion Element module. The PPE will
to put humans back on the moon provide a high-power solar electric propulsion
capability. In August, NASA formally announced
BY HANG WOON LEE AND KOKI HO
a request for proposals for logistics services to
The Space Logistics Technical Committee fosters development of integrated Gateway, encouraging commercial partnerships
space logistics capabilities that enable safe, affordable and routine space- in the cislunar regime with the total offering up to
faring operations. $7 billion.
In February and July, NASA announced the list

N
orthrop Grumman and SpaceX completed of scientific payloads and experiments that will
Commercial Resupply Services missions to fly to the moon as part of the Commercial Lunar
carry cargo to the International Space Station Payload Services program. CLPS is a major logis-
this year. Space X’s CRS 17 and 18 launched tics-based NASA initiative to deliver small-to-me-
in May and July; Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus NG- dium payloads to the lunar surface as a service
11 launched in April. Phase 2 of NASA’s Commercial that NASA and perhaps others would buy as need-
Resupply Services contract began with the launch of ed. NASA is using the same commercial approach
Cygnus NG-12 to the ISS in November. SpaceX’s CRS to procure a human lunar lander system using a
19 was scheduled for December. public-private partnership — that is, buying a lo-
In its efforts to establish a planned space sta- gistics service rather than owning and operating
tion, China deorbited Tiangong-2 in July, marking the system.
the official end of its experimental space station On the academic side, in September, the Space
mission. China is set for the launch of Tianhe for Systems Optimization Laboratory at the Univer-
its modular space station. sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (now moved
NASA made a significant movement in the to the Georgia Institute of Technology) completed
ongoing development of the crewed lunar space- a one-year study for NASA to analyze the strategy
The Power and
flight program. In May, NASA Administrator Jim of deploying in-situ resource utilization systems
Propulsion Element of
NASA’s lunar Gateway, in Bridenstine announced that the return-to-the- while considering the overall efficiency of the
an illustration, is planned moon program would be called Artemis, after space logistics architecture. The study introduced
to be a high-power, the twin sister of Apollo. Artemis envisions the a new multifidelity space infrastructure optimi-
50-kilowatt solar electric use of the lunar Gateway to provide sustainable zation framework that can perform efficient and
propulsion spacecraft
transportation to the lunar surface. Gateway, in a reliable system-level architecture trade studies.
— three times more
powerful than current near-rectilinear halo orbit, will be a transportation Also this year, researchers at the Massachusetts
capabilities. and logistics hub for supporting future crewed Institute of Technology developed a new analysis
NASA and cargo missions. In May, NASA awarded Maxar method called Mass, Crew time, and Risk-based
Optimization of Sup-
portability Strategies, or
MCROSS, which enables
forecasting and optimi-
zation of spares mass and
maintenance crew time
for a given level of risk,
including options for in-
space manufacturing.
The development effort
started in 2017 as part of
a NASA Space Technolo-
gy Research Fellowship in
collaboration with NASA’s
Langley Research Center
in Virginia. MCROSS in-
forms NASA technology
investment and mission
planning activities. ★

Contributors: Olivier de
Weck, Andrew Owens and
Robert Shishko

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International momentum for space of the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiments, or
PRIME-1. This was done in a simulated lunarlike
resources ramps up cryogenic temperature and hard vacuum to integrate
operations of TRIDENT, The Regolith and Ice Drill for
BY L AURENT SIBILLE AND FORREST ME YEN
Exploring New Terrain, with the Mass Spectrometer
The Space Resources Technical Committee advocates affordable, Observing Lunar Operations for the lunar volatiles
sustainable human space exploration using nonterrestrial natural prospector payload in the CLPS program.
resources to supply propulsion, power, life-support consumables and Our knowledge of water on Mars increased in 2019
manufacturing materials. with new results published in March by two teams of
NASA’s Mars Water Mapping Projects. The Subsurface
Water Ice Mapping project at the Planetary Science
Institute in Arizona produced a northern hemisphere
map showing shallow ice deposits (within 0 to 5 meters
of the subsurface) extending equatorward as far as 30
degrees north latitude in some places. Researchers at
The MiniRASSOR
and the larger
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and
RASSOR 2.0, the University of Paris published the first global map
low-gravity excavators characterizing and mapping the surface geometry and
designed for abundance of several hundred thousand hydrated
educational outreach.
mineral sites, dwarfing previous maps displaying on

T
NASA
the order of 1,000 sites.
he international focus on space resources is The Mars Oxygen In-situ Resource Utilization
shaping the return to surface exploration of the Experiment, or MOXIE, was installed in the Mars 2020
moon and future exploration of Mars. High-level rover in March for a launch window opening in July
agreements of cooperation in space, including 2020. NASA’s Planetary Science and Technology from
the utilization of space resources signed by Lux- Analog Research-funded robotic deep wireline drill, the
embourg with Belgium in January and with the United Wireline Analysis Tool for Subsurface Observation of
States in May followed by European Space Agency’s Northern Ice Sheets from Honeybee Robotics, reached
Space Resources Strategy paved the way to agency-level the depth of 111 meters in Greenland equipped with
agreements by Luxembourg Space Agency with NASA the Deep UV/Raman spectrometer developed by
and ESA in October. The same month, Luxembourg NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In August, the NASA
Space Agency announced the establishment of a space ISRU Technology Project team completed many
resource research center. critical hardware tests on scroll pumps, scroll dust
This year also saw landing attempts on the lunar filter, electrolyzers with salts-contaminated water,
surface, including the first far-side landing, by China’s digging forces in compacted granular material and
Chang’e-4 in January. Communications failures in final including an integrated design study of a full-scale
approach plagued the attempts by Israel’s Beresheet oxygen production mission using carbothermic
in April and India’s Vikram in September that aimed reduction of lunar polar regolith. In May, NASA’s
at being the first to detect water ice in the subsurface. Kennedy Space Center’s Swamp Works completed
In February, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate endurance performance tests of its low-gravity
selected three small agency-provided payloads specific excavator RASSOR 2.0 and created MiniRASSOR, a
to the detection of water ice in the lunar polar geologic miniature offspring in collaboration with a University
context to be carried by the Commercial Lunar Payload of Central Florida student navigation team.
Services program, or CLPS, under the Artemis program. Innovations in materials processing advanced
The Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System will in-situ construction technologies of landing pads,
image surface and subsurface hydration and surface habitats and other long-term off-Earth structures. In
composition of carbon dioxide and methane, and the May, NASA concluded the third phase of its 3D-printed
Neutron Spectrometer System and the Advanced Neu- space habitat challenge. New York-based team AI
tron Measurements at the Lunar Surface will measure SpaceFactory took home the $500,000 grand prize
hydrogen abundance and bulk regolith composition. for its Martian habitat dubbed “Marsha.” Early in the
Open University in August demonstrated water year, researchers at the University of Canterbury, New
production by reacting Apollo soil samples with hy- Zealand, published the development of a magne-
drogen in the ProSPA miniature laboratory for an ESA sia-silica binder system that can be produced from
lunar resource prospecting payload to be carried by the Martian basaltic materials with similar properties to
Roscosmos Luna-27 mission planned for 2025. Portland cement. Pacific International Space Center
NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and Hon- for Exploration Systems produced high-strength
eybee Robotics of New York concluded tests in September defect-free basalt tiles with Hawaiian materials. ★

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 S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

Astronomers in April
telescopes. The breakthrough was announced in a
released the first-ever
image of a black hole. series of six papers published in a special issue of
This one is 6.5 billion the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “We have taken
times more massive than the first picture of a black hole,” said Event Hori-
the sun and is located at
zon Telescope project director Sheperd S. Doele-
the center of the galaxy
man of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard &
Messier 87. The image was
made by an array of eight Smithsonian. “This is an extraordinary scientific
ground-based instruments feat accomplished by a team of more than 200 re-
called the Event Horizon searchers.”
Telescope.
In human spaceflight, SpaceX in March
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft on an un-
crewed demonstration flight to prepare for its
first flight with a crew. The capsule’s docking at
the International Space Station and splashdown
in the Atlantic Ocean brought NASA a step closer
to restoring the country’s ability to launch astro-
nauts to and from the space station. “These are

Space systems deliver progress toward all capabilities that are leading to a day when we
are launching American astronauts on American

space economy rockets from American soil,” NASA Administra-

tor Jim Bridenstine said after the mission. The
BY JOHN CARSTEN mission was a milestone in NASA’s Commercial
Crew program in which contracts were awarded
The Space Systems Technical Committee fosters the development,
for Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.
application and operation of space systems, and addresses emerging
NASA had hoped to certify the spacecraft for crew
issues in the area.
flights in 2017.

T
he trend of reprogrammable communi- In the budding space tourism sector, Virgin
cations satellites continued in 2019, with Galactic in August opened its Gateway to Space
Boeing announcing in September that its building at the Spaceport America site in New
“software-defined” 702X geosynchronous Mexico. Earlier in the year, the company an-
satellites will dynamically allocate bandwidth. nounced that it was ready to move its Eve carrier
Turning to space science, China’s Chang’e-4 aircraft, the Virgin Space Ship Unity passenger
lander and Yutu-2 rover spent the year explor- spacecraft, and supporting staff and equipment
ing the area around their landing site on the far to the site in preparation for Virgin Galactic’s first
side of the moon. The rover and lander alternat- launch of space tourists. Virgin expects to begin
ed between a dormant mode during the long lu- commercial operations in 2020. Also, Blue Origin
nar nights and active mode during the days. The in January and May launched its New Shepard
China National Space Administration, which vehicle from Texas without passengers in prepara-
provided regular mission updates on its website, tion for its first flight with people.
reported in August that Yutu-2 had driven 271 me- In June, NASA announced that “private astro-
ters. The January touchdown marked the first soft nauts” would be permitted to fly to the Interna-
landing of a spacecraft on the lunar far side. Next, tional Space Station twice a year for short stays
China plans to launch Chang’e-5, a lunar sample starting in 2020. The change in policy is part of
return mission. NASA’s strategy to “stimulate a low Earth orbit
In February, NASA announced the end of the economy.” Participants in these privately funded
Mars rover Opportunity mission after receiving missions would have to ride on NASA-certified
no response from the rover since June 2018 when spacecraft, meaning the Crew Dragon or Starliner
a dust storm temporarily enveloped the planet. once those are certified by NASA.
The dust probably crippled Opportunity by cov- The space station is not the only potential
ering its solar cells and sensors. Opportunity trav- venue for those who want to visit space. Bigelow
eled a total of 45.16 kilometers since its arrival in Aerospace of Las Vegas this year continued devel-
2004, NASA said. opment of its Genesis modules, inflatable space
Researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope habitats to be launched aboard Vulcan rockets.
project in April released the first image of a black The startup Orion Span of California plans to
hole, specifically one located 54 million light years build a luxury space hotel, Aurora Station, of-
away in the center of the galaxy M87. The image fering guests 12 days of lodging in a pill-shaped
was produced by an array of eight ground-based structure. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 65

S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

Space tethers
to demonstrate
propellantless propulsion,
deorbiting satellites
BY SVEN G. BILÉN

The Space Tethers Technical Committee focuses

on the development and use of tether-based
technology for space systems.

