AIAA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 18 MODELING 42 COMMERCIAL SPACE 10

The candidates speak The state of CFD Axiom’s Ondler on station planning

g up
alin
Sc ou ld
time
be mjet
ra
c sc
hy it for a o
W oot to d 2
s h h E2
to noug ig PA G

ig e g b
b thin
e
som

JANUARY 2021 | A publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org
 11–15 & 19–21 JANUARY 2021 | VIRTUAL

The virtual 2021 AIAA SciTech Forum will launch eight days of programming on Monday, 11 January.
Attend over 2,200 technical presentations and network with peers from across the globe. Hear
from over 70 industry leaders as they provide their perspectives on emerging technologies,
opportunities for new entrants to the market, and how the diversification of teams, industry
sectors, and design cycles can all be leveraged toward innovation.

FORUM HIGHLIGHTS
› Durand Lecture for Public Service: The History and Prospects of
Commercial Space Activity
› Forum 360 panel Machine Intelligence & Autonomy Meet Aviation:
Toward Safer & More Accessible Skies
› Forum 360 panel The Pandemic: A Catalyst for Innovation
› Meet the Employers recruitment event for students and young
professionals
› Plenary session Emerging Technologies That Will Change Our World
› Public Policy session Aerospace 2020: Where Have We Been and
What to Expect

DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE LIVE.

REGISTER NOW

aiaa.org/scitech/registration
 FEATURES | January 2021 MORE AT aerospaceamerica. aiaa.org

An X-51A Waverider
under the wing of a
B-52 Stratofortress in
an artist’s concept.
U.S. Air Force

22
Hypersonic challenge
10
Life after ISS
Axiom Space is
18
Meet the
candidates
32
Training the mind
for space travel
aspiring to build the The two candidates When people who
Engineers and researchers strive to first privately owned vying to be the aren’t professional
build an air-breathing hypersonic hub for research and next AIAA president astronauts blast off
tourism in low-Earth discuss their goals for for another world, they
engine big enough to carry people,
orbit. Here’s how Chief the institute and how are likely to have less
weapons or intelligence equipment. Technology Officer AIAA will adapt to a training than the pros.
By Jan Tegler
Matt Ondler thinks post-covid world. Will that matter?
this promising future
would unfold. By Cat Hofacker By Sarah Wells

By Cat Hofacker

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 1

REGISTER FOR AIAA’S
Design of Experiments
ONLINE SHORT COURSE

OVERVIEW
IMPROVED EXPERIMENTAL METHODS IN AEROSPACE TESTING
Improve the quality of your research and productivity through
learning about statistically based experiment design. AIAA’s new
course Design of Experiments: Improved Experimental Methods
in Aerospace Testing ensures empirical model adequacy, quantifies
variability in predictions, and identifies all possible independent
variable interactions. The course will review specific studies that
illustrate resource savings, quality improvements, and enhanced
insights from well-designed experiments.

DETAILS OUTLINE
› Every Friday, 26 February – 16 April 2021 › Statistics Fundamentals
› 1300–1500 hrs Eastern Time USA › Single Factor Experiments
› All sessions will be recorded and › Introduction to Factorial Designs
available on demand
› Experiment Planning
› Cost: $845 USD Members
› Wind Tunnel Testing Example
$495 USD Student Members
$1,045 USD Nonmembers › 2k Design and Analysis Details
› Second Order Modeling
› Fractional Factorial Designs
› Blocking
› Response Surface Methods
› Assign Optional At-Home Experiment
› Introduction to Experiments with
Restricted Randomization

REGISTER NOW
learning.aiaa.org
AEROSPACE
★ ★ ★ A M E R I C A ★ ★ ★
IN THIS ISSUE

J A N U ARY 2 0 2 1 , V O L . 5 9 , NO. 1
Cat Hofacker
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
As our staff reporter, Cat covers news for our website and regularly
Ben Iannotta contributes to the magazine.
beni@aiaa.org
PAGES 9, 10, 18
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Karen Small
karens@aiaa.org

STAFF REPORTER
Cat Hofacker Moriba Jah
catherineh@aiaa.org Before becoming an associate professor at the University of Texas at
EDITOR, AIAA BULLETIN
Austin, Moriba helped navigate the Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and worked on space
Christine Williams
situational awareness issues with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
christinew@aiaa.org
PAGE 66

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Moriba Jah, Robert van der Linden, Jan Tegler,
Sarah Wells, Frank H. Winter
Jan Tegler
Basil Hassan AIAA PRESIDENT Jan covers a variety of subjects, including defense. He’s a frequent contributor to
Daniel L. Dumbacher PUBLISHER Defense Media Network/Faircount Media Group and is the author of the book “B-47
Katie Taplett DEPUTY PUBLISHER Stratojet: Boeing’s Brilliant Bomber,” as well as a general aviation pilot.
PAGE 22
ADVERTISING
advertising@aiaa.org

ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN Sarah Wells

THOR Design Studio | thor.design
Sarah is a science and technology journalist based in Boston interested
in how innovation and research intersect with our daily lives. She has
MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION
written for a number of national publications and covers innovation news
Association Vision | associationvision.com
at Inverse.
PAGE 32
LETTERS
letters@aerospaceamerica.org

CORRESPONDENCE DEPARTMENTS
Ben Iannotta, beni@aiaa.org

4 Editor’s Notebook
8 9
5 Flight Path AeroPuzzler R&D
Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly Designing for Titan Launching small satellites on
except in August by the American Institute of Aeronautics return velocity an autonomous drone
and Astronautics, Inc., at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 6 Corrections
200 Reston, VA 20191-5807 [703-264-7500]. Subscription
rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible
8 AeroPuzzler
therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S., $200;
foreign, $220. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send 10 42
address changes and subscription orders to Aerospace
America, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
9 R&D Q&A Opinion
at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA, 20191-5807, Matt Ondler, chief technology Uncertainty quantification
Attn: A.I.A.A. Customer Service. Periodical postage 47 AIAA Bulletin officer at Axiom Space and computational fluid
paid at Reston, Virginia, and at additional mailing dynamics
offices. Copyright 2021 by the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. 60 Career Opportunities
62 66
The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA
in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
62 Looking Back
Looking Back Jahniverse
66 Jahniverse The first unpowered glide Finding the facts we don’t
flight of the Bell XS-1 rocket know we don’t know
research airplane
 EDITOR ’S NOTEBOOK CLIMATE CHANGE

For the Biden team, a

“wicked” aerospace problem

ssuming covid-19 is tamed and a giant asteroid or comet isn’t spotted heading our way in 2021,

A
climate change will resume its place as the most pressing science and technology issue facing
humanity. On this topic, the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden might soon
experience the power of inertia, as in the “resistance of any object to any change in its velocity,”
as Wikipedia defines it.
The Democratic Party platform has inertia in the forward direction on climate change, calling for
achieving “net-zero” carbon emissions no later than 2050 for the economy overall, in part by creating a
“clean, 21st-century transportation system,” which presumably would include cleaner air transportation.
This forward inertia is not matched by the U.S. government, which became practically motionless on the
issue under the Trump administration.
Restoring that motion won’t be easy. In the aerospace sector, doing so could mean stretching out the
timetables for accomplishing other goals that many reasonable people applaud, including clearing the way
for supersonic air travel, catching up with rivals on hypersonics research, and reviving human exploration
of the moon.
Taking on climate change here in the United States is what the theorists call a “wicked problem,” meaning
one that defies logic and predictable outcomes. If the Biden administration attempts to jar the bureaucracy
into motion through small, painless bumps, the climate won’t wait and innovators around the world will
continue leaping ahead of the United States. What about retooling the entire federal government to meet
the climate challenge? A year ago at the AIAA SciTech Forum, former NASA official Lori Garver pointed to
something like that path, calling climate change the “No. 1 global challenge of our time,” and suggesting
that the talents of NASA and the nation should be reoriented to it much as they were marshaled to beat
Russia to the moon in the 1960s. That makes total sense, but it also sounds like a political nightmare, which
is why climate change is such a wicked problem here in the United States. Progress would likely bog down
in time-sucking side debates over where to spend the money and how to best reshape the bureaucracy.
So, I don’t know exactly what the solution will be. I suspect, though, that the private sector will be a big
part of it. We might discover that relatively small nudges to the government apparatus through new research
initiatives, tax changes or enhanced international collaboration will have an outsized effect by unleashing
private sector innovators in areas such as fuels, propulsion, carbon capture and more. With luck, we’ll see
a whole new class of Elon Musks emerge in the area of clean energy. ★

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

4 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 FLIGHT PATH

Together, We Persevere
anuary is traditionally the month when everyone starts In the 1967 Apollo 1 fire, industry pulled together with NASA