I
n June, a SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy rocket
launched into orbit the Tether Electrodynam-
ic Propulsion CubeSat Experiment, a U.S.
Naval Research Laboratory mission to investi-
gate electrodynamic-tether propulsion. In orbit,
TEPCE was to divide into two 1.5-unit cubesats
connected by a 1-kilometer-long conducting teth-
er. When current flows through the tether, it push-
es against the Earth’s magnetic field to generate
drag thrust. TEPCE is instrumented to help under-
stand tether deployment and dynamics and the
surrounding plasma environment of its orbit.
The E.T.PACK project, short for Electrodynamic
Tether Technology for the Passive Consumable-less
Deorbit Kit, kicked off in March with three years
of funding from the European Commission. Led by The University of Deorbiting Spacecraft using Electrodynamic Teth-
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, E.T.PACK’s team Michigan’s Miniature ers payload for delivery to Texas-based NanoRacks
includes six European institutions that will develop Tether Electrody- for launch from the International Space Station in
over the next three years the first proof-of-concept namics Experiment-1 2020. The payload comprises two 1U cubesats con-
cubesat prepared
low work-function tether, a novel type of electro- nected via a 100-meter-long conducting bare-tape
for thermal vacuum
dynamic tether with a specialized coating that en- testing.
tether. Once in orbit, the two cubesats will separate,
ables natural thermionic and photoelectric emis- University of Michigan/Twitter deploying the tether to determine its effectiveness as
sion of electrons. The low work-function tether a deorbiting device. After observing the deployment
promises fully passive electrodynamic deorbiting dynamics, a Spindt-array cathode will be enabled,
technology. E.T.PACK’s overall goal is to develop a which will nominally result in system reentry within
prototype deorbit kit and related software based on a few days. The entire mission duration is expected to
the tether technology. be less than six months.
In August, Virginia-based TriSept Corp., Cal- In July, the University of Michigan completed
ifornia-based Rocket Lab and California-based fabrication of the Miniature Tether Electrodynam-
Millennium Space Systems announced Dragracer, ics Experiment-1, or MiTEE-1, 3U cubesat and com-
a mission to demonstrate electrodynamic-tether pleted vibration testing after environmental screen-
technology to deorbit satellites. Once in orbit, Dra- ing. MiTEE-1 is expected to fly on Virgin Orbit’s
gracer will split into two satellites, with one unfurl- Launcher One’s second flight in early 2020 as part of
ing Tethers Unlimited’s Terminator Tape, a con- NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites pro-
ductive tether designed to produce drag to lower gram. For this first mission, MiTEE-1 was to use no
the satellite’s orbit. The other will reenter normally. tether but instead a deployable, rigid, 1-meter boom
Hence, Dragracer will be able to compare how the to measure the electrodynamics of electron current
electrodynamic tether increases drag and shortens collection to a pico-/femto-scale satellite endbody
on-orbit lifetime. It is predicted the satellite with the (satellite mass up to 200 grams) in the Earth’s iono-
tether will reenter Earth’s atmosphere in two to four sphere using a 200-volt variable bias power supply.
weeks, whereas the other satellite without a tether The cubesat also uses an electron beam filament
will remain in orbit for eight months to a year. source to emit electrons in to the ionosphere that
At the beginning of October, a team led by York is characterized by a miniature Langmuir probe in-
University in Toronto was on track to finalize its strument.★

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 S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

Blue Origin’s New

Shepard booster lands
after its 11th flight in May.
Blue Origin

Origin revealed its Blue Moon lander and BE-7

engine in May; it foresees its initial flight in 2023.
Blue Origin broke ground in Huntsville, Alabama,
in January, on its factory to build BE-4 engines,
which will be used for its New Glenn and ULA’s
Vulcan Centaur launchers.
NASA’s Orion crew capsule, essential for the
Private space companies strive for Artemis program, performed a flight test of its
ascent abort motor in July. The engine section of
crewed flights, lunar exploration NASA’s Space Launch System was completed in
August in preparation for its “green run” test, in
BY DALE ARNEY
which the integrated core stage will test fire its en-
The Space Transportation Technical Committee works to foster continuous gines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississip-
improvements to civil, commercial and military launch vehicles. pi, planned for 2020.
SpaceX and Northrop Grumman Innovation

S
paceX continued to advance reusability of Systems continued to deliver cargo to the Inter-
the Falcon 9 launcher this year. In November, national Space Station as part of the Commercial
the company achieved the fourth launch Resupply Services contract. Sierra Nevada Corp.
and recovery of the same Falcon 9 first stage. completed the final design review for its Dream
The stage powered the Falcon 9 that delivered 60 Chaser spacecraft, on track to launch cargo to the
Starlink satellites to orbit. The rocket’s payload ISS in 2021 on ULA’s Vulcan Centaur. In March,
fairing was flown previously on a Falcon Heavy SpaceX completed its first demonstration mis-
launch. Also, the company’s Dragon spacecraft sion to send crew to the ISS by launching an un-
returned from a third mission to the International crewed Crew Dragon to autonomously dock with
Space Station in August. SpaceX also captured two the ISS and then return to Earth. Boeing’s Starliner
fairing halves from launches in June and August. crew vehicle performed parachute tests in July in
After its inaugural demonstration flight in Febru- preparation for its planned demonstration mis-
ary 2018, Falcon Heavy commenced commercial sion in late 2019.
launches in April with the delivery of a communi- In August, an Ariane 5 flew the design’s 105th
cations satellite to geosynchronous orbit. Through- mission after eclipsing 100 launches in late 2018.
out the year, SpaceX continued development on its China landed the Chang’e-4 lander and rover
next-generation launcher, Starship, in Texas and on the far side of the moon in January. In the first
Florida in preparation for demonstration flights in privately funded mission of its kind, SpaceIL of
late 2019 or 2020. Starhopper, the test platform for Israel delivered the Beresheet robotic lunar land-
Starship, completed a 150-meter test flight in Au- er to lunar orbit in April before its failed landing
gust at the SpaceX South Texas Launch Site. attempt. The Indian Space Research Organization
United Launch Alliance this year launched delivered the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter to lunar or-
Atlas V, Delta IV Heavy and the final Delta IV Me- bit in August before losing contact with the Vikram
dium rockets. The Atlas V launch in August was lander during its September landing attempt.
ULA’s 135th consecutive. ULA’s next-generation Also in August, the U.S. Air Force’s X-37B reus-
launcher, Vulcan Centaur, completed its final de- able spaceplane broke its previous flight record of
sign review in May, and the company converted its 719 days in orbit.
Alabama factory to produce the vehicle in prepa- After starting commercial operations in late
ration for its planned debut in 2021. 2018, Rocket Lab launched Electron rockets four
Blue Origin flew the New Shepard suborbital times this year with hopes for more launches be-
vehicle for the 11th time in May in preparation fore the end of the year. In February, Virgin Ga-
for its first crewed flight in late 2019 or 2020. Blue lactic launched the first passenger in the Virgin
Origin expanded its manufacturing facilities near Space Ship Unity, its suborbital launcher for tour-
Kennedy Space Center in Florida to prepare for ism, after the Unity launched above 80 kilometers
New Glenn, the company’s orbital launcher. Blue in December 2018. ★

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S PAC E A N D M I S S I L E S

U.S. military awards contracts is part of Long Range Precision Fires, one of the
Army’s priorities handled under cross-functional
for wide-ranging hypersonics projects teams. The six cross-functional teams fall under
the new U.S. Futures Command, which was stood
BY JAMES D. WALKER AND NICHOL AS J. MUESCHKE
up in Austin, Texas, last year.
The Weapon System Effectiveness Technical Committee advances Also in August, Lockheed was selected for a
the science and technology of predicting, measuring, evaluating and $347 million contract to integrate at least eight of
improving the lethality of weapon systems. these glide bodies into a battery of Long Range

M
Hypersonic Weapon launchers. Subcontractors to
ultiple U.S. government-led boost-glide Lockheed Martin are Dynetics, Integration Innova-
and air-breathing prototype-develop- tion Inc. (i3), Verity Integrated Systems, Martinez
ment efforts continue to progress in & Turek, and Penta Research. The Air Force also
the realm of hypersonics, defined as has two ongoing hypersonics boost-glide weapons
flight above Mach 5. The Conventional programs: Advanced Rapid Response Weapon and
Prompt Strike program is moving the prototype Hypersonic Conventional Strike Weapon. DARPA
Common-Hypersonic Glide Body, or C-HGB, from and the Air Force are also funding the Tactical Boost
Sandia National Laboratories to commercial pro- Glide and Hypersonic Air BreathingWeapon Concept
duction. Specifically, in August, Dynetics Technical programs. In support of these major programmatic
Sequence of high-
Solutions, based in Alabama, with subcontractors speed video frames from
efforts, progress continued on multiple other research,
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Lock- a Mach 14.8 conical flight engineering and policy initiatives. These include
heed Martin and Raytheon, was awarded a $351.6 body launched from a programs looking to expand the national testing
million program to produce 20 C-HGB prototypes two-stage light gas gun infrastructure, grow the hypersonics engineering
into a controlled, rarefied
for the U.S. Army, Navy and Missile Defense Agency. talent pipeline, and increase the development and
atmosphere, looking at
These glide bodies are intended mainly for the signature of the vehi-
manufacturing capacity of advanced materials that
testing, but the Army’s goal is to deliver a residual cle and wake. can handle extreme conditions.
combat capability to soldiers by 2023. This effort Southwest Research Institute On the defensive side, there are ongoing programs
related to defeating these maneuverable bodies.
Last year MDA put out a solicitation and funded 21
$1 million studies for defense. In August and Sep-
tember, five of these were selected for more work,
all with roughly $4.5 million in additional funding,
namely to Boeing for Hypervelocity Interceptor
Concept for Hypersonic Weapons, Lockheed Mar-
tin for Valkyrie Interceptor Terminal Hypersonic
Defense, Lockheed Martin for Hypersonic Weap-
ons System Defense Concept-Dart, Raytheon for
Non-Kinetic Concept for Hypersonic Defense and
Raytheon for SM-3 Hawk.
Along with these awards, there is much discus-
sion about a space-based sensor layer for missile
defense. The ability to observe and track a hyper-
sonic vehicle in flight is essential due to the missiles’
maneuverability within the atmosphere.
Missile defense is progressing in other areas.
March saw the first salvo test of the Ground-based
Midcourse Defense segment: two ground-based
interceptors, or GBI, were launched from Vandenberg
Air Force Base in California in response to the launch
of the complex intercontinental ballistic missile target
from the test site on Kwajalein Atoll. The lead GBI
of the two-missile salvo intercepted and destroyed
the target reentry vehicle. The second, trailing GBI
examined the resulting debris and remaining objects.
Not finding any other reentry vehicles, the trailing
GBI selected the next most lethal object and struck
it. There were also continued flight intercept tests by
both the THAAD and Arrow systems. ★

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 I N T E G R AT I O N

not be able to fly in much of the U.S. airspace at

the beginning of 2020. Meanwhile, FAA evaluated
two aircraft surveillance technologies that would
allow aircraft to safely fly in closer proximity over
oceans. Based on its evaluation, FAA committed
to using one in the near term and to continue to
study another for future use. Specifically, in April,
FAA committed to implement by 2022 new inter-
national standards that allow reduced distances
between aircraft, called minimum separation
standards. These reduced distances would be
enabled by a surveillance technology known as
enhanced ADS-Contract. In contrast, FAA deter-
mined that the costs of using space-based ADS-B
in U.S. oceanic airspace substantially outweigh
the efficiency benefits.

737 MAX grounding and ADS-B lead The popularity of small unmanned aerial sys-
tems, or drones, for commercial and local govern-
eventful year ment use again challenged air navigation service
providers to develop rules and procedures that
BY FRANK L. FRISBIE balance safety against the utility of these myriad
applications. With the support of NASA, the FAA
The Aerospace Traffic Management Integration Committee monitors,
evaluates, and seeks to influence the direction of ATM technologies with a is moving forward incrementally to allow drones
focus on efficiency, public safety and national security. greater access to U.S. airspace, including flights
over people and flights beyond line of sight. Giv-

P
In July, Amazon ortions of the FAA were closed in January ing credence to the future drone role in package
Prime Air filed a detailed as a continuation of the government shut- delivery, Amazon Prime Air filed a detailed peti-
petition to FAA for
down that began in December 2018. While tion to FAA in July for permission to operate under
permission to operate
its delivery drone under
the loss of those affected FAA services other an air carrier operating certificate while in Octo-
an air carrier operating than air traffic control was temporary, the uncer- ber, UPS Flight Forward received FAA certifica-
certificate. tainty surrounding the events had such a destabi- tion to operate a drone airline. In Europe, Swiss
Amazon lizing effect on staff and aviation stakeholders that ANSP Skyguide announced in August deployment
Congress enacted a two-year funding appropria- of the Swiss U-space flight information system
tion to stabilize operations. for drones.
The crash of a Boeing 737 MAX commercial In September, American Airlines retired its MD-
airliner in March, following an earlier 737 MAX 80 aircraft, and Airbus announced that it would
crash in October 2018, resulted in the grounding stop production of the A380 after meeting current
of approximately 400 of the aircraft being flown by orders to Emirates Airlines through 2021, even
airlines around the world. FAA issued an “Emer- while All Nippon Airways was introducing nonstop
gency Order of Prohibition” applying to Model A380 service from Nikita and Honolulu. Boeing
737-8 and 737-9 (the 737 MAX) in March. These test-flew its autonomous electric passenger air
events precipitated intense scrutiny of the aircraft vehicle prototype but it crashed in June in subse-
systems, instructional materials, pilot training quent testing, setting the program back.
and communications among the parties involved, Motivated by a presidential mandate to free
including FAA, Boeing and 737 MAX operators. portions of spectrum for nongovernment use, a
Perhaps most significantly, critics (e.g., the U.S. cross-agency team of the FAA, the Defense and
Office of Special Counsel) focused attention on Homeland Security departments, and NOAA are
the certification methodology and the interac- engaged in the Spectrum Efficient National Sur-
tion between the FAA oversight and the manufac- veillance Radar program, which would allow 30
turer. The scrutiny continued into the last months megahertz of frequency spectrum below 3 GHz
of the year with the fleet still grounded. (1,300 to 1350 MHz) to be released. In August, the
The mandate of equipping of aircraft with Au- FAA updated industry on the program, including
tomatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out consolidation of required service volumes that
surveillance by Jan. 1, 2020, resulted in substantial removed many terminal air traffic control surveil-
compliance, but about 25,000 of 106,000 General lance services from the original program goals. ★
Aviation aircraft were still unequipped at the end of
November. Without ADS-B Out, an aircraft would Contributor: Charles Keegan

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I N T E G R AT I O N

Progress toward the 2030 vision of CFD or LAVA, team at Ames refactored its LAVA Cartesian
framework to better exploit these new architectures.
BY RE YNALDO J. GOMEZ III, ANDREW W. CARY AND
MUJEEB R . MALIK In collaboration with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew
Vehicle loads and dynamics team at NASA’s Johnson
The CFD Vision 2030 Integration Committee advocates for, inspires and Space Center in Houston, the LAVA team demonstrated
enables community activities recommended by the vision study for in June the power of this approach by producing the
revolutionary advances in the state-of-the-art of computational technologies most detailed turbulence-resolving simulations yet
needed for analysis, design and certification of future aerospace systems. of various abort scenarios.
Leveraging the same Cartesian adaptive mesh re-
finement infrastructure used in the Orion simulations,
the LAVA team implemented the Lattice-Boltzmann
method, or LBM, which promises to be an order of
magnitude faster than traditional approaches on the
same mesh, to simulate vehicles in unsteady subsonic
flows. The team demonstrated in August that LBM can
accurately predict the acoustics of a small but complex
A NASA team’s
quadcopter drone in forward flight with a one-week
scale-resolving simula- turnaround time and no manual mesh generation
tion of the Orion Multi- effort. Coupling LBM with far-field noise propagation
Purpose Crew Vehicle software enables capturing tonal noise and showed
during an ascent abort
good agreement in broadband noise trends when
scenario at transonic
speed and high angle of
compared to wind tunnel microphone data.
attack in support of NA- CFD computations by researchers at Ames and
SA’s Ascent Abort Test-2 NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia showed
in July. The image shows that nonlinear turbulence modeling (such as with
a snapshot of pressure
quadratic constitutive relations or a full Reynolds
(black is low, white is
high) on a slice through
stress model) is necessary to predict the size of the
two of the abort motor separation bubble in the juncture flow experiment
nozzles. conducted in Langley’s 14-by-22-foot Subsonic

S
NASA Tunnel. Areas of disagreement, particularly in the
ignificant developments continued this year prediction of Reynolds stresses remain, necessitating
toward achieving the goals defined in NASA’s additional research in turbulence modeling.
CFD Vision 2030 study released in 2014. At AIAA’s Aviation Forum in June, NASA’s Aero-
Academia made progress on algorithms and nautics Research Mission Directorate announced
solvers for both second-order and higher- the selection of a new technical challenge for its
order methods. While second-order codes continue Revolutionary Computational Aerosciences effort to
to dominate industrial applications, higher-order “develop and demonstrate computationally efficient
solvers are beginning to show their promise. Testing, eddy-resolving modeling tools that predict maxi-
conducted at United Technologies Research Center in mum lift for transport aircraft with same accuracy
February, of the high-order discontinuous-Galerkin as certification flight tests.” A significant fraction of
solver eddy, developed at NASA’s Ames Research the certification flight testing is done in the high-lift
Center in California, has demonstrated that it is area of the flight envelope and use of accurate CFD
an order of magnitude faster for the same level of tools could save hundreds of millions of dollars in
accuracy on canonical benchmarks than existing new aircraft development programs by reducing
production solvers. This demonstrates the potential flight-test requirements as well as reduce testing
for emerging high-order scale-resolving methods to risk by improving the preflight characterization of
impact the design and analysis of turbomachinery the aircraft behavior. A collaborative Boeing-NASA
components. Development continues in the area of high-lift test on Common Research Model began in
automated high-order mesh generation to enable October in the QinetiQ tunnel in the United Kingdom
efficient use of h-p refinement, varying the local mesh to provide experimental data to allow validation of CFD
size (h) and polynomial degree (p). tools for this important area of the flight envelope. At
The CFD 2030 vision study emphasized the im- a NASA review in September, a Stanford University
portance of developing algorithms better-suited to team showed wall-modeled large-eddy simulation
the many core computing architectures of tomorrow results for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,
toward achieving the time-and-space resolution or JAXA, standard model in good agreement with
goals for scale-resolving simulation. Earlier this experiment for maximum lift, showing the promise
year the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics, for such cost-efficient scale resolving methods. ★

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Hybrid electric concepts move toward On the light aircraft front, Canada-based Har-
bour Air announced in March a partnership with
demonstration magniX, a research and development company
based in Seattle that is developing high power
BY MICHAEL IKEDA, GOKCIN CINAR AND JOHN NAIRUS
density electric motors, to convert a de Havil-
The Energy Optimized Aircraft Systems Integration Committee works to land DHC-2 Beaver to a battery electric drive-
promote a better understanding of energy optimized aircraft and equipment train. Prototype testing was planned for Novem-
systems, from concept development to vehicle production, including ber with commercial flight certification targeted
relevant international academic and industrial experience. for 2021. In June, Los Angeles-based Ampaire
demonstrated its parallel hybrid electric power-

T
he push toward hybrid electric solutions train on a converted Cessna 337 Skymaster. The
for aircraft propulsion, power and thermal Cessna’s rear engine was replaced with Ampaire’s
management continued with a focus on the battery-powered 180-kilowatt electric motor to
need for hardware demonstrators. In April, provide two independent sources of power, one
Collins Aerospace unveiled a $50 million invest- fully electric and one traditional. Ampaire ex-
ment to add 2,300 square meters of lab space to pects the aircraft to be certified by 2021. NASA
test advanced electric power systems. “The Grid” also continued to progress its X-57 program with
is intended to be fully operational in 2021 and will the August start of load testing of its high aspect
support the design and testing of a 1-megawatt ratio wing. Meanwhile, Zunum struggled to raise
motor, motor controller and battery system. Series B funding and shut down its Bothell, Wash-
Looking toward the regional jet market, ington, headquarters in July and laid off the ma-
Rolls-Royce announced in August that it began jority of its employees.
ground tests of the 2.5-MW E-Fan X generator. While demonstrations of existing technolo-
At the Paris Air Show in June, United Technol- gies have been a focus, NASA announced $6 mil-
ogies Advanced Projects announced Project lion in funding over three years for the Center
804, focused on flying a modified Bombardier for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Tech-
Dash 8-100 hybrid-electric turboprop within nologies for Aircraft at the University of Illinois
A concept of an
three years targeted at 30% fuel savings. UTAP at Urbana-Champaign. The center will pursue a
advanced commercial is replacing one of the turboprops with a par- fully electric aircraft centered on cryogenic liq-
transport aircraft from allel hybrid powertrain consisting of a 1-MW uid hydrogen and fuel cells.
the Center for Cryogenic engine optimized for cruise efficiency and a The NASA-funded University Led Initiative
High-Efficiency Electrical battery-powered 1-MW electric motor designed Electric Propulsion — Challenges and Oppor-
Technologies for Aircraft,
for takeoff and climb assist. Also at the Paris Air tunities project being carried out by Ohio State
which received funding
from NASA to research Show, Rolls-Royce announced its intent to ac- University, Georgia Tech, University of Wiscon-
all-electric aircraft. quire Siemens’ eAircraft business, and on Oct. 1 sin-Madison, University of Maryland and North
University of Illinois it announced the acquisition was complete. Carolina A&T State University completed its sec-
ond year of research
and hardware devel-
opment. This five-
year project includes
extensive testing and
data characterization
of commercially avail-
able battery cells, test-
ing of a 200-kW inte-
grated electric machine,
power electronics and
thermal management
system, and system lev-
el aircraft assessment
that integrates test data
from actual hardware
development, includ-
ing integrated battery,
thermal management
system and propulsion
models. ★

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Space exploration focuses on asteroids core samples for analysis; Brian May of the rock
band Queen processed the images to produce ste-
BY LEENA SINGH, SURENDRA P. SHARMA AND CHRISTOPHER MOORE
reoscopic views of asteroid Ryugu.
The Space Exploration Integration Committee brings together experts on Seven years after landing on Mars, NASA’s Jet
topics relevant to future human and robotic exploration missions. Propulsion Lab’s Curiosity rover continued to
collect and telemeter new discoveries. In August,
NASA reported that the rover had drilled its 22nd
soil sample from the Martian surface inside the
Gale crater. Curiosity has been heading to loca-
tions where overhead imagery from Mars Recon-
naissance Orbiter detects areas of interest, and
its in-situ findings have sometimes differed from
the orbiter’s aerial indications, including that wa-
ter-formed clay proliferates in certain areas of the
Gale crater.
Throughout 2019, NASA rolled out its Arte-
mis lunar exploration program, geared toward
a crewed lunar landing by 2024 to explore more
of Earth’s moon and establish sustainable explo-
ration assets, thus preparing for longer-range
crewed Mars missions. Toward Artemis, NASA
has been focusing efforts on its heavy-lift Space
Launch System, the Orion spacecraft and the
lunar Gateway to orbit the moon as its backbone
for deep-space exploration. To that end, in August,
NASA and Boeing completed functional tests on
the SLS rocket engine section and in September
completed its integration with the core rocket
body. Final assembly of the core stage was expect-
ed in December. The team also commenced con-

I
This picture of the n June, OSIRIS-REx, NASA’s asteroid sample re- necting the RS-25 engines to the main propulsion
boulder-covered surface turn spacecraft, descended to a 1.1-kilometer systems within the engine.
of the asteroid Bennu
orbit (about 680 meters altitude) around the as- The European Space Agency and NASA arrived
was taken by a camera
on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx
teroid Bennu. The low orbit made OSIRIS-REx, at a consensus on Gateway’s orbit, determining
spacecraft in April. short for the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, that it will follow a near-rectilinear halo orbit, a
NASA Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Ex- highly elliptic lunar orbit ranging from 3,000 km
plorer, the closest orbiter of a celestial object ever from the lunar center to about 70,000 km. NRHO
and Bennu the smallest object ever orbited by a is attractive because its relatively stable equi-
spacecraft. Bennu’s extremely low microgravity librium allows nearly continuous line of sight to
means that at even just 680 meters, OSIRIS-REX both Earth and the far side of the moon, allowing
is in a 62-hour orbit. The spacecraft entered low- spacecraft parked in NRHO to serve as a com-
altitude orbit around Bennu in December 2018 munications hub between landers and ground
after a five-month series of survey and remote im- control. Gateway will serve as a permanent stag-
aging operations after first visual contact. A staged ing post for transit between Earth and the moon
approach sequence transferred it from its safe, 50- and, once commissioned, will save significant fuel
km distant hold point to its proximal survey orbit. to ferry people or resources between Earth, the
Toward its exploration endeavors, NASA spent moon and beyond.
much of 2019 focused on site selection for surface In July, the Indian Space Research Organiza-
touchdown on Bennu later in the program as part tion launched its second lunar mission, which
of its sample-retrieval objective. It has identified entered lunar orbit in August, initiating its land-
four candidate sites from which a primary and a er’s descent in September. Survey orbiter Chan-
backup landing site were to be selected based on drayaan-2 is equipped with a suite of instruments
safety, accessibility and scientific merit. including high-resolution cameras to precisely
JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agen- map the lunar surface that will survey Earth’s
cy, conducted two landing descents of its asteroid moon from polar orbit passes for a year. Its lander,
sample-return spacecraft, Hayabusa2, in Febru- Vikram, made a hard descent to the lunar south
ary and July, collecting imagery and surface and pole, losing ground contact thereafter. ★

72 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 I N T E G R AT I O N

Beta Technologies flew

its prototype experimental
tilt-rotor electric vertical takeoff
and landing aircraft at
Plattsburgh International
Airport in New York.
Eric Adams

Also in May, Alaka’I Technol-

ogies of Massachusetts re-
vealed a full-scale replica of a
five-passenger, hydrogen fu-
el-cell-powered multicopter
with a projected endurance
of up to four hours. As of the
end of September, Alaka’I was
working with the FAA to es-

Flight testing begins for new urban air tablish a certification basis for the aircraft; it report-
edly began testing a flying prototype in May.