J anew, refreshed by the optimism of a new year. And right

now, we need it. I think we all agree 2020 was one of the
most trying years in our memories. It has been for the
aerospace industry too. And while we’re still in the midst of the
pandemic, the new year has ushered in a realization that brings
and completely redesigned the Apollo Command Module, which
ultimately was used in six lunar landings. Following the 1986 Space
Shuttle Challenger tragedy, NASA led a comprehensive review of
safety risks across the program and substantially improved the
overall safety of the Space Transportation System. In 2003, the
hope – our industry’s commitment to perseverance. loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia shined a light on the safety
In last month’s Aerospace America, Editor-in-Chief Ben Iannotta culture at NASA and informed the design of human-rated space
inspired us when he recounted multiple examples of perseverance flight vehicles to follow.
in our industry during 2020. We’re once again launching astro- Who remembers the International Space Station almost didn’t
nauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station thanks get through Congress in 1993? It was the late Rep. John Lewis (D-
to public–private partnership. Three countries have spacecraft GA) who cast the deciding vote to continue the program despite
headed to Mars. As Ben aptly said, “There are literally too many years of cost overruns and schedule delays. Just a few months
examples of progress this year for me to allude to all of them here.” ago, the ISS celebrated its 20th anniversary in orbit. Humans have
One illustration of the industry’s perseverance was seen at been living and working in space for two solid decades.
the December SciTechxWebinar, “Flying is Safe – Is Air Travel?”. September 11, 2001, was a day of immense loss none of us will
Executives from the global air travel ecosystem – Delta Air Lines, forget. The resulting 9/11 Commission exposed the weaknesses
The Boeing Company, Airbus Americas, Hartsfield Jackson Atlan- of air transportation security, but also empowered the United
ta International Airport, and Aerospace Industries Association States to take definitive, positive action. Through Vision 100 – the
(AIA) – joined AIAA to discuss how they are working together to Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act in 2003 and the National
build the traveling public’s confidence back with real data and Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, the United States has been able
communication. We then took a deeper technical dive into what to address many of the commission’s recommendations. Steps
and how data are being tested, the results, and the next steps such as enhanced passenger prescreening, stronger means of
to ensure that air travel is safe. We heard a clear message that identifying dangerous cargo, and much more have allowed us
should give passengers and employees the comfort they need to to avert another terrorist attack for nearly 20 years.
confidently return to flying – a resounding “yes,” air travel is safe. Perseverance is about meeting the challenge and building a
The panels described how the multi-layered approach of airplane better future. It also means being willing to try new approaches,
and cabin disinfection with new technologies to further enhance taking smart risks, and being resolute in assuring a better future.
health safeguards, are working in combination with consumer For over a century, the aerospace industry has persevered because
safe behaviors such as mask-wearing and handwashing. We by its nature it challenges the conventional wisdom to create new
were proud to help support the industry’s messaging around ways to extend humanity’s reach to the sky. The benefits of this
this critical initiative. work are clear in the economic impact and inspiration to all. We
Perseverance also reigned through AIAA this year. COVID-19 must be willing to continue challenging the norms – willing to
didn’t hold us back from publishing technical journals and try new methods and take on risk.
papers, recognizing and honoring member accomplishments, While COVID-19 is still with us, these moments in history can
and gathering as an industry community (albeit virtually). In keep inspiring us – when we rallied as an industry, learned from
fact, we brought together close to 20,000 industry professionals the crises we faced, and moved ahead with renewed resolve. We
between April and December at numerous virtual events. Moving will continue to adapt. Plus, on the immediate horizon of 2021, we
in-person events to online platforms allowed us to reach more have so much to look forward to: spacecraft arrivals at Mars, the
participants who could safely attend from their homes. Lessons growth of the private space enterprise with suborbital flights and
learned from virtual events and the unforeseen benefits have missions to the ISS, and the launch of the James Webb telescope
sparked a new commitment once we are out of the pandemic. are reasons to celebrate and strengthen our hope.
Our future events will be hybrid in nature – part in-person, part Let’s set our sights on these upcoming moments and do what
online – to maximize our reach and impact. we can to keep them on track. Remember, together, we persevere. ★
In 2020 the industry rose to the occasion multiple times.
But we shouldn’t be surprised. After all, perseverance is in our Dan Dumbacher
industry DNA. Executive Director, AIAA

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 5

 CORRECTIONS

How many moon walkers? Let’s try this again

In the November issue, we misstated the In the December Year-in-Review issue, we cut off
number of people who have been to the surface the last few words of the article by the Space
of the moon (“5 necessities for thriving in Transportation Technical Committee. So we’ve
space”). The correct number is 12. printed the article correctly at right.

LET US HEAR FROM YOU Send letters to letters@aerospaceamerica.org.

Letters may be edited for length and clarity and may be published in any medium.

courtesy of

6 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

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

Crewed launch returns SpaceX launched its 100th mission in August,

and in April its Falcon 9 rocket became the most
to Kennedy Space Center flown active rocket with its 84th launch. An August
launch of a Falcon 9 flew a booster core for a record
BY DALE ARNEY
sixth time; a Falcon 9 payload fairing was reused for
The Space Transportation Technical Committee works to foster continuous the first time in November 2019. SpaceX performed
improvements to civil, commercial and military launch vehicles. 150-meter test flights in August and September of
its Starship prototype at its south Texas facility.

U
.S. astronauts were launched from NASA’s ULA in July launched NASA’s Perseverance rover
Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the to Mars on an Atlas V rocket. Blue Origin delivered
first time since 2011. For the Demo-2 mis- a pathfinder BE-4 engine, and Northrop Grumman
sion, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew to completed the first qualification test for a strap-
the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX on booster. Both are being developed for ULA’s
Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket in next-generation rocket, Vulcan Centaur.
May, clearing the way for November’s Crew-1 Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane con-
launch. Boeing prepared for an uncrewed test ducted two unpowered glide flights, one in May
flight of its Starliner capsule after the initial De- and one in June. After a failed attempt in July, Cali-
cember 2019 uncrewed flight on a United Launch fornia-based Rocket Lab’s Electron satellite launch
Alliance Atlas V rocket was shortened due to a vehicle returned to flight in August. That flight also
software error. In February, a Northrop Grumman included the first flight of Rocket Lab’s new Photon
Antares rocket delivered a Cygnus cargo vehicle to spacecraft bus. Also this year, Rocket Lab received a
the ISS. SpaceX launched its 19th successful Cargo launch operator license from FAA allowing launch-
Dragon resupply mission to the ISS in March. es from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia
In August, NASA completed the fourth of eight starting in late 2020.
Green Run tests for its Space Launch System at In May, the Long March-5B, China’s heavy-lift
NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The The core stage for a rocket intended to support a space station in low-
test verified the main propulsion system com- Space Launch System Earth orbit, delivered an uncrewed version of its
ponents were operable and leak-free. Northrop rocket was transported next-generation spacecraft. In March, China’s first
Grumman fired a full-scale version of SLS’s solid from NASA’s Michoud launch of the Long March-7A, upgraded to include
Assembly Facility in Loui-
boosters in September, and in July, Aerojet Rock- nontoxic propellants and modular systems, failed
siana to its Stennis Space
etdyne completed all of the propulsion hardware Center in Mississippi. to reach geosynchronous transfer orbit.
for the first crewed flight of the SLS. NASA In September, Europe’s Vega rocket returned to
flight to deliver 53 satellites for
21 customers. In July, the United
Arab Emirates launched a probe
to Mars aboard Japan’s H-2A
rocket, and China launched
its Tianwen-1 mission to Mars
aboard the Long March-5. Rus-
sia launched the 27th, 28th
and 29th Gonets-M satellites in
September on a Soyuz rocket.
It had launched the 24th, 25th
and 26th satellites in December
2019 on a Russian Rokot rocket.
It was final launch of a Rokot;
the first one debuted in 1990.
In July, Israel launched its
Shavit-2 smallsat rocket for
the first time since 2016. Japan
launched the final H-2 Transfer
Vehicle to the ISS in March. In
April, Mitsubishi Heavy In-
dustries in Japan test fired its
LE-9 engines for 240 seconds in
preparation for its next-gener-
ation H3 rocket. ★

aerospaceamerica
aerospaceamerica
. aiaa
. aiaa
.org.org| DECEM
| JANBUARY 2021 | | 73
ER 2020 7
 Do you have a puzzler to suggest? Email us at aeropuzzler@aiaa.org.

Designing for
Titan return
velocity
FROM THE DECEMBER ISSUE

A TEACHING MOMENT: We asked you

why a student who wrote a chapter
titled “Reduction of turbulent flow for
optimized maneuverability” should
Q. A junior engineer has been tasked
not try flying his prototype aerobic air-
with designing a small reentry body that craft. There was no winning response
will return hydrocarbons from Saturn’s so we asked professor Clint Balog of
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
moon Titan. He runs the design by his to provide an explanation:
hypersonic aerodynamics professor,
In theory, laminar flow would be preferred if it could be maintained
predicting that the small nose radius will along the entirety of the airfoil. However laminar flow, although it
keep drag low during the reentry at induces less frictional drag, tends to separate along the airfoil under
real-world conditions. This separation occurs when the boundary
return velocity and permit precise target- layer does not have enough momentum to resist the adverse pressure
ing of the landing zone. “Well,” says the gradient along the airfoil. Flow separation results in loss of lift, as well
as increasing the “pressure” drag. Turbulence generators, called vortex
professor, “even if you start with a sharp generators, are even sometimes used to “trip” the boundary layer to
reentry body, at best you’ll end with a make it turbulent. Turbulent boundary layers have much larger momen-
tum, and thus they are able to resist the adverse pressure gradient,
blunt one.” What does the professor enabling the flow over the wing to reach the trailing edge of the wing
want the former student to realize? without separation. As a result, lift force is preserved, and pressure
drag is avoided (which may have a much greater effect than frictional
drag). So that turbulent flow isn’t just for executing maneuvers, or for
Draft a response of no more than 250 words and tightening up a turn, although in some circumstances it can accom-
email it by noon Eastern Jan. 18 to aeropuzzler@ plish those things, it is for every aspect of lift generation. So in reality
aiaa.org for a chance to have it published in the an optimized turbulent boundary layer flow is preferred.
February/March issue.