mobility, electric propulsion aircraft The past year also saw developments important
to the technical realization and societal integration
BY KENNETH H. GOODRICH of on-demand air mobility. In January, Georgia
Tech’s Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility
The Transformational Flight Integration Committee serves as a focal point for hosted its launch event, bringing 100 academics,
a community of practice engaged in technical, business and societal issues
entrepreneurs and policymakers to Atlanta for a
associated with transformational approaches to on-demand air mobility
daylong conference to envision the specific local
enabled by the convergence of advanced technologies.
and state opportunities and challenges related to

T
he pace of on-demand air mobility contin- on-demand air mobility.
ued to accelerate during 2019 with multiple In March, the Go Fly Prize awarded five teams
companies revealing new aircraft develop- $50,000 each in Phase II prizes. The Go Fly Prize
ment programs and conducting initial flights is an international, two-year, $2 million competi-
of full-scale vehicles. tion to foster the realization of safe personal ver-
In January, Beta Technologies of Vermont tical flight. The Phase II awards were made based
flight-tested a piloted, experimental tilt-rotor on quality of design and progress toward flight
electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at demonstration scheduled for February 2020.
Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. Vid- In July, the European Union Aviation Safe-
eos showed the aircraft flying in challenging winter ty Agency published “Special Condition for
weather. Also in January, Bell exhibited a full-scale Small-Category Vertical Take-Off and Landing
replica of its Nexus aircraft, a tilt-duct eVTOL con- (VTOL) Aircraft.” While reducing regulatory uncer-
figuration, at the Consumer Electronics Show in tainty, the special conditions established relatively
Las Vegas. The Nexus has four dedicated passenger challenging requirements for these novel vehicles.
seats and a fifth seat for a pilot until self-piloting For example, for VTOL aircraft intended to oper-
vehicle technology has been matured and certified. ate over densely populated areas or intended for
Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences conducted the first commercial passenger service, system design as-
flight of its full-scale, two-passenger Passenger Air surance levels are more similar to transport aircraft
Vehicle in January at its Virginia facility. After four than small airplanes or helicopters.
test flights, the prototype was damaged in a crash In October, NASA released a solicitation for
following an in-flight failure of one of its six lift fans. its first Urban Air Mobility Grand Challenge and
In May, Lilium Aircraft of Germany complet- GC-Developmental Testing. The goal of these
ed the first flight of its five-seat, all-electric duct- events is to improve urban air mobility safety and
ed-fan eVTOL aircraft. Flown as an unmanned air- accelerate scalability through integrated demon-
craft, the prototype demonstrated takeoff, hovering strations of candidate operational concepts and
and landing. Airbus Helicopters conducted a first, scenarios. The solicitation seeks the participation
unmanned, tethered test flight of its four-seat City of aircraft developers and airspace service suppli-
Airbus multicopter aircraft in May in Germany. ers to participate in the challenge. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 73

A E R O S PAC E O U T R E AC H

50 years after Apollo 11, the world Aviation and aerospace museums in the Unit-
ed States embarked on a series of new educa-
took note tional programs and immersive learning exhibits
and held recognition events for living legends.
BY BEN SARAO
Throughout May and June, the National Museum
The History Committee works to preserve the record of aerospace advances of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, commemo-
and recognize their impacts on modern society. rated the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Visitors could
experience the reality of the D-Day airborne in-

T
he major history event of 2019 was the 50th vasion using HistoPad, an immersive, interactive
anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing augmented-reality tablet.
mission. On July 20, 1969, the first crewed France awarded the Legion of Honor medal to
lunar landing was televised, and nearly 600 three World War II veterans from Washington state
million people watched worldwide. The legacy of at the Museum of Flight in Seattle in May. Dan-
Apollo 11 was revisited this year in several new iel F. McAllister, a former P-38 aircraft mechanic;
documentary films. PBS aired a three-part series, Stanley L. Zemo, a former demolition squad lead-
“Chasing the Moon,” a six-hour program high- er; and Richard A. Nelms, a former B-17 pilot, re-
lighting the steps taken by the United States to ac- ceived the medals.
complish the first crewed lunar mission and sub- Notable international historical aerospace
sequent ones to explore the surface of the moon. events included the China National Space Ad-
This film included never-before-broadcast mate- ministration’s Chang’e-4 lunar lander with rover
rial found in archives or donated from personal landing on the far side of the moon in January for
collections of several astronauts. a three-month mission. The scientific payload of
CNN aired “Apollo 11,” which included film the Chang’e-4 lander was powered by a radioiso-
segments that had been stowed away in govern- tope thermoelectric generator. The lunar rover
ment archives for nearly half a century. The film was equipped with a solar panel to power the ve-
is mostly made of newly discovered 70-mm foot- hicle during the lunar day. The rover was able to
age that includes intimate personal moments of transmit data back to Earth, despite the lack of
Neil Armstrong suits the Apollo 11 astronauts being suited up prior to radio frequencies on the far side, via a dedicated
up on the morning he the launch on July 16, 1969; a segment of astro- satellite sent earlier to orbit the moon. The lunar
and fellow astronauts naut Neil Armstrong stepping down on the lunar landing and subsequent rover relay via satellite
Buzz Aldrin and Michael surface made by astronaut Buzz Aldrin from the data transmission are considered a landmark
Collins were launched on
doorway of the Lunar Excursion Module; and se- achievement for space exploration.
a Saturn V rocket toward
the moon. lect sound bites from 11,000 hours of NASA audio In April, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Explo-
NASA files from the mission. ration Agency, separated the small carry-on im-
pactor that had been on the asteroid
explorer Hayabusa2 for deployment
to Ryugu and put the impactor into
operation creating a crater on the
surface.
In July, India launched Chan-
drayaan-2, which has a 3,500-kilogram
mass, carries 13 payloads and has
three elements — lunar orbiter, land-
er and rover — all developed by ISRO,
short for the Indian Space Research
Organization. India is the fourth coun-
try to attempt a soft lunar landing on
the moon. On Sept. 7, ISRO reported
that it had lost contact with the land-
er. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Or-
biter made recon passes of possible
lander sites on Sept. 17 and Oct. 14 but
couldn’t find the lander. ISRO reported
that the other payloads still aboard the
Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter, includ-
ing the Imaging Infrared Spectrome-
ter, are performing well. ★

74 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 A E R O S PAC E O U T R E AC H

Apollo anniversary inspires more and international partners to establish sustainable

exploration by 2028. Success in missions such as
exploration and milestones Artemis would allow for future crewed missions
to Mars.
BY AMIR S. GOHARDANI
Meanwhile, progress was made this year on the
The Society and Aerospace Technology Outreach Committee promotes Mars 2020 rover, an important deep-space mission
the transfer and use of aerospace technology for the benefit of society. whose launch window is scheduled to open in July
2020. The rover is part of a long-term effort of ro-

T
botic exploration of the red planet, and NASA’s Jet
his year saw important milestones and Propulsion Laboratory in California announced in
aerospace endeavors, and among the most October that for the first time the vehicle had carried
inspiring events were those celebrating the its full weight on its legs and wheels.
50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s historic This year also recorded one of the busiest days
moon landing. The mission that put humans in aviation history. According to Flightradar24, a
on the lunar surface for the first time undoubtedly real-time, air-traffic tracking service, 230,408 flights
inspired thousands of engineers and scientists over took to the skies on July 24. Excluding certain sen-
the years and may have helped revive our quest to sitive air traffic, such as military flights, this figure
explore our solar system. represented nearly every trackable aircraft in the
Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module world, including private jets, gliders, sightseeing
pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that flights, helicopters, personal aircraft, commercial
landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, passenger flights and cargo planes. To put the
1969, and on July 20, 2019, NASA and Vice President number in perspective, the greatest number of
Mike Pence marked the anniversary by restating flights recorded in 2017 was 190,003 on Aug. 24.
the White House’s plan to return humans to the NASA astronauts Each year’s low typically occurs on Dec. 25; 101,511
moon by 2024. Christina Koch, left, and flights were recorded on Christmas Day in 2017.
While the primary goal of NASA’s new program, Jessica Meir check the In the quest for further space exploration, artificial
fit of a spacesuit as they
dubbed Artemis, is to land the first woman and intelligence identified two new “Super-Earths” in May.
prepare for the first-ever
next man on the lunar surface by 2024, a secondary all-female spacewalk. The machine-learning algorithm called AstroNet-K2,
objective for NASA is to collaborate with commercial NASA a neural network modified to hunt through data
from NASA’s Kepler space
telescope, spotted the two
planets, named K2-293b and
K2-294b. Implementing the
deep-learning algorithm
capable of separating real
exoplanet signals from false
positives, K2-293b is about
2.5 times as big around as
Earth, while K2-294b is 1.7
times as big around. These
planets orbit a star about
1,300 and 1,200 light-years
away, respectively.
In October, two astro-
nauts carried out the first
all-female spacewalk. After
postponing an earlier all-
female walk in March due to
unavailability of spacesuits
that fit both female astro-
nauts, NASA made history
by sending Christina Koch
and Jessica Meir outside the
International Space Station
to replace a power controller.
The walk lasted seven hours
and 17 minutes. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 75

23rd AIAA International Space Planes and
Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference
10-12 MARCH 2020 | MONTRÉAL, QUÉBEC, CANADA

NEW EARLIER DATE!

Hosted by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), the 23rd AIAA
International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference
provides a forum for discussion and exchange of information for attendees from
across the globe about leading-edge research and development activities associated
with space planes and hypersonic atmospheric flight vehicles and the technologies
underpinning these capabilities. Presentations will be provided on national programs
from North America, South America, Australia, Europe, and Asia and multiple
opportunities for international collaboration will be discussed.  

Technical sessions will include the following topic areas:

› Missions and Vehicles › Guidance and Control Systems

› Operational Systems Aspects › Materials and Structures for Vehicles

› Thermal Management Systems for and All Subsystems

Vehicles and All Subsystems › Test and Evaluation

› Propulsion Systems › Computational Methods

› Propulsion Components › Hypersonic Fundamentals and History

ORGANIZED AND SUPPORTED BY:

aiaa.org/Hypersonics2020
DECEMBER 2019 | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

AIAA
Bulletin
DIRECTORY

AIAA Headquarters / 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 200 / Reston, VA 20191-5807 / aiaa.org
To join AIAA; to submit address changes, member inquiries, or renewals; to request journal fulfillment;
or to register for an AIAA conference. Customer Service: 800.639.AIAA (U.S. only. International callers
should use 703.264.7500).

All AIAA staff can be reached by email. Use the formula first name last initial@aiaa.org.
Example: christinew@aiaa.org.

Addresses for Technical Committees and Section Chairs can be found on the AIAA website at
aiaa.org.

Other Important Numbers: Aerospace America / Karen Small, ext. 7569 • AIAA Bulletin / Christine Williams, ext. 7575 • AIAA Foundation / Merrie Scott, ext. 7530 • Book Sales /

800.682.AIAA or 703.661.1595, Dept. 415 • Communications / Michele McDonald, ext. 7542 • Continuing Education / Jason Cole, ext. 7596 • Corporate Members / Tobey Jackson, ext.