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

8 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 R&D AUTONOMOUS FLIGHT

Air launch with a twist

BY CAT HOFACKER | catherineh@aiaa.org

very space launch company has its own Florida, its two-stage rocket strapped to its belly. Aevum’s autonomous

E
unpiloted aircraft, part of
secret sauce it believes will set it apart Inside will be an undisclosed number of three-
its Ravn X launch system,
from competitors. For Aevum Inc., that unit and larger cubesats for the U.S. Space Force. would loft a two-stage
something is an autonomous, unpiloted, The $4.9 million experimental mission dubbed rocket to carry satellites
rocket-launching aircraft. ASLON-45, short for Agile Small Launch Oper- to orbit.
The 4-year-old Alabama startup in December ational Normalizer, is part of a Pentagon plan Aevum

unveiled this jet-powered reusable carrier drone to build up the small-launch industry for more
that would be paired with the launch vehicles rapid small satellite launches.
the company is also developing to form Ravn Once aloft, software will command the rocket
X, a launch system for satellite payloads of up to be released at an altitude between 9 and 18
to 500 kilograms, depending on the orbital kilometers, and the drone’s flight computer will
altitude. direct the drone either back to Jacksonville or to
With its sleek black-and-white fuselage and another destination calculated by an algorithm,
tapered nose, the 24-meter drone more closely based on data including air speed and weather
resembles the design of a supersonic airliner conditions from the onboard sensor suite.
than the nonsupersonic carrier aircraft that rivals Aevum expects this flexibility of launch and
including Northrop Grumman and Virgin Orbit landing sites to be especially attractive to military
fly to air-launch their rockets. customers. “This makes it almost impossible to
That resemblance is intentional, Aevum predict where Ravn X is going to take off from”
founder and CEO Jay Skylus says. The Ravn X and land, Skylus says. “So our adversaries who
aircraft would be a precursor to a future variant, are targeting launch sites to keep us on the
Ravn without the X, that would fly at supersonic ground, this will be nearly impossible for them
speeds. This, Skylus says, would give Aevum an for intercept because we can literally change
edge over its air-launch rivals as well as compa- each launch site within the hour.”
nies that launch conventional rockets from the Leading up to the Jacksonville launch, Aevum
ground. “Our model is fundamentally different plans to conduct a series of taxi and flight tests
and really, I believe, built to be sustainable as to verify the Ravn X hardware and software, the
opposed to our peers and industry that are goal being to earn an airworthiness certificate
dependent on this launch-site infrastructure.” from FAA. That certificate is not a requirement of
Ravn X, which has yet to fly, could take off the ASLON-45 launch, but would set Aevum up
from any of the 11 FAA-licensed spaceports in for future launches, Skylus says, because Ravn X
the U.S. In the first operational flight scheduled could then potentially fly from any U.S. airfield
for mid-2021, the carrier drone will speed down with a 1.6-kilometer (1-mile) runway the drone
a runway at the Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, needs for takeoff. ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 9

 Q&A MATT ONDLER, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT A XIOM SPACE

MATT ONDLER
POSITIONS: Chief technology officer at Axiom
Space since January 2020; president and CEO of
robotic engineering firm Houston Mechatronics,
2014-2019; at NASA’s Johnson Space Center,
chief of the Software, Robotics, and Simulation
Division, 2007-2011.

NOTABLE: Oversees hardware and technology

development at Axiom Space, which last year
received a $140 million contract from NASA to
build the first privately owned module for ISS;
co-founder of Houston Mechatronics, which
builds undersea robots for installation and
repair of underwater oil and gas pipes; worked
at NASA Johnson for 28 years, including a
two-year stint as project manager for Project
Morpheus, an initiative to quickly build and fly

Q&A
a low-cost lander that concluded in 2014 after
handful of test flights, including a 2012 flight in
which a prototype crashed and caught fire.

AGE: 57

RESIDENCE: Houston

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in aerospace

engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder,
1986; Master of Business Administration,
University of Houston, 1993.

Tomorrow’s station operator

f you build it, they will come” — that’s what Matt Ondler and his colleagues at Axiom

“I
Space are betting in their plan to erect the first privately owned space station. Assembly
will start in 2024 when the International Space Station’s robotic arm attaches the first of
four planned Axiom modules to the Node 2 port to begin a couple years of confidence
More online building before the modules separate to form a free-flying station. As chief technology
aerospace officer of the roughly 100-person Houston company, Ondler oversees the construction of these and
america. future modules that Axiom plans to build for in-space manufacturing, welcoming space tourists and
aiaa.org other needs. I spoke with him via video call ahead of AIAA’s virtual ASCEND conference in November.
Here is our conversation, compressed and lightly edited. — Cat Hofacker

10 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

Q: The International Space Station celebrated 20 years of
continuous human presence in November, but both NASA and U.S.
lawmakers agree the U.S. modules are nearing their end of life.
Why is a commercially owned station the next step?
A: There’s a lot of advantages for NASA, of course, but also for
“Another market
commercial space. The advantage for NASA is that of the $3.5
billion a year or so that NASA spends on the International Space
Station, only a fraction of that, about $500 million or so, is used for
segment that’s
interesting is people
science and technology development. So there’s a big overhead in
maintaining the station, and by having a commercial alternative
where NASA can still go procure those kind of services in terms of
research and technology development, it frees up a bunch of money
for NASA to do something else, to go do the next big thing — to go who want to create
the moon or on to Mars. NASA has shown and proven over the last
20 years how to keep humans healthy in space and how to do real
work in space, and so it’s a good time to try to exploit those and
media in space,
move the industry beyond to start manufacturing in microgravity
and create a new commercial enterprise. whether it’s movies
or commercials,
Q: Paint me a picture of Axiom Station. Besides being privately
owned, how will this station be fundamentally different from ISS?
A: The first and most important is that our space station is
completely funded through investment, through revenue that we
generate from our business, and so it will be owned by Axiom Space and that’s
and wholly operated by Axiom Space.

Ondler later got back to me and clarified that Axiom’s $140

something NASA
million firm-fixed price contract is for the company to provide
NASA with data and lessons learned from designing and
building the initial modules. Axiom plans to cover the cost of
can’t really do.”
designing and building the modules through a combination of
investor funding and revenue from other parts of the company
including private spaceflight missions to ISS. — CH

Fundamental business needs will drive how we operate the station,

how we build the station, how we maintain it. We have to be able people like to call tourist astronauts. We think there’s also a
to build and maintain and operate a station at a cost that is much big market for professional astronauts that are from countries
lower than the ISS, but we can do that by leveraging the technology that may already participate in the ISS, but they don’t get the
and the capability that ISS has proven over the years. The first opportunity to fly their astronauts as often as they would like.
two Axiom modules will have the ability to house crew, to house There’s another group from that category that don’t necessarily
payloads, lots of equipment, storage and things like that. Then participate in the ISS or don’t have a way to really participate in
the third module is dedicated to research and manufacturing. We the space program, but want to for their own countries’ interest,
want to accommodate heritage NASA experiments as well, so take for their own countries’ prestige, to stimulate the STEM fields
a payload from the ISS and bring it across the hatch and install it in their countries. And then we hope at some point to be able
into the research manufacturing module. The fourth module is a to fly individuals that might be working at companies that are
power thermal module, so it has large solar arrays, it has a three- interested in doing manufacturing in space, for example. Another
person airlock that’ll be more capable than the one on the ISS. From big piece of the business model that I think will end up being
there, which modules we build depends on the market. If there’s a the largest and most profoundly world changing is on-orbit
market for flying crew, then we’ll build another habitation module. manufacturing, the ability to leverage microgravity and to build
If there’s a huge market for research, manufacturing, we’ll build a things you just can’t build on Earth. It has the promise of being
research and manufacturing module next. a game-changer, to overuse the phase, but to really create entire
new industries where we hope to be building space station
Q: What do you envision that the customer breakdown for the modules specific for customers so that they can scale up their
future Axiom Station will be? manufacturing. Another market segment that’s interesting is
A: It’s really a multipronged business approach and customer people who want to create media in space, whether it’s movies
base, one of which is private astronauts. Those will come in or commercials, and that’s something NASA can’t really do. NASA
a couple different flavors: Some are wealthy individuals that can’t really be seen as promoting a particular company, and by

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 11

 “We want to have a
much more automated
station where we
don’t need a lot of
crew intervention;
the intervention that
might be required is
done more from the
ground.”

simply having a commercial space station, we can Falcon Heavy or a Blue Origin New Glenn, and that
foster some of those markets as well. The last big ultimately does constrain the size of the module.
piece, too, is to be able to be a place where NASA We have a partnership with Thales Alenia to build
can continue to do fundamental research and do the first two modules. They’ve built about 40% of
experimentation, technology development for, say, the modules on ISS, so they have a lot of expertise.
going to the moon or Mars and also a place to train More importantly, they have all the tooling and
their own astronauts for future missions. All those friction stir welding machines and all the industrial
things together create what we think is a pretty capability to build the module. That really allows us
robust business model. to get a good start on our station, but subsequent
modules may be very different. There may be large
Q: Take us inside the design process for Axiom inflatables, we may do some construction in space,
Station and how these emerging markets are and that allows us to build things that aren’t
influencing those plans. For example, does the necessarily constrained by the launch vehicle itself.
prospect of having humans onboard who are not So the future will end up being a little different,
professional astronauts require Axiom Station to but to get that foothold you have to launch those
have more creature comforts? first modules on a launch vehicle, right? On the
A: Each of our initial modules is being designed overall design, some attention was paid to the
and developed to be either launched on a SpaceX aesthetic and the comfort and the ease at which

12 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

people can integrate, to be able to have them bring In this rendering of Q: And how is Axiom making sure it can
their own phones and iPads and plug into the Axiom Station, the accommodate companies or government agencies
station has been
network, easily be able to share their experience who might want to build and attach their own
assembled into a
with their family and friends and with Instagram, collection of crew
module to Axiom Station?
for instance. The other part is taking advantage and cargo modules A: We want to be positioned where we’re a logical
of advances in computing and processing power. that supports private choice to build that module for them as well, but if
We want to have a much more automated station spaceflight visits and there was someone else who built a module and it
activities, including
where we don’t need a lot of crew intervention; met our interface requirements, they would certainly
onboard research and
the intervention that might be required is done manufacturing.
be allowed to come and attach to our station. We’re
more from the ground. And then we hope to have Axiom Space designing all the modules to have what are called
some pretty interesting robots in the future on the the common berthing mechanisms that are the same
station. Maybe a robot internally that helps prepare as on ISS, and so having that common berthing
for the next crew or moves cargo around. This trend element or having a standard NASA docking system
toward more automation means less requirement means the ability for all vehicles to dock with us,
to have professional, trained astronauts to operate as well as being berthed. Those are the primary
the station, but we will always have professional interface requirements, and then it just depends on
Axiom astronauts onboard as well to handle off- what they want to do with that module: It’s dedicated
nominal situations. to manufacturing, it’s dedicated to a movie studio.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 13

 Whatever it happens to be, we would have to work to be one of the challenges: to continue to move fast.
through that. We’re really trying to build with our Everything else is generally an engineering problem.
station an infrastructure and a capability that’s very, We pretty much understand how to build a space
very flexible to allow lots of different customers. For station, how to keep humans healthy and alive on the
example, we want our payload accommodations to station, how to accommodate payloads. We just have
be as close to a terrestrial laboratory as possible. So to go solve some engineering work to do it right.
if there’s a researcher at a Johnson & Johnson or a
DuPont who has some equipment they’re running in Q: In your mind, what are some of those biggest
their lab on Earth, we want to be able to take that engineering challenges?
experiment and almost identically fly it on our station A: One is the Common Berthing Mechanism, or CBM,
and plug it in. We want to have those kinds of services through which vehicles visit ISS and that will also be
that are very common on Earth and have them on our our approach to connect modules and dock vehicles
station as well: the ability to plug in the same kind with Axiom Station. The CBM is made up of a passive
of power that you plug in in the lab or they get on and active side that are on each module that are being
the Wi-Fi just as easily as in the lab. That’s the goal put together. The passive side is just hardware, while
for our payload customers. We think the path is that the active side has mechanisms and electronics and
we fly experiments and prototypes for customers to powered bolts that pull the modules together and then
prove out a particular technology, and then we find bolt them together. When vehicles such as the Japanese
ways to scale that manufacturing. That could be in HTV visit the ISS, they are captured by the ISS robot arm
our existing modules; it could be that the scale of and then berthed. The ISS will have the active side and
the manufacturing that’s required would require an the HTV will have the passive side. Since the completion
additional module that’s dedicated to that. We have of ISS, every vehicle that comes to visit that is not
the flexibility to accommodate all those things. docking carries the passive side, therefore people only
build the passive CBM these days. It’s been at least 10
Q: There’s a long way to go from where we’re years since anyone has built an active CBM, and even
talking in 2020 to that vision becoming a reality. then the electronics were likely obsolete. We need to solve
What absolutely has to happen for all this to come that problem very quickly because we’re going to have
together? a lot of active berthing mechanisms to accommodate
A: There’s a few long poles. One is we certainly need our ability to add modules. So that’s one problem solved.
continued support from NASA. It is very helpful and Another is when we are a free flyer, we will be using
important for us to have the opportunity to start our control moment gyros on the order of the size of the ones
station attached to the ISS. The ISS provides some on ISS. It’s been a long time since someone built those,
services to us that we don’t have right away, such and they are a bit of an engineering marvel so there’s
as power and communications with the ground. And a long lead to develop those. We’re also flying a pretty
then the ISS becomes, we hope, an early customer unique propulsion system: oxygen methane. One of the
for research, exploration technology maturity and reasons we’re doing that is it’s a green propellant, so
hosting NASA astronauts, similar to how NASA became it’s relatively easy to test on the ground because there’s
a customer for the SpaceX Dragon capsules. The no toxic chemicals. The other big reason is that we can
government being able to be a future customer and take the carbon dioxide that’s exhaled by the crew and
provide some funding to help private companies turn that into methane. Our studies show that with the
is important, and so that continued commitment crew of six onboard, we can create all the propellant
certainly plays a big part in it. But we also have an that we need just from the crew producing C02. That
interesting challenge in that we have a short window makes a very compelling business case because you
of opportunity. There will be a day in which ISS is no reduce your resupply propellant greatly, but no one’s
longer viable and too expensive to maintain and it will flown a methane oxygen system yet, so there’s some
be at some end of life, and it doesn’t do us any good development work there. We plan to test some of that
to show up the day before that. We have to get there hardware while the initial modules are still docked to
relatively early. Our goal is to launch the first module ISS.
in September 2024. The second element is launched
about nine months later and then the third element Q: What lessons have you taken from the early
about six to eight months after that. And then there’s years of ISS?
a bit of a gap to launch our fourth element because A: The list is probably very, very long. One interesting
it’s quite different than the others and so will require one that we’re working pretty hard right now is the
some design work in addition to what we’ve already whole idea of stowage, which not a lot of attention
done for the first three modules. That’s a relatively was paid to in the early days of ISS. It ends up being
short time in the aerospace business when you’re a big problem: not only stowing the stuff that you
building such a complex thing, so I think that’s going want to use, but the stuff that you’ve already used or

14 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

need to throw away and how do you manage all that? or after ISS it has to approach and rendezvous with The Axiom Station
When you talk to crew members, they still tell horror our station. Each module is a spacecraft, therefore habitation module
created by French
stories about how they spent an entire afternoon trying you could actually deorbit each module individually product designer Philippe
to find a seven-sixteenths Allen wrench. The other is once it reaches end of life or if it gets damaged Starck in 2018 is shown in
trying to build for replaceability. So, for example, there from a micrometeoroid strike. That allows us to have an early rendering. Axiom
is our networking and computer infrastructure we’re essentially unlimited life. When modules wear out, envisions a rotating
designing so that swapping out should be as easy as you throw those away and you bring up a new one. roster of professional
astronauts and space
replacing your laptop every five years. We’re also looking Another contributor to this longer lifespan is reduced tourists living aboard
at innovative sources for those kinds of processors — operating costs. Our philosophy — because we the future station and
automotive parts, for example. If you look at a modern believe we’re going to be building space stations or enlisted Starck’s help in
automobile today, it’s pretty much a computer marvel versions of space stations for a long, long time — is “paying attention to the
where there’s millions of lines of code and all kinds of we’re building all the core infrastructure for the long aesthetics,” Ondler says.
Axiom Space
sensors being addressed and fused together. Those are haul. We’ll have engineers that worked on the design
parts that are available that we want to try and see that can support operations, and that makes the
if we can use for an aerospace application because operations much less expensive. And then you throw in
they’re much cheaper, there’s more suppliers available, more automation and more capability just because the
and we have the ability to upgrade in the future. computing power is advanced, we think the operations
cost should be relatively small.
Q: How do all these planned innovations contribute
to the lifespan of Axiom Station? Q: Speaking of lifetime, while ISS has had
A: We think there’s a longer life simply because we are continuous government funding to slowly build up
building in the ability to upgrade. There are certain different kinds of activities onboard over the years,
things that just wear out, and the unique or different a private station like Axiom’s won’t have that luxury.
aspect of our station compared to ISS is that every So how do you ensure Axiom Station is profitable
one of our modules is an individual spacecraft. It right away?
gets launched by a SpaceX or a Blue Origin rocket, A: We have to always be thinking about customers
and then it has to approach and rendezvous with ISS, and who will be our first users. We’re developing those