7570 • Editorial, Books and Journals / Heather Brennan, ext. 7568 • Exhibits and Sponsorship / Chris Semon, ext. 7510 • Honors and Awards / Patricia Carr, ext. 7523 • Integration

and Outreach Committees / Emily Springer, ext. 7533 • Journal Subscriptions, Member / 800.639.AIAA • Journal Subscriptions, Institutional / Online Archive Subscriptions / Michele

Dominiak, ext. 7531 • Media Relations / Michele McDonald, ext. 7542 • Public Policy / Steve Sidorek, ext. 7541 • Section Activities / Emily Springer, ext. 7533 • Standards, Domestic /

Hilary Woehrle, ext. 7546 • Standards, International / Nick Tongson, ext. 7515 • Student Programs / Emily Springer, ext. 7533 • Technical Committees / Emily Springer, ext. 7533

We are frequently asked how to submit articles about section events, member awards, and other special interest items in the AIAA Bulletin. Please contact the staff liaison listed
above with Section, Committee, Honors and Awards, Event, or Education information. They will review and forward the information to the AIAA Bulletin Editor.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 77

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Calendar
ABSTRACT
DATE MEETING LOCATION DEADLINE

2020

4–5 Jan 3rd AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Design of Experiments: Improved Experimental Methods in Aerospace Testing Course Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Design of Electrified Propulsion Aircraft Course Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Fundamentals of Drones: UAV Concepts, Designs and Technologies Course Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Integrated CubeSat Engineering Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Integrating Program Management, Systems Engineering, and Six Sigma Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Missile Guidance Course Orlando, FL

4–5 Jan Systems Thinking for Modern Aerospace Complexity Orlando, FL

5 Jan 75+ Years of Hypersonics Development: History, Resources, References, and Insights Orlando, FL

5 Jan Additive Manufacturing: Structural and Material Optimization Course Orlando, FL

5 Jan Introduction to Digital Engineering Course Orlando, FL

5 Jan Space Standards and Architectures Course Orlando, FL

5 Jan A Unified Approach for Computational Aeroelasticity Course Orlando, FL

6 Jan Class of 2020 AIAA Associate Fellows Induction Ceremony Orlando, FL

6–10 Jan AIAA SciTech Forum Orlando, FL 11 Jun 19

14–16 Jan* 2nd IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness Washington, DC (icssa2020.com)

21–23 Jan* International Powered Lift Conference (IPLC 2020) San Jose, CA (vtol.org/events) 19 Aug 19

25–28 Jan* Aircraft Noise and Emissions Reduction Symposium (ANERS) Bordeaux, France (aerospace-europe2020.eu) 31 July 19

27–30 Jan* 66th Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS®) Palm Springs, CA (www.rams.org)

7–14 Mar* 2020 IEEE Aerospace Conference Big Sky, MT (aeroconf.org)

10–12 Mar* 23rd AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference Montréal, Québec, Canada 22 Aug 19

18 Mar AIAA Congressional Visits Day Washington, DC

23–25 Mar* 55th 3AF Conference on Applied Aerodynamics Poitiers, France (3af-aerodynamics2020.com) 18 Nov 19

27–28 Mar 2020 Region III Student Conference Columbus,OH 31 Jan 20

27–28 Mar 2020 Region IV Student Conference Stillwater, OK 31 Jan 20

78 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

For more information on meetings listed below, visit our website at
aiaa.org/events or call 800.639.AIAA or 703.264.7500 (outside U.S.).

28–29 Mar 2020 Region VI Student Conference Portland, OR 27 Jan 20

2–3 Apr 2020 Region V Student Conference Wichita, KS 15 Feb 20

3–4 Apr 2020 Region I Student Conference State College, PA 16 Feb 20

6–7 Apr 2020 Region II Student Conference Tuscaloosa, AL 21 Feb 20

16–19 Apr AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition Wichita, KS (aiaa.org/dbf)

5–7 May AIAA DEFENSE Forum Laurel, MD 8 Oct 19

19 May 2020 AIAA Fellows Dinner Crystal City, VA

20 May 2020 AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala Washington, DC

Saint Petersburg, Russia (elektropribor.spb.ru/en/

25–27 May* 27th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems
conferences/142)

15–19 Jun AIAA AVIATION Forum Reno, NV 7 Nov 19

13–14 Jun 1st AIAA CFD Transition Modeling Prediction Workshop Reno, NV

13–14 Jun 6th AIAA Workshop on Benchmark Problems for Air Frame Noise Computations (BANC-VI) Reno, NV

13–14 Jun Design of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Reno, NV

13–14 Jun Missile Aerodynamics Reno, NV

Practical Design Methods for Aircraft and Rotorcraft Flight Control for Manned
13–14 Jun Reno, NV
and UAV Applications with Hands-on Training using CONDUIT®

14 Jun 2nd AIAA Workshop for Multifidelity Modeling in Support of Design & Uncertainty Quantification Reno, NV

23–26 Jun* ICNPAA 2020: Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Aerospace and Sciences Prague, Czech Republic (icnpaa.com)

9–13 Aug* 2020 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference South Lake Tahoe, CA 10 Apr 2020

43rd Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and

15–22 Aug* Sydney, Australia 14 Feb 20
Associated Events (COSPAR 2020)

24–26 Aug AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum New Orleans, LA 11 Feb 20

14–18 Sep* 32nd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences Shanghai, China (icas.org) 15 Jul 19

26–27 Sep* CEAS-ASC Workshop 2019 on “Advanced Materials for Aeroacoustics” Rome, Italy

12–16 Oct* 71st International Astronautical Congress Dubai, UAE (mbrsc.ae/iac2020)

29 Oct–1 Nov* 37th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC 2019) Okinawa, Japan (kaconf.org) 15 May 19

16–18 Nov ASCEND Las Vegas, NV (ascend.events)

AIAA Continuing Education offerings *Meetings cosponsored by AIAA. Cosponsorship forms can be found at aiaa.org/Co-SponsorshipOpportunities.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 79

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

A Successful IAC 2019

From 21 to 25 October, AIAA hosted the 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2019) in Washington, DC. More than 6,800
attendees from 80 countries gathered to discuss the advancement and progress of space in its various features. This year’s event
commemorated the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing and celebrated the international accomplishments and partnerships
that have become the hallmarks of space exploration.

80 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 81
AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

AIAA Announces Candidates

for 2020 Election
The Council Nominating Committee has selected candidates for next year’s election
for openings on the AIAA Council of Directors.
Elections will open 29 January 2020. Council Nominating Committee Chair Jane
Hansen and AIAA Governance Secretary Christopher Horton confirmed the names of
the candidates who will appear on the 2020 ballot.

The nominees are: Director–Aircraft Tech- Director–Space and

Director–Region I nology, Integration and Missiles Group
Steven X. Bauer, NASA Operations Group William D. Deininger, Ball
Langley Research Center Richard L. Mange, Lock- Aerospace & Technologies Marianne Cites, president
heed Martin Aeronautics Corp. of the AIAA University at
Director–Region II Richard A. Wahls, NASA Cristian N. Calugarita,
Buffalo Student Branch,
Kurt Polzin, NASA Mar- Headquarters Consultant
and Dick Grom, a 59-year
shall Space Flight Center Lawrence “Robbie” Rob-
emeritus member who
Director–Business and ertson, Air Force Research
joined IAS in 1960, were just
Director–Region VII Management Group Laboratory
Cees Bil, RMIT University Leslie Lake, Reynolds, a couple of the old and new
Essam E. Khalil, Cairo Smith & Hills, Inc. Director-Elect–Young attendees at a recent AIAA
University Professionals Group Niagara Frontier Section
Ashlee Youngpeters, Pratt event. 
& Whitney

NOMINATIONS NOW
BEING ACCEPTED
The Daniel Guggenheim Medal is awarded for notable achievements
in the advancement of aeronautics. The medal is regarded by many
as the greatest honor that can be presented for a lifetime of work in
the aeronautical field.

This medal is jointly sponsored by AIAA, the American Society of

Mechanical Engineers, SAE International, and the Vertical Flight
Society. The award is generally presented at the AIAA Aerospace
Spotlight Awards Gala in Washington, DC.

Past Recipients Include:

Orville Wright William Durand Igor Sikorsky
William Boeing Donald Douglas Charles Stark
Draper

Nomination Deadline: 1 February 2020

For more information and for nomination forms,

please visit guggenheimmedal.org

8220-2022
| - half
DECEM B ER 2019
page Guggenheim Medal ad -|Dec2019
aerospaceamerica
and Jan2020 AA.indd 1 . aiaa .org 11/8/19 9:47 AM
AIAA Announces Winners of Prestigious
Zarem Graduate Student Awards in
Aeronautics and Astronautics
AIAA has announced the two winners of consciousness, asphyxiation, and death. Fly team and met Dr. Roberto Albertani
the Zarem Graduate Student Awards for However, if a puncture could be detected who later offered me a position in his
Distinguished Achievement. and isolated, even major suit punctures laboratory for my graduate research.
Johnie Sublett, a Ph.D. student at become survivable. Thus, the suit system Dr. Albertani played a large role in the
Georgia Institute of Technology, won I’m working to demonstrate includes success of the aerospace engineering
the astronautics award for “Design a distributed array of pressure sensors program at OSU and helped foster my
and Testing of a Fault-tolerant Space and inflation cuffs that can detect, seal curiosity for aviation.”
Suit.” Sublett also won first place in the against, and isolate any punctures in the Anderson’s research is focused on
graduate portion of the student paper limbs of the suit.” investigating the potential for flutter
competition at the 70th International Attending IAC 2019 put him in suppression via distributed propulsion,
Astronautical Congress, held 21–25 contact with subject-matter experts meaning he is looking at how to use
October in Washington, D.C. in the field of space suit design and electric motors, instead of gas engines/
Cole Anderson, who recently extravehicular operations who gave turbines, along with cleverly designed
earned a master’s degree in mechanical him feedback about his designs. “I also wing structures, to increase aircraft effi-
engineering from Oregon State Univer- had the chance to meet and chat with ciency and optimize cruise conditions.
sity, won the aeronautics award for “A some of the leading experts in human “The inspiration for this idea comes
Test Rig for Wing Flutter Suppression via spaceflight and Mars exploration, which from combining technology in two
Distributed Propulsion.” was incredible,” Sublett said. current NASA X-planes; the X-56 MUTT
AIAA Honorary Fellow Dr. Abe His career goal is to work on human and X-57 Maxwell,” he explained. “The
Zarem, founder and managing director planetary exploration and spaceflight project was selected by NASA for USRC
of Frontier Associates, established the operations, either on the moon or Mars. funding and was also funded by the
Abe M. Zarem Award for Distinguished “I think we’re entering a golden age of Boeing Professorship at Oregon State
Achievement to annually recognize space exploration. There now exists the University.”
graduate students in aeronautics and public desire, technological capabilities, Anderson said he’s interested in
astronautics who have demonstrated and launch infrastructure to enable aircraft structures and controls for his
outstanding scholarship in their field humans to venture farther, and to stay career and has been working at Altech
and who are pursuing graduate degrees. longer. Humans that are alive today will Aerospace as a Structures Engineer
be the new pioneers of our species.” where he’s been doing structural
Sublett substantiation and Fatigue & Damage
Sublett grew up Anderson Tolerance analysis.
in Pensacola, FL, Jumping out “I am inspired by America’s strong
and has always of airplanes is legacy of leading the world in aerospace
been fascinated what eventually technology,” he said. “The current
by complex led Anderson to research in commercial supersonic air-
problems and pursue a career craft and aeroservoelasticity is especially
smart engineer- in aerospace exciting to me. I am proud to present the
ing solutions. He engineering. He result of my research and contribute to
is working on fault-tolerant space suits earned a skydiv- America’s prestigious reputation.”
that can protect astronauts from many ing license after one of his best friends For more information on the
of the puncture risks associated with introduced him to the sport. Abe M. Zarem Graduate Awards for
planetary space operations. “Space suits “Spending time at the airport in Distinguished Achievement, visit the
protect their occupants from the hostile small aircraft, talking with pilots, and AIAA Awards webpage at aiaa.org/
environment of space by maintaining learning about aviation fascinated me,” get-involved/honors-awards/awards/
a safe breathing atmosphere, with a said Anderson, who was born and raised student-awards.
pressure bladder containing requisite in Palo Alto, CA. “I quickly enrolled in the
internal gas pressure,” he explained. Aerospace Engineering minor at Oregon
“If this pressure garment is punc- State University and was immediately
tured or damaged, the suit can quickly attracted to the engineering side of avi-
depressurize, leading to rapid loss of ation. I signed up for the Design/Build/

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 83

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

The AIAA Foundation

in Action
It has been another incredible year
partnering with all of you to educate and
inspire the next generation of aerospace
professionals. Together, we spark
curiosity, design hand-on programs to
instruct students, and inspire youth to
pursue fulfilling careers for our national
and our world.
With your support, we are making
a real and lasting impact. This year, we
specifically:

i Distributed 72 classroom grants

impacting 29,789 students
i Granted 420 First Lego League Grants
involving 3,532 students
i Presented 3 K–12 Educator Achieve-
ment Awards
i Partnered with Higher Orbits to
present the Apollo Series Go For Launch!
program where 130 students partici-
pated in hands-on space activities
i Organized the annual Design/Build/
Fly Competition with more than 785
students
i Held seven Regional Student Paper
Conferences where 562 students partici-
pated and made 215 presentations
i Honored 60 Diversity Scholars at AIAA
forums and the International Astronau-
tical Congress
i Presented 22 undergraduate scholar-
ships and graduate awards to deserving
students to further their education

And with your continued assistance,

we are looking forward to an even bigger
impact in 2020!

For more information about the

AIAA Foundation, visit aiaa.org/
Foundation. Please reach out to
Foundation Director Merrie Scott
at MerrieS@aiaa.org about the
Foundation’s goal of impacting
one million students and
becoming involved or donating
to the AIAA Foundation.