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 15

 A SpaceX Crew now, and where we can, we’ll try to fly something early our fourth module gets up there that we have true
Dragon capsule onboard on the ISS. We have to be ready to go on day one, and independence capability from the ISS. So we have to
a Falcon 9 rocket is the same is true with the private astronaut sales and make sure we get that done before ISS’ end of life.
moved out of the
other markets. Private astronaut sales are coming
horizontal integration
building at Launch along; Axiom will begin flying private astronauts to ISS Q: Say it all goes according to plan: It’s 2050 and
Complex 39A at NASA’s next year or early 2022. Axiom Station is operating. What is the long-term
Kennedy Space Center in future that Axiom envisions in low-Earth orbit —
Florida before the Crew-1 Along with building modules, Axiom plans to multiple space stations? Crew capsules coming
mission in November.
sell flights to ISS and eventually Axiom Station. and going?
Along with ferrying
NASA astronauts, Crew The first of these missions, dubbed Ax-1, is A: We have a 40-, 50-year vision that in 2050 there’s
Dragon capsules are scheduled to launch three private citizens and an multiple space stations in low-Earth orbit. There’s
scheduled to carry Axiom astronaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon a space station that might be rotating to create
the first of Axiom’s capsule for an eight-day stay on ISS, where the some artificial gravity to make it easier to live and
private passengers to
tourists would sleep aboard station in a location work long term, with some maybe counter-rotating
the International Space
Station.
to be determined. — CH parts or some separated parts to still maintain the
NASA/Joel Kowsky microgravity environment for manufacturing. Those
In-space manufacturing is another market on the large space stations might have hundreds if not
cusp. It’s almost like the early days of the internet: thousands of people. We think access to space will
You have that capability, but people weren’t exactly be much less expensive, and so lots of opportunities
sure what we’d do on the internet. The same with for all kinds of people to live and work in space.
the smartphone; we weren’t exactly sure what We also think that in 2050 we will have discovered
kind of apps would be usable, and now you see a number of things that can be manufactured in
thousands if not millions of potential applications. microgravity to the point that it really has created an
I think the same thing will happen with in-space entire new industry. And the benefits of those things,
manufacturing. One company will discover a little whatever they are, will improve everyone’s lives —
thing that has a good business case to manufacture, whether it’s superhigh-performing fiber optic cable
which will lead to other companies and other ideas, that can only be made in space or perfect retinal
and soon it’s an explosion of ideas and capability. implants or other biological things that we figure out
But those first ones are going to be pretty time- how to make in microgravity. Our hope for the future
sensitive and we need to try to foster that as much is that there’s this incredible manufacturing and
as we can. The big thing is we have to build our capability in low-Earth orbit. And not only in low-
station in a very timely manner. We rely on the ISS Earth orbit, probably in orbit around the moon and
in the early modules for power and berth, thermal other places that we’re building stuff and lots and
protection and even a comms link, and it’s not until lots of people are living and working in space. ★

16 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

AIAA
CONGRESSIONAL
VISITS DAY WEEK OF
15 MARCH 2021

New approach, wider reach, same great grassroots advocacy event

Given the continued health and travel concerns

related to the coronavirus pandemic, the Institute’s
23rd annual CVD program will be unlike any previous
year—it will be entirely virtual. It will also take place
over an entire week. We hope that this allows for
more AIAA members to participate and ultimately
provides an opportunity to present our community’s
message to more congressional offices.

Register now to help raise awareness

for the aerospace community.

aiaa.org/CVD2021
ELECTION PREVIEW

Meet your AIAA

presidential candidates

Laura McGill
Member of AIAA Board of Directors/Trustees, 2005-2018. going after increased engagement. Engagement
AGE: 60 will result in broader membership, but that’s not
the goal. The goal is for our members to really get
RESIDENCE: Tucson, Arizona
the same appreciation for their membership that
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in aeronautical and astronautical
I have had.
engineering from the University of Washington, 1983. Master of
Science in aerospace systems from West Coast University, 1992
Staying relevant >>
FAVORITE SAYING: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of
value.” — Albert Einstein
There’s three aspects of that. The first is I want
AIAA to be a great resource for our members to
Why she wants to be president >> help them in their everyday work. It’s been really
CURRENTLY: Preparing to
Our membership thrives on innovation. We’re all in rewarding for me to be able to reach out to people
become deputy director of
nuclear deterrence at Sandia this industry because we love being at the leading I’ve worked with over the years through AIAA and
National Laboratories in edge of capability and performance for the systems be able to get information or bridge partnerships
January, a new position that we work on, so I think that does translate to between organizations that have actually helped
created to oversee the institute and what we’re able to do and leverage me in my everyday job. I want to be able to do that
development, production
what we’ve all learned about this new environment for members, make those resources more accessible
and management of the U.S.
nuclear stockpile. we’re in. It’s kind of an inflection point for us to go and make them aware of what the opportunities
take all that and use it to evolve and invigorate the are, to build on those aspects that make them more
NOTABLE: Oversaw 7,800
engineers as the Raytheon membership and our capabilities as an institute to successful in their everyday work. The second el-
Corp. vice president of continue to advance the industry as a whole and the ement is to support their career advancement, by
engineering for the former working professionals to support it. helping them recognize what their opportunities
Missile Systems division, for career advancement are. A lot of us are engi-
2015-May 2020. As chief
No. 1 priority >> neers and scientists in AIAA, but that can evolve
engineer, 2004-2006, oversaw
development and production AIAA has been such a great aspect of my profes- into numerous different career paths as technical
of the Tomahawk cruise sional career but also has given me great personal experts, as chief engineers, program managers. All
missiles primarily launched satisfaction, going from the wonderful, incredibly that builds on those technical foundations, and
by the U.S. Navy; inducted smart and talented professionals that I’ve met AIAA can take a better role in helping members to
into the National Academy of
and been able to work with over the years to the realize their career aspirations in any one of those
Engineering, October 2019.
great new ideas and capabilities that it’s exposed different directions they might want to take. The
AIAA RECORD: AIAA member
to me. I value it so much and it’s been so much a third element is one that’s been greatly satisfying for
for 40 years since joining as
an undergraduate student; part of my life, I want all our members to be able me with AIAA: I have a lot of interest in aerospace
fellow since 2007; led and to experience that. I want our members to not and technologies that aren’t necessarily a key part
participated in a variety of just be members; I want them to be engaged, to of my everyday job. I love that I get exposed to those
AIAA executive and technical be able to recognize that there’s all these benefits through forums, in exchanges with other members.
committees, including chair of
available to them. And I want to structure AIAA so I want our members to realize that benefit, that
the Ground Testing Committee,
1998-2000; currently chair it makes those resources more directly accessible they could explore for their personal satisfaction
of the Honors and Awards and available to our members so they will realize
Committee, since 2019. all those benefits of membership. That’s why I’m Continued on Page 20

18 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

“Shaping the future of aerospace” — that’s the goal of AIAA and the task given to each president-elect,
chosen every two years by members to help guide the institute initially as a member of the Board of
Trustees and then as president beginning a year later. Both candidates have ideas for how to help guide
the institute out of the covid-19 pandemic and make the most of operational changes inspired by it. They
also have big ideas for how the institute can recruit new members and better serve current ones. I inter-
viewed each via video call for this special section and the expanded versions of the interviews online.
— Cat Hofacker

MEMBERS VOTE: Jan. 27 through Feb. 19. See www.aiaa.org/vote/

THE STAKES: Winner begins a one-year term as president-elect on May 19, followed by two years as president starting in May
2022. Winner also becomes a member of the Board of Trustees.