84 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 85
AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

News
AIAA Atlanta Section
Inspires the Next
Generation of
Aerospace
Professionals
By Aaron Harcrow, Chair Emeritus, AIAA
Atlanta Section
Photos by: Tony Platt

On 17 September, the AIAA Atlanta

Section hosted a dinner meeting at the
Delray Diner in Marietta, GA, to empha-
size that success in STEM helps to iden-
tify a career path in rocketry from high be deployed on a preprogrammed GPS sonics research programs and that it is
school team competitions to university flight path. not a space launch platform and cannot
team competitions to full-time paying Other expenses are funded by deliver payloads to orbit. It will operate
job! On hand were members from three donations from sponsors in the com- at speeds of Mach 5+ to collect valuable
highly successful rocketry teams in the munity. AIAA Atlanta contributed to flight test data. Generation Orbit recently
Atlanta Section: the purchase of matching team shirts conducted a successful integrated hot-
i Tim Smyrl, Aeronautics Team and complete with the Atlanta Section logo fire test of the X-60A propulsion system
TARC/UAS4STEM Sponsor, Creekview on the sleeve! and liquid rocket engine.
High School, Canton, GA Causey and Brophy, assisted by last Many STEM lessons learned were
i Carson Causey and Nicolas Bro- year’s team lead Casey Wilson, co-lead a presented during the evening including
phy, Co-Team Leads, Georgia Institute of Georgia Tech team that competes in the systems engineering of a complete rocket
Technology, Spaceport America Cup world’s largest collegiate rocketry com- system, FMECA, calculating mass of fuel
i Jeremy Young, Propulsion Team, petition, the annual Spaceport America needed to hit an altitude target, trajectory
Generation Orbit, developing the X-60A Cup. In their first year to compete, the planning in varying atmospheric condi-
hypersonic testbed team won first place in their category, hit- tions, design and fabrication of precision
ting just shy of the altitude target of 30,000 parts, installing and operating radio
Smyrl has well prepared his teams of feet with commercially bought rocket control equipment, range safety, and
up to 40 students for the Team America motors and placed second overall for data telemetry. One non-STEM lesson
Rocketry Challenge (TARC) and the Inter- Judge’s Choice out of the ~95 teams that learned is that as rockets are made larger
national Rocketry Competition (IRC), and flew. This year they’re building another to go faster and higher, the cost increases
they are two-time winners of TARC (2014 two-stage rocket to hit 30,000 feet and are astronomically! And that is why AIAA
and 2018) and world champions at IRC developing their own solid rocket motors. Atlanta provided financial sponsorship
2018. Team leaders present this evening The annual budget of the GT rocketry club for the Creekview HS team during the
were Michael Pena, Joey Gallagher, Nate is around $20,000, with the rocket launch 2018–2019 Section year and will assist
Lindsey, Alex Teal, Carter Burch and Rand costing around $5,000–7,000 of that. The both Creekview and the GT SAC team in
Johnson. The TARC team consists of up 14-foot-tall rocket, dubbed “Sustain Alive,” 2019–2020.
to 10 students who pay a $50 dues; the reached a max altitude of 28,140 feet, and AIAA Atlanta will follow the tra-
$500 budget covers entry fees, building a max speed of Mach 1.17. jectories of these three teams as they
materials, and as many composite And to show where these high school continue to develop new rockets, enjoy
propellant motors as possible to create and university rocketry programs can successful first launches, and face
two rocket classes: lead, Jeremy Young spoke about his career challenges in future competitions. We
i TARC: 650g max mass, carrying at Generation Orbit, where he is a mem- encourage the teams to apply STEM best
one chicken egg as close to 800 feet as ber of the Propulsion Team in support practices and look forward to receiving
possible in a time window of 38 to 40 of the X-60A, a development program additional reports of success and awards
seconds sponsored by the Air Force Research Lab- and hearing how the Creekview HS rock-
i NASA student launch team: K-class oratory (AFRL). He presented a high-level etry teams members advance to Georgia
impulse rocket, carrying an autonomous overview of the X-60A program, noting Tech rocketry teams and GT rocketry
glider to an altitude between 3500 and that X-60A is an expendable research team members advance to employment
5500 feet at which time the glider will testbed in support of the nation’s hyper- at Generation Orbit!

86 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

The Space Force — 7th grade winner
Claire Thorburn
AIAA Space Systems
Technical Committee
Essay Contest
The AIAA Space Systems Technical Com-
mittee’s (SSTC) annual middle school
essay contest continues to improve its
commitment to directly inspire students
and local sections. Each year, additional
local sections start parallel contests to Asher Blatt from Palm Beach, FL. The
feed into selection of national winners third-place winner for 7th grade is Maya
awarded by the SSTC. Mohanty from Palm Beach, FL.
The 2019 essay topic was “President All 2019 winning essays can be
Donald Trump announced the idea 8th grade winner Erin Alvarez (left) with found on the Aerospace America
Astronaut Walter Cunningham
of a Space Force. What are the key website (aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/
advantages and disadvantages of having bulletin/december-2019-aiaa-bulletin).
a Space Force and an organizational NY. The second-place winner for The topic for 2020 is “How advanced
restructuring within the Department of 8th grade was David Ko from Palos can you envision space technology and
Defense?” Seventh and eighth grade stu- Verdes, CA. The third-place winner for exploration through the next 50 years?
dents were asked to participate. The six 8th grade is Isabella Jacobs from San What do we need to do NOW to achieve
national winners will receive a one-year Antonio, TX. that?” If you, your school, or section are
student membership with AIAA. The first-place winner for 7th grade interested in participating in the 2020
The first-place winner for 8th is Claire Thorburn (and teacher Shawna contest, please contact Anthony Shao
grade was Erin Alvarez (and teacher Christenson) from Palm Beach, FL. The (ant.shao@gmail.com) or your local
Vanessa Kowalczyk) from Levittown, second-place winner for 7th grade is section for more details.

Nominate Your Peers and Colleagues!

NOW ACCEPTING AWARDS AND LECTURESHIPS NOMINATIONS

PREMIER AWARD
› Daniel Guggenheim Medal

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS

› Aerospace Power Systems Award › Propellants & Combustion Award
› Air Breathing Propulsion Award › Space Science Award
› Dr. John C. Ruth Digital Avionics › Space Systems Award
Award › von Braun Award for Excellence
› Energy Systems Award in Space Program Management
› George. M. Low Space › Wyld Propulsion Award
Transportation Award

LECTURESHIPS
› Dryden Lecture in Research › Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship in
› Durand Lecture for Public Service Aerospace Engineering

Please submit the nomination form and endorsement letters to

awards@aiaa.org by 1 February 2020

For nomination forms or more information about the AIAA Honors and Award
Program, visit aiaa.org/AwardsNominations.

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87
AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Digital Avionics Systems Award Presented in September

The AIAA Dr. John C. Ruth Digital Avionics Systems Award was presented to the ACAS X Design Team Leaders “for the develop-
ment of the Advanced Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X) using machine learning technology, statistical risk assessment, and
flight test campaigns.” The presentation occurred at the 38th Digital Avionics Systems Conference in September. Tom Smith, AIAA
Fellow, made the presentation on behalf of AIAA.

ABOVE (L to R): Tom Smith, and the recipients or their stand-in: Jim Kuchar (Lincoln Laboratory), Kyle Julian representing Mykel
Kochenderfer (Stanford University), Paul Wood representing Joshua Silbermann (APL/APU), and Luis Alvarez representing both Wes Olson
[Lincoln Laboratory] and Neal Suchy (FAA).

Call for Papers The 2020 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference will be held 9–13 August
for the 2020 2020 at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe, CA. Manuscripts are solicited
AAS/AIAA on topics related to space-flight mechanics and astrodynamics, including but not
Astrodynamics necessarily limited to:
Specialist
i Asteroid and non-Earth orbiting missions i Rendezvous, relative motion, proximity missions,
Conference
i Atmospheric re-entry guidance and control and formation flying
i Attitude dynamics, determination and control i Reusable launch vehicle design, dynamics,
i Attitude-sensor and payload-sensor calibration guidance, and control
i Dynamical systems theory applied to space flight i Satellite constellations
problems i Spacecraft guidance, navigation and control (GNC)
i Dynamics and control of large space structures and i Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Conjunction
tethers Analysis (CA), and collision avoidance
i Earth orbital and planetary mission studies i Trajectory / mission / maneuver design and
i Flight dynamics operations and spacecraft optimization
autonomy i Technology Anniversary: Lessons Learned and Impact
i Orbital dynamics, perturbations, and stability i The history of Astrodynamics: Review of seminal
i Orbit determination and space-surveillance tracking astrodynamical, theoretical and practical
i Orbital debris and space environment developments

In addition to the above general topics, papers are also solicited for a special session on the flight dynamics of
NASA’s Artemis Program, which includes research and development on the Space Flight System, Orion spacecraft,
Lunar Gateway, as well as longer-term plans for crewed flights to Mars.

The abstract deadline is 10 April 2020. More information can be found at space-flight.org/docs/2020_
summer/2020_summer.html.

88 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 Previously, he was chair of the Depart-
Obituaries ment of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering from 1992 to 2007.
use of mechanical seals for turbomachin-
ery and space craft docking systems.
Prahl was a longtime faculty advisor
AIAA Senior Member Prahl’s was also known for his work for to the AIAA student branch at Case West-
the U.S. space program. He took a leave ern Reserve, serving from 2009 to 2017.
Prahl Died in April 2018
of absence from the university from 1990
Joseph Prahl, 75, a longtime Case to 1992 to work as a payload specialist AIAA Associate
Western Reserve faculty member and at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in
Fellow Panaras Died in
researcher with great expertise in Huntsville. This work included the 13-day
dynamics, fluid mechanics and thermo- Columbia mission in June 1992, when December 2018
dynamics, died 19 April 2018. Prahl helped with more than a dozen Dr. Argyris G. Panaras died in December
Prahl received a bachelor’s degree experiments in areas such as crystal 2018 at the age of 75.
from Harvard College in 1963, and a growth, fluid physics, combustion, biopro- Dr. Panaras served in the Hellenic
Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from cessing, space-acceleration measurement Air Force from where he retired as a
Harvard University in 1968. and the effects of extended duration orbit Colonel. He acted as a visiting professor
Prahl spent 40 years at Case Western on the human body. He also assisted in in a number of universities and research
Reserve in the Case School of Engineer- experiments in combustion, surface ten- centers, including NASA Ames Research
ing’s Department of Mechanical and sion, droplet dynamics and crystal growth. Center, Cranfield University, German
Aerospace Engineering, helping with 40 His background in surface-tension-driven Aerospace Center, and the Hellenic Air
master’s or doctoral theses and conduct- flows and combustion played a role in his Force Academy.
ing valuable research in fluid and thermal selection by NASA as a payload specialist Dr. Panaras had numerous publi-
science supported by a host of federal for the mission. cations in leading journals, such AIAA
agencies, while publishing more than 20 He also worked with support from Journal, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, and
refereed journal articles. NASA Glenn Research Center on studies Progress in Aerospace Sciences, and he
Most recently, Prahl was appointed in in tribology and oil-free turbomachinery; was the author of Aerodynamic Princi-
2007 as Case School of Engineering’s first in the chemical kinetics of hydrogen-ox- ples of Flight Vehicles, published by AIAA
faculty director for undergraduates. ygen and propane-air systems; and in the in the Library of Flight series.

Celebrate the Class of 2020 AIAA Associate Fellows

AIAA Associate Fellows Induction
Ceremony and Reception
Monday, 6 January 2020
Hyatt Regency Orlando in Orlando, Florida

The Class of 2020 Associate Fellows will be officially

inducted for their accomplishments in engineering or
scientific work, outstanding merit, and contributions to the
art, science, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.

Join us in recognizing these exemplary professionals

during the Associate Fellows Induction Ceremony
followed by a reception, to be held in conjunction with the
2020 AIAA SciTech Forum at the Hyatt Regency Orlando
on Monday evening, 6 January.

Tickets to this celebrated event are available on a first-

come, first-served basis and can be purchased for $85
at aiaa.org/SciTech/registration or onsite (based on
availability).

For more information about the Class of 2020, please visit

aiaa.org/AssociateFellows2020

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aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 89
AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

AIAA Senior Member ford’s School of Engineering. Looking AIAA Past President and
Wonsever Died in October to revive the Stanford aeronautics Honorary Fellow Picard
Josef A. Wonsever died on 11 October. department, Terman offered Vincenti Died in October
He was 69 years old. full professorship with tenure and
Wonsever obtained his private pilot Vincenti became a part of the Stanford Dennis J. Picard, former
license at the age of 17. He attended faculty in January 1957. CEO and chairman of
the Polytechnic Institute on New York Driven by the Space Age, Vincenti’s Raytheon, died on 21
graduating with a degree in Aerospace investigation of physical gas dynamics October. He was 87.
Engineering. He obtained a master’s related to atmospheric spacecraft An Air Force airman
degree in Engineering Administration reentry put Stanford on the map for after high school, Picard
from George Washington University. astronautics. He built a hypersonic wind served as a radioman and took corre-
Wonsever worked as a rocket tunnel at Stanford and in 1965 co-au- spondence courses. Having graduated
scientist for over 40 years for both NASA thored the textbook Introduction to from the RCA Institute in New York as a
Headquarters and NASA Goddard Space Physical Gas Dynamics, which remains a licensed broadcast engineer, Picard ran
Flight Center. He was Chief for Technical foundational book in the field. his own repair business in Rhode Island
Assessments for the SMA Directorate, In addition to his technical work, Vin- before being hired at Raytheon.
Program Manager for the GSFC Technical centi began investigating the epistemology Picard worked at Raytheon during the
Standards Program, and GSFC’s SMA of technology, looking at engineering as an day and went to Northeastern Universi-
Representative for Orbital Debris matters, ethical issue. This led him to co-develop ty’s engineering school at night, gradu-
making lasting contributions in Safety Stanford’s Program in Science, Technology ating cum laude in 1962 with degrees in
and Mission Assurance. In 2018, he and Society in 1971, where he served as electrical engineering and management.
earned NASA’s highest award, the Distin- the director several times. He rose through the Raytheon ranks to
guished Service Medal, for exceptional In 1990, Vincenti published a histor- become a company vice president in
and outstanding mission support. ical book looking at the epistemology of 1976 and deputy general manager of
engineering, titled What Engineers Know Raytheon’s Equipment Division in 1982.
and How They Know It: Analytical Studies In 1983, Picard was tapped to lead
AIAA Fellow Vincenti
from Aeronautical History. This publi- Raytheon’s Missile Systems Division, and
Died in October cation led to Vincenti being awarded specifically, to help complete the Patriot
Walter G. Vincenti, professor emer- the Engineer-Historian Award from defense system. He helped turn around
itus of aeronautics and astronautics the American Society of Mechanical the program, which was then designed to
at Stanford University, who laid the Engineers in 1997. defend against aircraft, and championed
engineering groundwork for flight at Over the course of his career, Vin- its development as an anti-missile system.
the speed of sound and helped develop centi received many awards for his work Picard became Raytheon CEO in
the more efficient swept-wing airplane in aeronautics and in history of tech- March 1991, shortly after Patriot rose to
design still in use today, died on 11 nology. Most recently, he was presented fame during the Gulf War. As spending
October. He was 102. with the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, for on national defense spending dropped
Vincenti entered Stanford Univer- a lifetime of work in aeronautics, and in the early 1990s, Picard decided Ray-
sity in fall 1934, where he majored in a 2019 Stanford Engineering Heroes theon would be a buyer, not a seller. He
mechanical engineering. After complet- Award. Vincenti was recognized as an led the acquisition of both the Hughes
ing his undergraduate degree, Vincenti AIAA Fellow in 1951 and in 1956 received and Texas Instruments defense units
enrolled in Stanford’s aeronautics a Rockefeller Public Service Award for for $12.5 billion within 10 days of each
graduate program. advanced study at Cambridge University, other in January 1997. These acquisitions
After graduating with an Engineer’s where he worked on a heat shield for doubled the size of Raytheon, allowing
degree in mechanical engineering in spacecraft returning through Earth’s it to become one of the world’s largest
1940 he was invited to work at the newly atmosphere. For his devotion to students defense contractors.
developed Ames Aeronautical Labo- and skill as a teacher, he was awarded He retired as CEO in December 1998
ratory. His team pioneered supersonic Stanford’s Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for and as board chairman in July 1999.
wind tunnel research at NACA. The outstanding service to undergraduate Mr. Picard’s military-related honors
mathematical framework they devel- education in 1983. In 1998, Vincenti included being inducted into the Army’s
oped allowed for flight at the speed of was honored for his contributions to Order of Santa Barbara, along with
sound, permanently changing aircraft technological history with the Leonardo receiving Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nim-
efficiency and design. His findings da Vinci Medal, awarded by the Society itz Award from the Navy League of the
prompted aerospace manufacturers to for the History of Technology. United States, the John W. Dixon Medal
adopt the swept-wing aircraft model that from the Army, and the John R. Allison
remains an industry standard today. Award from the Air Force Association.
Vincenti’s work caught the eye of He also was a member of the
Frederick Terman, the dean of Stan- National Academy of Engineering,

90 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

served as president of AIAA (2001–2002), managerial experience in FAA, Depart- Applied Technology Systems Group
and was a life fellow of the Institute of ment of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, and of SAIC. In addition, he was assigned
Electrical and Electronic Engineers. NASA navigation, landing, air traffic corporate responsibility for coordination
control and aircraft systems design, of all SAIC civil aviation and FAA-related
development, and test. He is considered program activities.
AIAA Past President and
one of the fathers of the U.S. air traffic In 2005, Richardson formed Donrich
Honorary Fellow control system. Research, Inc., an aviation consulting
Richardson Died in He also performed at technical and firm that conducted technical and
October managerial levels in private industry marketing research for aerospace firms.
throughout his entire career, as an Over the course of his career he
Donald W. Richardson engineer, research pilot, and corporate presented over two dozen papers at
died on 24 October 2019. executive. For over 40 years Richardson technical conferences. Richardson
He was 92 years old. was directly and continuously involved joined AIAA in 1948 and was an active
At the age of 18, he in all facets of the technical and opera- member, serving on or chairing
enlisted to serve in World tional issues relating to the FAA’s mission numerous committees, including the
War II as an Army including its Capital Investment Plan Aerospace Traffic Management Integra-
Sergeant in charge of a mortar crew in (CIP) and Research, Engineering, and tion and Outreach Committee and the
Italy. He later continued his service as a Development (RE&D) Plan. Institute Development Committee. He
Navy Reserve Captain. He worked for SAIC beginning in served as president of the Institute from
He graduated from Georgia Tech with 1984 until his retirement in 2005, serving 2004 to 2005. Richardson was awarded
a degree in aeronautical engineering as SAIC Corporate Vice President with the AIAA Distinguished Service Award
in 1951. He went on to earn a master’s concurrent responsibility as Manager in 2012, as well as the AIAA Sustained
degree from Newark College of Engineer- of the Air Transportation Systems Service Award in 2001.
ing (1958) and his Ph.D. in engineering Operation. In this latter capacity, he was He also is one the few Americans
from California Coast University (1978). responsible for the acquisition, staffing, to be named an Honorary Fellow of
Richardson had a formidable career and technical management of all civil England’s Royal Aeronautical Society.
with more than 64 years of technical and aviation-related programs within the

The Yvonne C. Brill Lectureship

in Aerospace Engineering
This premier lecture emphasizes research or engineering
issues for space travel and exploration, aerospace
education of students and the public, and other
aerospace issues such as ensuring a diverse and robust
engineering community.

Candidates should have a distinguished career involving

significant contributions in aerospace research and/
or engineering and will be selected based on technical
experience, originality, and influence on other important
aerospace issues such as ensuring a diverse and robust
engineering community.

The award includes a $1,000 cash prize and a $1,000

travel stipend.

The lecture will be held at the National Academy of

Engineering building in Washington, DC, in October 2020. Yvonne Brill receiving the National Medal of Technology and
Innovation from President Obama at the White House in 2011.

NOMINATION DEADLINE: 1 FEBRUARY 2020

For more details and nomination form, please visit
aiaa.org/brill

Sponsored by AIAA with the participation and support

of the National Academy of Engineering

20-0025 - half page AD- Brill Lecture - Dec19 and Jan20 AA.indd 1 aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 11/12/19
2019 9:37 91
| AM
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR FACULTY POSITION

The Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at The University of Alabama in-
vites applications for an assistant professor faculty position. Areas of interest include, but are
not limited to, the general area of space/astronautics, computational fluid dynamics, or other
area of aerospace engineering or mechanics. Candidates must demonstrate a clear potential to
successfully pursue and attain grants from external funding sources. An ability to collaborate
with existing faculty, both within the Department and the College of Engineering, in the key
focus areas is also highly desirable.
The University of Alabama currently enrolls over 38,000 students and employs over 2,000
full and part-time faculty members in thirteen colleges and schools. The College of Engineer-
ing is comprised of seven academic departments with over 6,000 students, and the College
will be home to more than 150 tenure/tenure-track faculty following the current search. The VISIT US ONLINE AT
College also houses nine research centers and is active in the University’s four new research
institutes. The College occupies well over a half million square feet of state-of-the-art facili- aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org
ties, including the $300 million Shelby Engineering and Science Quadrangle, completed in
2014, and the newly reopened $22 million renovated HM Comer. The Carnegie Foundation
has recognized The University of Alabama with its Very High Research Activity status (for-
merly known as R1 status).
Applicants must have an earned doctorate in aerospace engineering, engineering mechanics
or a closely related field. Applicants are to identify the specific area of interest and submit a
resume, teaching and research statements with future goals and a list of at least three referenc-
es. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled,
with an expected start date of August 16, 2020. Electronic submission of application materials
via The University of Alabama employment website is required (facultyjobs.ua.edu, requi-
sition number 0812234). For additional information regarding The University of Alabama,
the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, or this search, please contact Dr.
Mark Barkey, Professor and Head, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics,
mbarkey@eng.ua.edu.
The University of Alabama is an equal opportunity affirmative action, Title IX, Section 504,
ADA employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Salary is competitive and
commensurate with experience level.

Aerospace Engineering,
University of Kansas

The University of Kansas Aerospace Engineering Department invites applications for a tenure
track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the area of Aerospace Propulsion.
The Aerospace Engineering Department is seeking to expand in the area of aerospace
propulsion including but not limited to gas-turbine engines, turbomachinery, hybrid electric,
rocket propulsion, and related areas. The ideal candidate will have substantial experience
and a continuing interest in the development and design of aerospace propulsion systems.
Applications are sought from candidates with earned doctorates in Aerospace Engineering
or closely related fields by the time of appointment. The successful candidate will be
results-oriented, have a record of superior scholarship, have a promising vision for
externally funded research, have experience in externally funded research commensurate
with the rank of appointment, develop or maintain an externally funded research program,
and teach high-quality courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Research
productivity at KU is evaluated with respect to publications in respected academic journals
as well as success in acquiring external research grants, and financially supporting and
mentoring PhD and MS students. The University of Kansas School of Engineering and
the Department of Aerospace Engineering value Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We seek
candidates who can contribute to fostering an inclusive culture.
Review of complete applications will begin on January 1, 2020, and continue until the
position is filled. The successful candidate must receive valid U.S. work authorization prior
to the specified start date, August 18, 2020. Salary is commensurate with experience.
For additional information or to apply, go to https://employment.ku.edu/academic/15643BR.
Applications should include a letter of application, curriculum vitae, three references, a
statement of research interests and future plans, and a statement of teaching interests and
future plans including efforts to diversify the field of engineering. KU is an EO/AAE.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to
race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, national origin, disability, genetic
information or protected Veteran status.

92 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 Department Chair Position, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri
https://mae.mst.edu/maechairsearch

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at Missouri University of Science and Technology
(Missouri S&T) seeks applications and nominations for the position of Department Chair.
The department is entering a new period of intentional and sustained growth that is supported by substantial institutional
investment. This investment includes the commitment of resources for aggressive hiring of multiple faculty in both traditional
and emerging areas and represents a significant opportunity for new department leadership to increase the stature and
ranking of the department.
Founded in 1870 in Rolla, MO as the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy and formerly known as University of
Missouri-Rolla (UMR), Missouri S&T is a Highly Selective, top research university with over 8,600 students. Missouri S&T is
an AA/EEO employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity, gender expression, age, disability or status as a protected veteran. Females, minorities, and persons with
disabilities are encouraged to apply.
More information and application instructions are available at mae.mst.edu/maechairsearch.
Applications will be reviewed as they are received and the review of applications will continue until the position is filled. For
full consideration, applicants should apply by January 15, 2020. Application materials are requested to be submitted using
Reference Number 32103 at: hr.mst.edu/careers/academic-employment.

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ELUSIVE SOLUTIONS.