George Nield
adviser for the United States Air Force Academy Student Branch. accomplishments and enable the development of
Past member of the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical a network of friends, colleagues and acquaintanc-
Committee. Served two terms as chairman of the AIAA Houston es. Third would be: educate the general public.
Section from 1994-1995 and 1997-1998.
Communicate with the media; local, state, federal
AGE: 70 and international government officials; and the
RESIDES: Potomac Falls, Virginia public at large to assist them in understanding the
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science in engineering science from importance of aerospace. And then finally, inspire
the U.S. Air Force Academy, 1972. Master of Science, 1973, and the next generation. I’d like to see us use the wonder
Ph.D., 1981, in aeronautics and astronautics, both from Stanford of flight and the captivating nature of space explo-
University. Master of Business Administration from George ration to gain the attention of students and to assist
CURRENTLY: President Washington University, 2001.
teachers and educators in order to make sure that
of Commercial Space
FAVORITE SAYING: “Management is doing things right; leadership we will have a motivated and capable aerospace
Technologies LLC, the
is doing the right things.” — Peter Drucker
consulting business he set up workforce in the future.
in 2018 in Northern Virginia
after retiring from FAA. Why he wants to be president >> Making membership a must-have >>
NOTABLE: Oversaw the licensing The opportunity exists for us to shape the future I would love to see us double our membership in the
of 126 commercial launches of aerospace rather than just stepping back and next five years, which would be very challenging,
and six new spaceports
letting it happen, good or bad, right or wrong, at but I think it’s possible. If you look at the largest
before retiring from FAA in
2018 after a 15-year career, its own pace. We can be leading it. That to me is the aerospace manufacturing companies in the world
the last decade as associate key as I think back on my many years in the AIAA. today — Boeing, Airbus, Raytheon Technologies,
administrator for Commercial It’s enabled me to get information not only about Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp.
Space Transportation. Head of the latest technical developments, but the status of — altogether, those five companies employ more
the Flight Integration Office at
launch vehicles and aircraft designs and so forth. than 691,000 people. If we could convince just
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
that established objectives for It’s enabled me to really become a lifelong learner 10% of the workforce at those five companies to
space shuttle flights, 1987- many years after I left school. AIAA is an outstanding fill out an application, AIAA would more than
1994. Taught astronautical organization, and it has the potential to really make double overnight. One of the other aspects of
engineering and directed a difference in the aerospace community and for this is: What really is the target market for AIAA?
research at the U.S. Air Force
society as a whole. Somehow I think people have gotten the impres-
Academy from 1980-1983.
Rated to pilot single- and multi- sion that AIAA is primarily intended for aerospace
engine aircraft. Top-level goals >> engineers. That’s part of the answer, but if instead
AIAA RECORD: Member of First would be: advance the aerospace profession. we were to think of AIAA as being the professional
AIAA for 47 years, including Push the state of the art, expand the envelope, society for people that know about, work in or are
14 years as an AIAA Fellow. discover, explore, use new technologies to deliver interested in aviation and space, it could signifi-
Currently a member of the benefits to society. Second would be: engage and cantly change how we operate. That would be a
Board of Trustees. Completed
support our members. Grow our membership and really major shift in how we’ve thought about our-
two terms on the AIAA Board of
Directors as director-technical then help them to become lifelong learners. Offer selves, but it could open up a lot of opportunities.
of the Space and Missiles career development advice, recommendations
Group. Served as faculty and opportunities. Provide recognition for their Continued on Page 21

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 19

Laura McGill Continued from Page 18 to solve problems that are relevant. The gets back to crowdsourcing. The crowd will
Engage platform is a great vehicle. I think tell you where you need to go, and I think
all those technical and scientific interests it could be expanded for some additional we can use that as part of our guidance.
that they have. capability, but it’s a great start and it shows
AIAA is moving in the right direction to Metrics for success >>
Lessons from the pandemic >> engage the broader community. There are ways to track engagement and
One thing is our timelines have to be faster. increase membership as a result, but the
If you have information that you want to Demonstrating diversity >> real goal is engagement. I want our mem-
convey through a briefing at a conference, I think AIAA has a great power of our mem- bers to feel like they are engaged in the
key information that’s important today bership to demonstrate how we can be a society and taking advantage of all the
may wait until you submit an abstract, very diverse and inclusive organization. It resources available to them. Participation
the abstract gets reviewed and then gets allows our members to see other members in conferences is one metric that we’ve
put into a conference program that’s a engaged in different ways and hold up those always tracked: how many people come
year away. We have to figure out how we role models that we have within AIAA and to our conferences, our various forums.
accelerate that whole process so that we the successes that those people have had. But that’s just one element. As we expand
can get late-breaking information out to the People seeing people who look like them in our communications platforms, we can
community much faster in those forums. successful roles goes a great way toward them even track how people are engaging in the
Another is using all the tools of technology wanting to join the community. And we do Twitter community for AIAA. Crowdsourcing
and community, different communication struggle in all the tech fields, STEM fields, platforms are another great way to measure
forms and not thinking of those as dis- of getting more diverse people interested how many people submit questions or how
parate methods of communication, but and going all the way. It’s what I love about many people engage in that community.
really integrating all that together. Our AIAA; they really extended their K through It’s kind of like citations in the academic
workforce uses all those tools, so we want 12 programs to really reach out to younger world. On a crowdsourcing platform, you
to be able to make it easy for our members people who are thinking about their careers, also get your ideas rated, likes and dislikes.
to interact with each other. I think part of to get them to see what a professional life All those are great ways for us to get in
it is technological evolution, but also it’s could be, a STEM-type of career. I think and track our engagement. What I really
how we engage as members. We do see a AIAA has a great opportunity to continue want to see is: Are people jumping from a
lot of members who engage at their local to build on that and then build up a much forum where they’re talking about some
sections, levels and regional activities, more diverse aerospace workforce. technical subject and breaking out to do
and then there’s national activities. We public policy and start engaging in those
don’t always connect those together, and Bringing in new topics >> platforms?
I think there’s an opportunity to get more Here’s where I think AIAA has an advantage
interactions between those two different over a lot of other professional societies. If Regional and national events >>
types of events and integrate those much you look at most of them, they’re focused I’m really interested in tying the national
better than we have in the past. on a discipline like mechanical or electri- discussions to the regional discussions. Are
cal or test engineering. But aerospace is the people who participate in the sections
Facilitate crowdsourcing >> about systems. That’s why it’s so exciting getting engaged in some of the national
There’s a lot of resources available through to work in this industry and be part of forums as well? That’s an area where I’d
AIAA that I don’t think the membership AIAA; because we work on systems, we really like to see the engagement grow. I
is universally aware of and taps into. Part all in our home organizations interact think a lot of people who want to engage
of it is helping them to understand what with people who are working through all at both levels just run out of bandwidth.
those are and then continue to advance those hundreds of science and engineer- We’re still going full speed in spite of ev-
those and expand those offerings by having ing disciplines that all go into making our erything else going on around us. We are
the community be directly involved. The systems. The key is how do we bring that continuing to advance our systems, develop
analogy I’ll use is crowdsourcing, where into AIAA and expand the content of our new technologies, explore new capabilities
instead of the old suggestion box where forums to include all those other aspects? in performance. People in our industry
things would accumulate and somebody It’s not even just technical: There’s the work very hard, work very long days. So
had to go through them all and then follow programmatics and understanding what’s how much time do you have left after all
up and write responses, with the crowd- going on in regulatory environments and that, and your families and other respon-
sourcing type of platform you have the being compliant to regulations. All those sibilities? Do you have time to engage at
community directly engaged in problem are other aspects that we have to deal with both levels? Where AIAA can help is make
solving. Somebody can put out a request, in developing our systems, so that should it easier and being able to have all forums
“Hey does anybody know how to do this?” be part of the content in a society that is tied together so they’re not having to go
and you can get immediate responses from for aerospace professionals. We should be engage separately. Get them interlinked
the crowd. And not only that, the crowd vets looking at all those aspects, because those so that it doesn’t take so much of a time
the responses to questions. It also really all add to the resources that we can then commitment. I think that’s the only thing
engenders a lot of community engagement bring back to our home organizations. It holding us back. ★

20 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

George Nield Continued from Page 19 Expanding expertise >> become part of our membership pool as well.
Our technical reputation is first class, and It can be a real win-win in situations that
Building a post-covid world >> regardless of whether as many people have previously been competitive: “I only
Already we’ve been successful at being able as we think should join actually do, we belong to one thing and I have to decide
to engage a much larger number of people have a great reputation for doing good which it is.” Let’s change our thinking on that.
in our meetings, in our ceremonies, in our work and having high-quality journals
gatherings than we ever could have before. and conferences and information. That’s Measuring impact >>
There’s always going to be something to great. We don’t want to mess with that. At This is a membership organization, so
be said for the in-person interaction, but the same time, with new technologies, that’s an excellent metric in terms of not
I think this is offering us an opportunity new discoveries, we might consider how only how healthy the organization is, but
to change how we do business, to offer to accommodate new pieces of the puzzle, also what kind of influence it can have
different kinds of products and services, to subjects that we haven’t really dealt with in and what it can accomplish. We certainly
really accelerate the capability of offering the past, including the whole idea of urban want to be financially responsible, but I
online products and services to people all air mobility vehicles or megaconstellations, think there’s a real danger in looking at
around the world that we might not have space traffic management, drones. I know how much profit are we making or how
thought about doing before, or at least we’ve been thinking about how AIAA could much do we have in the bank — that to
this quickly. I’m interested in seeing if we contribute in those areas for a number of me is not what AIAA is all about. You can
can knock down some of those obstacles years. There’s a lot of work to do, so why measure our impact by the feedback from
that are either preventing someone from shouldn’t AIAA be part of writing the stan- members and how many members we have;
being a member in the beginning, or we’re dards and working with the government and we can measure our influence and impact
teaching them a new habit that says, “This companies and academia to really make and success by how often we are asked for
is a lifelong learning opportunity.” It is an progress in a much more timely fashion? our opinion and advice by Congress, by
opportunity to help your career and to the White House; the kinds of events that
continue to advance in something that Building new relationships, we’re able to hold internationally and the
they probably really are interested in, which strengthening old ones >> stature that we are held in in the rest of the
is why they signed up in the first place. I’d start with entities that we have strong world community. All those things are ways
relationships with already. So our AIAA cor- to measure our success as opposed to just
Moving faster >> porate members, is that relationship all that how much money do we have in the bank.
What we’re seeing in the world of entre- it can be? For instance, why don’t we have
preneurial activities, in the aerospace a full 144,000 people from Boeing? They’re Building a more diverse AIAA >>
community and other areas, is the world is in the middle of aerospace; they’re build- We need to do a better job of gathering in-
not waiting anymore. If we want to be out ing airplanes. They’re making spacecraft; formation first. I don’t think we completely
there in front of the parade, we’re going to they’re launching things. We want that whole know all the stats on all of our members, but
have to figure out how to make decisions community, so let’s figure out what kind of to the extent that we do have data available,
and implement things more quickly than relationship would be mutually beneficial to a couple things jump out to me. As of now,
we’ve ever done before. It’s basically going to the company in terms of giving experience 91% of AIAA members are male; 9% are
come down to lowering the bars of granting and opportunities to their employees to female. Something’s wrong there, so what
permission, of trusting the different parts become leaders and volunteers and make do we need to do to fix that? It can go back
of the institute. We’ve got sections, we’ve a difference in technical conferences and to the pipelines; it can go back to having
got regions, we’ve got technical committees running papers and so forth, but also to AIAA a welcoming and supportive introduction
and program committees and so forth. by having more people in the tent that rep- to the organization at the very beginning,
One of the challenges that the government resent all different parts of aerospace. Next and it doesn’t even have to start in college.
has had lately is if you try to work your group would be the government entities. So how can we make sure they are part of
way through bureaucracy, it takes forever, People who work for NASA, people who are AIAA and that they feel supported and em-
and so there’s all these different people at in the Space Force, people who are employed braced and welcomed in our organization?
different levels that have the ability to say by the FAA or other similar government You can organize it different ways, but to
no to something, but there’s nobody that organizations have this natural affiliate me it all comes back to membership. We
can say yes and have it happen. Maybe organization, the AIAA, that they can be a want more people, and we want all kinds
not all these ideas are going to work for an part of. Then there’s all kinds of other groups of people, and how are we going to do
organization like AIAA, but I really think we like those for pilots, aircraft mechanics and that? There might be certain things we do
have a lot of flexibility, and so with energy technicians, hobbyists, people who belong to address having more women members,
and goodwill among all the participants, if to these other interest groups — those are certain things we do to address having more
we just consciously decide “we’re going to not professional societies, but they have minorities, certain things we do for young
try to do a lot of different things,” some of to do with aircraft and space. There’s some people versus people later in their careers,
them will work really well, some might need potential mutual benefit. Maybe they have but that’s all part of “how do we reach out
some midcourse corrections, and some of access to some of our activities and our to the community and welcome them in
them frankly won’t work, and that’s OK. products and services, and potentially they the tent?” ★

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JANAU RY 2021 | 21

 g up
alin
Sc
22 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org
One of the great remaining accomplishments of
flight would be creating an operational aircraft
that can fly hypersonically, defined as Mach 5 or
above, by gleaning oxygen for combustion from
the air, just as conventional jets do. The U.S. has
tested air-breathing hypersonic engines but not
of the size required for aircraft that would carry
passengers, weapons or intelligence equipment.
Jan Tegler looks at the challenges of scaling up.
BY JAN TEGLER | wingsorb@aol.com

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 23

T
he crux of the technical issue facing This is what Maddalena wants me to note: “The An X-51A Waverider
the Pentagon’s hypersonics planners capture area, the inlet opening, is the size of your undergoes preparations
for a 2009 captive-carry
can be seen in old photos of NASA’s hand,” Maddalena says.
flight. The U.S. Air Force
X-43A demonstrators and the U.S. Each of the four X-51A Waveriders was a small- is aiming to put bigger
Air Force X-51A Waveriders. Over the scale, expendable research aircraft, as were the three demonstrators in the air
phone, Luca Maddalena, a hyperson- NASA X-43A vehicles that flew six years earlier in the in five years.
ic flight researcher at the University of Texas, Arling- Hyper-X program. U.S. Air Force

ton, guides me online to one particular image of an Scaling up such designs to carry conventional
X-51A hypersonic demonstrator from 2009. The bombs, cameras and eavesdropping equipment for
vehicle is slung under the wing of a B-52H at Edwards the military or passengers in the civil context would
Air Force Base in California, just before a captive-car- require a larger inlet to provide more air and therefore
ry flight. A researcher has placed his hand near the oxygen to burn more fuel and generate more thrust.
inlet of the craft’s supersonic combustion ramjet, or In fact, such an air-breathing engine might need to
scramjet, engine, so called because air and combus- ingest 10 times more air than the X-51A engine,
tion gases must whoosh through the engine at su- depending on the mission, and U.S. military research-
personic speeds without snuffing the combustion. ers have made this 10X performance a top goal.

24 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

Flying free
The decade-old X-51A engine design marks the starting point for the U.S. initiative to scale up the thrust
performance of such air-breathing designs by a factor of 10. After separating from their boosters and
interstages, the diminutive X-51A cruisers proved that combustion could be maintained for minutes in a
supersonic combustion ramjet engine.

Cruiser

Modified Army
Tactical Missile
Scramjet engine booster

Cruiser length: 4.3 meters

Flow path width: 0.2 meters

Flow-through
Fuel: Jet Propellant-7, interstage
same as the SR-71

Drawing derived from Boeing,

U.S. Air Force documents;
research by Cat Hofacker

As with a conventional aircraft, the payoff of an It’s not just the U.S. military’s hypersonics advo-
air-breathing design would be greater range and cates who are excited by the possibility of Mayhem.
simpler ground support, since the atmosphere Maddalena, who is not affiliated with the pro-
supplies an endless amount of oxygen, and there gram-in-waiting, wants each Mayhem to be “a flying
would be no need to compress oxygen into liquid workbench for academics” and also “government
and lug it along. But scaling up raises a host of com- and industry” researchers who have aspirations for
bustion and mechanical challenges that have yet to building a wide range of hypersonic aircraft, perhaps
be fully addressed in the international race among even commercial passenger versions.
China, Russia, the United States and others to create AFRL’s Mayhem information request drew the
air-breathing hypersonic missiles, aircraft and space attention of 30 companies who responded by the
launch vehicles. late September deadline, including Aerojet Rocket-
Here in the U.S., the Air Force Research Labora- dyne, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
tory in Ohio hopes to resolve many of those chal- AFRL says that at this point the Mayhem program
lenges through a potential new program nicknamed is still under development.
Mayhem for its goal of disrupting the hypersonics
status quo. If this Expendable Hypersonic Multi-Mis- Mixing fuel and air
sion Air-Breathing Demonstrator Program proceeds, To sense the technical issues, consider that turbine
then in five years one or more expendable, air- engines and ramjets slow air to subsonic speeds for
launched Mayhem demonstrators could be streak- combustion. By contrast, scramjets have “only a
ing over a test range at over five times the speed of millisecond to mix fuel and air in a combustor” as
sound, equipped with storage bays capable of car- the air whooshes through the flow path supersoni-
rying three distinct kinds of payloads that AFRL has cally, Maddalena explains. Getting the fuel-air mix-
not specified. The lab would not discuss funding for ture right was tricky enough in the comparatively
the potential new program in fiscal 2021, except to small scramjets that powered the X-43 and X-51.
say that hypersonics research dollars are being Doing it in a scaled-up scramjet is “not an incre-
consolidated from various program elements. mental problem,” Maddalena says. “We’ve probably

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 25

Diverse claims to fame

X-51A X-43A

BIG ACHIEVEMENT Flew for minutes Flew fastest

One of the four expendable One of the three expendable
demonstrators flew for 3 minutes and demonstrators flew for 10 seconds at
29 seconds under scramjet power at Mach 9.68 in the program’s final flight
Mach 5 in the program’s final flight in in November 2004, setting a record
May 2013. for air-breathing vehicles, according
to the 2006 Guinness Book of World
Records.