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aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 93

LOOKING BACK | 100, 75, 50, 25 YEARS AGO IN DECEMBER

1919 1944
Dec. 1-16 The Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches 24 Dec. 14 The Avro Lancaster 1 Aries becomes the first
experimental Private A rockets at Camp Irwin in the Royal Air Force plane to fly around the world. The
Mojave Desert as part of Project Ordnance from the flight’s main mission is to study navigation and to
California Institute of Technology, to test basic missile demonstrate the latest equipment likely to be used in
design, handling and boost separation techniques for the Pacific region. The Lancaster I, powered by four
the Army Ordnance Department. The Private A is a 1,280-horsepower Rolls-Royce Merlin 24 engines, flew
Dec. 22 Based on the standard solid-fuel jet-assisted takeoff rocket with four 75,600 kilometers in approximately two months. The
military 0/400 and 4.5-inch ordnance rockets as the booster; it has 1,000 Aeroplane, Dec. 22, 1944, p. 686.
V/1500 heavy bombers, pounds (4,400 newtons) of thrust, is 30 seconds in
the first Handley-Page duration, and has an average range of 16 kilometers. W.
W.8 airliner makes its Ley, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel, pp. 250-251.
inaugural flight. Powered Dec. 17 Maj. Richard Bong, the most successful fighter
by two Napier Lion pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps, achieves his 40th and
engines, each producing final victory, downing a Nakajima Ki-43 “Oscar” while
450 horsepower, the W.8 Dec. 4 Three flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter at the end of
can carry 16 passengers Consolidated his third tour of duty. David Baker, Flight and Flying: A
800 kilometers at an Liberators of the Chronology, p. 299.
average speed of 140 Royal Air Force’s
kph. Its plush interior has Transport
curtains, carpet, electric Command break
the West-East Dec. 18 The
lights and a toilet. C.H.
Atlantic crossing German
Barnes, Handley Page
record for big rocket-powered
Aircraft Since 1907, pp.
bombers carrying full loads of passengers, cargo and Bachem Ba 349
169-172.
mail. The 5,000-kilometer flight lasts 10 hours, 31 Natter
minutes, beating the old record by 55 minutes. The interceptor
Aeroplane, Dec. 15, 1944, p. 666. aircraft is flown
During December for the first time
Robert H. Goddard’s trea- in an unpiloted
tise “A Method of Reach- test. Later
ing Extreme Altitudes” is Natters are piloted. This radical, vertically launched
published as part of the point defense fighter is powered by a single Walter
Smithsonian Miscella- 109 liquid-fueled rocket, which produced 17,000
neous Collections, Vol. newtons (3,750 pounds) of thrust with four Schmid-
71, No. 2, but it is not ding 109-533 solid-fuel boosters strapped to the rear
released until Jan. 10, fuselage each producing 12,000 newtons (2,640
1920. Although written in pounds) of thrust for 10 seconds during launch. The
dry scientific language, boosters were designed to be jettisoned. J.R. Smith
the paper creates huge and Antony Kay, German Aircraft of the Second World
excitement in the press Dec. 13-14 It is decided in a meeting of the U.S. Army War, pp. 55-59.
because of Goddard’s Air Forces and the National Advisory Committee for
mention of a rocket that Aeronautics, NASA’s predecessor, that rocket, not
could be sent to the jet, engines should power the planned X-1 supersonic
research aircraft. E.M. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Dec. 21 Gen. Henry H. “Hap”
moon. Goddard is merely
Astronautics, 1915-60, p. 49. Arnold becomes General of
presenting a hypothetical
the Army, the only air officer
case to demonstrate the
to hold this five-star
maximum achievement
general’s rank. F.K. Mason
of one of his solid-
Dec. 14 The Short Shetland, the United Kingdom’s and M. Windrow, Know
fuel, unmanned rockets
largest military flying boat, makes its first flight. It has Aviation, p. 50.
if it uses the stage or
fully loaded weight of 59,000 kilograms, a maximum
step principle. From this
payload of 6,350 kg, a range of 6,400 kilometers and
time, Goddard receives
a top speed of 423 kph. It can carry 70 passengers,
numerous requests from During December 1944
but it is configured to carry no more than 40, although
volunteers to ride in The Lafayette Escadrille of World War I fame is re-
in great comfort. Shorts Aircraft Since 1900, pp. 390-
his rocket to the moon portedly reformed by the Armée de L’Air, with French
398.
and to Mars. Esther C. pilots equipped with Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. The
Goddard and G. Edward Aeroplane, Dec. 29, 1944, p. 719.
Pendray, eds., The Papers
of Robert H. Goddard,
Vol. I, pp. 337-408.

94 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 COMPILED BY FR ANK H . WINTER and ROBERT VAN DER LINDEN

1969 1994
Dec. 3 U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the world’s first astronautical awards and was established Dec. 3 After three years
appointment of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, by Anna Emile Guzman in 1889 for the first people of testing by NASA’s
the first man on the moon, as chairman of the Peace to find the means of communication with a heavenly Langley Research
Corps. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969, body — Mars excluded. Until that achievement, the Center, the FAA and the
p. 42. award was to be given for significant contributions aerospace industry, the
to astronomy. The prize excluded Mars, since during Bendix RDR-4B wind
Guzman’s time, many people believed that Mars was shear warning device is
inhabited and communication with that planet would approved for commercial
Dec. 4 Hugh Oswald not be a difficult enough challenge. Washington Post, use. NASA, Astronautics
Short, the last survivor of Dec. 9, 1969, p. A23; Frank H. Winter, “The Strange and Aeronautics, 1991-
the three Short brothers Case of Madame Guzman and the Mars Mystique”; 1995, p. 606.
who in 1908 founded the Griffith Observer, Vol. 48 (February 1984), pp. 2–15.
world’s first company to
make production
airplanes, Short Brothers,
Short Sunderland Mk V dies at 87. In 1910 Hugh
Oswald designed gas
compartments, automatic valves and pressure gauges
for the first British rigid airship, Mayfly. He invented,
designed and produced the first stressed-skin
all-metal aircraft. In 1924 he began the design of the
first all-metal stressed-skin flying boat. Later, he
directed the designs of such aircraft as the Short
Singapore 1 and the Empire and Sunderland flying Dec. 11 The Air Force’s YF-12A supersonic aircraft,
boats. Flight International, Dec. 11, 1969, p. 897. a twin-seat version of the secret Lockheed A-12 sin-
gle-seat reconnaissance aircraft, makes its first flight
from Edwards Air Force Base in California to initiate a
joint NASA-U.S. Air Force program to advance knowl-
Dec. 5 Claude Dornier, the German airplane designer edge of high-performance flight. NASA, Astronautics Dec. 9. NASA selects
and founder of Dornier Flugzeugwerke (Dornier Air- and Aeronautics, 1969, p. 405-406. Kathryn Hire for the
plane Works), dies at 85. Dornier was heavily involved astronaut corps, the first
in the development of all-metal flying boats. Later, he person from the Kennedy
was devoted to the development of short takeoff and Space Center workforce.
landing technology, culminating in the Do31, the first Dec. 25 The Soviet Union’s Interkosmos 2 is launched Hire is a contract em-
vertical and/or short takeoff and landing jet transport. on a Kosmos 2 rocket from the Kapustin Yar cos- ployee for the Lockheed
Flight International, Dec. 11, 1969, p. 897. modrome. The satellite is designed for ionospheric Space Operations Co.
research and contains experiments from Bulgaria and NASA, Astronautics and
Czechoslovakia, as well as an onboard computer from Aeronautics, 1991-1995,
East Germany. Aviation Week, Jan. 19, 1970, p. 22. p. 607.
Dec. 7 Astronomers
announce that the
universe might be several
times larger than During December 1969 Dec. 12 Astronaut Stuart
previously believed, • The Hawker Siddeley Trident 3B jet transport makes Allen Roosa dies at the
based on observations its first flight from the company’s Hatfield, England, age of 61. Roosa was the
made by the OAO 2, production facility. This version of the three-engined command module pilot
short for Orbiting airliner features a stretched fuselage and seating for for Apollo 14 in 1971 and
Astronomical Observato- up to 180 passengers. Since the Trident is slightly was one of only six astro-
ry 2, satellite launched a year earlier. The satellite had underpowered, the 3B also features a booster engine nauts to orbit the moon
the first space telescope, nicknamed Stargazer. The mounted above the tail-mounted engine — effectively solo. NASA, Astronautics
satellite also found that many galaxies are much making it the only four-engined tri-jet in the world. and Aeronautics, 1991-
brighter in ultraviolet radiation than expected. NASA Aviation Week, Jan. 12, 1970, p. 32. 1995, p. 609.
Release 69-156; NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics,
1969, p. 403. • The television-guided air-to-ground Maverick missile,
developed by Hughes Aircraft Co., in its first guided
flight test strikes and destroys a tank in the desert
near Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, after being
Dec. 8 The scientific attaché at the U.S. Embassy in fired from a McDonnell Douglas F-4D Phantom II jet in-
Paris accepts the Prix Pierre Guzman (Pierre Guzman terceptor and fighter-bomber in a steep dive. Aviation
Prize) on behalf of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Arm- Week, Jan. 5, 1970, p. 22.
strong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. It’s one of the

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | DECEM B ER 2019 | 95

 TR AJECTORIES CAREER TURNING POINTS AND FUTURE VISIONS

DANIEL “DEEJAY” RILEY, 29

Archinaut deputy program manager at Made In Space

Deejay Riley grew up in Mountain View, California, working on cars with his fa-
A satellite beam
ther. No one was surprised when in college he joined San Jose State University’s
segment made Formula Society of Automotive Engineers to build race cars. Riley still loves
by Archinaut
One’s printer.
cars, but after a college internship he was hired by Made In Space, the “off-
Earth” manufacturing pioneer based in his hometown. The company is best
known for remotely operating two 3D printers aboard the International Space
Station. Riley helps manage development of Archinaut One, a satellite that in
2022 will attempt to 3D-print a pair of 10-meter-long solar arrays and install
them on itself with a robotic arm.

Landing a job Growing up, I spent a lot of time with Legos, building and
creating things. When I got older, my dad and I rebuilt the engine in what ulti-
mately became my first car. I enjoyed taking things apart and understanding
how they worked and why. My dad was a pilot who owned a small airplane. I
was always involved in helping him maintain and fly the plane. Coming out of
high school, I didn’t know what type of engineering I wanted to do. I spent a
couple of years at Foothill College [in Los Altos Hills, California] and left with
my associate degree in physics and engineering. Then, I went to San Jose State
where I earned a mechanical engineering degree with a focus in mechatronics
[a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering and often robotics].
Toward the end of my college career, I realized I needed a more formal internship.
When I saw an opportunity from Made In Space, it sounded really interesting.
At Made In Space, I’ve gotten to do a lot of really amazing things in my 20s, in-
cluding having functioning hardware on the International Space Station.

From technical work to budgeting I’m usually involved with help-

ing the engineers set technical direction, looking at data and making decisions.
Like a typical deputy program manager, I also work with subcontractors,
making sure that everybody has the information they need when they need
it and managing the program’s schedule and budget. At the end of the day,
my job is to help the program manager make sure the program is successful.
The work we’re doing at Made In Space is setting the foundation and creating
the technology that will help us expand and colonize our solar system and
other planets in a unique and creative way. Archinaut is a good example
because it is changing the way we think about manufacturing or interacting
with satellites. The driving load for most satellites is the launch, but we can
build the satellite in situ. That saves a lot of mass and ultimately cost.

Space in 2050 I think that we will be living and working in space on a

larger scale than we currently are. I expect that you will see an entire section of
the International Space Station or what comes after the space station as a man-
ufacturing laboratory that is using the microgravity environment for manufac-
turing things to benefit Earth as well as in-space technologies. In parallel, we will
be taking the beginning steps of our long-term presence in or on other planets
such as the moon and Mars with the help of Made In Space technology. ★

BY DEBRA WERNER | werner.debra@gmail.com

96 | DECEM B ER 2019 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 16–18 November 2020 | Las Vegas, Nevada

Not since Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

has space and time been so relevant to your calendar.

Every now and again, there’s an event so

monumental, it dramatically changes our
understanding of the universe around us.

Launched by AIAA, ASCEND is just that kind of event.

It is bringing together the international space community’s
brightest minds and luminaries to define the trajectory
of the space economy and future exploration.

And you have a pivotal role to play. Your thought leadership Submit an Abstract
and contributions will help shape the conversation. Visit
the ASCEND website today to explore the call for content
ascend.events/CFC
and discover how you can publish technical papers, case The call for content will be open
studies, tutorials, and more. through 17 March 2020.
 6–10 JANUARY

2020
ORLANDO, FL

EARLY MEMBER REGISTRATION

ENDS 16 DECEMBER

DRIVING AEROSPACE SOLUTIONS FOR

GLOBAL CHALLENGES
Don’t miss your chance to save on forum registration. The 2020 AIAA SciTech
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PLENARY & FORUM 360 HIGHLIGHTS

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Society › Multi-Use Technology
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› Connecting Faster › The Next Giant Leap

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
› Meet the Employers Recruitment Event › the HUB in the Exposition Hall
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› Taco Tuesday Networking Lunch and Keynote

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