VEHICLE LENGTH 4.3 meters 3.7 meters

PROPELLANT Jet Propellant-7, same fuel as the Liquid hydrogen, same as the space
SR-71, and oxygen from the air shuttle orbiters, and oxygen from
the air

CONTRACTORS Cruisers and interstages by Boeing Aircraft and engines by Micro Craft
Phantom Works; scramjet engines by Inc. (now part of Northrop Grumman
Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne (now Space Systems); flight control software
Aerojet Rocketdyne); modified Army by Boeing Phantom Works; Pegasus
Tactical Missile boosters by Lockheed boosters by Orbital Sciences Corp.
Martin (now part of Northrop Grumman)

SPONSORS U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA Aeronautics Research Mission
DARPA Directorate

Sources: Artist renderings from NASA,

U.S. Air Force; research by Cat Hofacker

26 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

been studying mixing for 60-plus years, and we don’t He suggests that corporations and the U.S. A U.S. Air Force B-52
have an answer.” government involve university researchers more Stratofortress carries
an X-51A Waverider
He asks me to picture a scramjet whose com- than they have so far on mixing and other scalabil-
before the scramjet’s first
bustor walls are lined with fuel injectors that in- ity issues. hypersonic flight test in
troduce hydrocarbon fuel into the chamber to mix 2010.
it with the air rushing by. The bigger the scramjet, Research to date U.S. Air Force

the larger its combustor cross-section must be, There could well be more to learn, but on Mayhem
and if it’s too big, the fuel “cannot penetrate deep engineers would not be starting from zero on the fuel-air
enough near the center line of the cylinder, so a mixing problem and other challenges of scaling up.
large portion of the entering air would not be in- Last month, Aerojet Rocketdyne reported generating
volved in the mixing process,” Maddalena says. in excess of 58 kilonewtons of thrust, during nearly a
Without thorough mixing at the molecular level, year of tests that ended in November. That would be
combustion cannot be ignited or sustained. Even enough thrust, the company says, to accelerate “a
when combustion can be sustained, “we want the vehicle approximately 10 times the size of the X-51.”
fuel to spread as much as we can so to utilize all the A rival design by Northrop Grumman also generated
air coming into the engine,” which maximizes thrust. over 58 kN of thrust in 2019 during tests at the Air Force
Maddalena says it might be tempting to think Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Ten-
you can “photo-scale” an engine — enlarging it like nessee under the same Medium Scale Critical Com-
a photograph. “But unfortunately, the fluid dynam- ponents program. MSCC managers are targeting a
ics of turbulent mixing does not photo scale.” notional 9-meter vehicle.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 27

 For comparison, the X-51A scramjets (built by work and understanding.” But there’s no doubt An X-43A research
Rocketdyne when it was part of Pratt and Whitney) the results of the MSCC program are “exciting” vehicle separates from
a Pegasus booster in a
generated a maximum of 4.4 kN of thrust. The and “constitute a very significant contribution to
screenshot from a NASA
new engines are 5.5-meters long, making them the scalability challenge.” animation.
seven times longer than the X-43A engines and NASA

longer than the entire X-51A cruiser, which mea- Alternative architecture
sured 4 meters. Because of the Arnold experiments, Bigger engines aside, there may be a way to ease the
“the government is confident in our ability to scaling problem. “You could potentially take some-
design” scramjets “at any scales,” says AFRL’s thing that was the size of the X-51 engine and just
Edgardo Santiago-Maldonado, whose portfolio put three of them on a vehicle,” says NASA’s Chuck
as the lab’s next-generation hypersonic lead in- Leonard, who manages NASA’s Hypersonic Technol-
cludes scramjet testing. In Maddalena’s view, the ogy Project. Researchers under that effort are inves-
“chapter on scalability, from a scientific perspec- tigating concepts for hypersonic aircraft that would
tive, is not yet closed as it requires much more be powered by turbine-based combined cycle engines

28 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 Scaling up raises a
host of combustion and
mechanical challenges
that have yet to be
fully addressed in the
international race to
create air-breathing
hypersonic missiles,
aircraft and space
launch vehicles.

that would include a turbine-ramjet-scramjet cycle. DARPA’s contribution

“Maybe you can put multiple smaller engines on DARPA, as part of its Advanced Full Range Engine
it, what we sometimes call modules,” Leonard says. program, also has been examining the challenges
There would be a host of structural consider- of creating a larger scramjet engine capable of
ations to be evaluated, but “at least you could propelling payload-carrying aircraft at hypersonic
fully test that X-51-size engine on the ground,” he speed.
says, alluding to the few American wind tunnels The goal is platform scale propulsion, meaning
capable of testing larger scramjets. an engine capable of propelling an aircraft. By
Testing smaller engines might help research- contrast, weapons scale would be “something
ers gain an understanding of the tradeoffs between smaller that would drop off a wing,” explains Na-
one larger engine or multiple engines, although than Greiner, who manages the program.
fully grasping the advantages and drawbacks Aerojet Rocketdyne with Lockheed Martin as
would require creating a “whole-vehicle concept,” a subcontractor, is working with DARPA on the
he adds. program, aiming to demonstrate the individual

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 29

components that make up a TBCC engine at aircraft it to flow at supersonic speed for the scramjet. This Aerojet
scale. “We’ve executed tests for the inlet, the turbine “Actuating the variable inlet surfaces at aircraft Rocketdyne engine
generated in excess
and for the nozzle, and we’re leading into testing scale with flight-weight actuators is very challeng-
of 58 kilonewtons of
on the dual mode ramjet in the near future,” Grein- ing and requires intense engineering,” Greiner thrust during tests in
er explains. says. a wind tunnel at the
Greiner says each of the TBCC components No one I interviewed could say for sure wheth- Arnold Engineering
“have their own challenges with respect to scaling.” er the Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman Development Complex in
Tennessee, the company
He describes the challenge of scaling the TBCC engines or the technologies in developent by
announced last month.
engine’s common inlet and nozzle as “tractable” DARPA and NASA will make it into the Mayhem The engine could
but says the challenge grows as scale grows. As an program, if the Air Force indeed starts it. But the accelerate a vehicle 10
example, he cites “the actuation required to mod- research to date has given contractors new confi- times larger than the
ulate the inlet geometry and maintain operability dence about the propulsion challenges. X-51A, the company said.
Aerojet Rocketdyne
over a wide range of Mach numbers.” Raymond Toth, who leads Northrop Grumman’s
Changing the geometry inside the inlet by Advanced Propulsion and Control Systems business
moving a series of surfaces (NASA’s Leonard calls strategy team, points to the engine his company
them “flaps”) in a timely fashion directs airflow to tested in Tennessee. “Given a desire by the Depart-
the turbine, ramjet and scramjet at the right mo- ment of Defense to put a scramjet of that size into
ments as the aircraft accelerates or decelerates. a system and given the right investment, we think
The inlet surfaces or flaps also control the speed we could bring something like that to a flight stage
of the airflow being funneled to the different engines within the next five years,” he says.
by creating shockwaves that slow airflow to sub- The question, he says, “is what is the vehicle
sonic velocity for the turbine and ramjet or allow that it’s going to fly in?” ★

30 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

CALL FOR PAPERS
9–11 AUGUST 2021 | DENVER, CO

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 2021 forum in the following technical disciplines:

› Additive Manufacturing for Propulsion › Gas Turbine Engines

Systems
› High-Speed Air-Breathing Propulsion
› Advanced Integrated Intelligent
Propulsion Controls › Hybrid Rockets

› Advanced Mechanical Components › Inlets, Nozzles, and Propulsion Systems

Integration
› Advanced Propulsion Concepts
› Liquid Propulsion
› Advanced Vehicle Systems
› Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion
› Aerospace Power Systems
› Pressure Gain Combustion
› AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies
Symposium (11–13 August 2021) › Propellants and Combustion

› Electric Propulsion › 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 (UAS):
› Fuel and Power Generation Technology Propulsion, Energy, and Applications

ABSTRACTS ARE DUE 11 FEBRUARY 2021, 2000 HRS EST

aiaa.org/propulsionenergy/cfp
32 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org
Putting our
minds to
space travel
Virgin Galactic is getting ready to send
its first paying customers to the fringes
of space. NASA and European space
leaders are talking about establishing a
Moon Village for scientists, miners and
tourists. Elon Musk famously wants to
establish colonies on Mars. What kind of
psychological training will people need
for these and other bold endeavors?
Sarah Wells spoke to psychologists and
a space travel veteran to find out.
BY SAR AH WELLS | sarahes.wells@gmail.com

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 33

 A
s the rockets underneath the “Psychological adjustment in many ways is
Soyuz TMA-9 capsule began to harder to identify and can be something that people
warm and hum in anticipation try to keep to themselves,” says space psychologist
of liftoff, Anousheh Ansari re- Raphael Rose, associate director of the Anxiety and
members feeling eerily calm. It Depression Research Center at the University of
wasn’t until the capsule had torn California, Los Angeles. For space travel, “psycho-
through Earth’s atmosphere and reached orbit that logical and physical preparedness are equally im-
Ansari began to cry. portant,” he says.
“It was overwhelming and a rush of emotions
— excitement, extreme joy and wonder took over Stressors
— and I went from crying to laughing to crying to With the chance to visit space — or even just graze
laughing.” the top of Earth’s atmosphere — comes an oppor-
Unlike the cosmonaut crewmates grasping her tunity many wait a lifetime for, though the experience
hands during liftoff, Ansari, who is now the CEO of won’t be without its mental challenges.
X-Prize Foundation, had not spent years training for For professional astronauts, such as the astronaut
her flight. She made the journey to the Internation- corps of NASA and the European Space Agency,
al Space Station in 2006 after just six months of tension can spring from the pressure to complete
training and securing a $20 million ticket. She was mission tasks as well as the reality of being confined
the world’s fourth “space tourist.” in a cramped space with others for extended periods.
At the time, Ansari’s and other missions in the Astronauts sometimes release tension in the form
early 2000s looked like the start of a bright future for of terse exchanges with ground control as a tactic
space tourism, but 14 years later that dream has yet to avert tension with fellow crew members during
to come to fruition, due in part to technical setbacks. missions that can run days, weeks or months, says
Now, suborbital flight companies Blue Origin psychiatrist Nick Kanas, who has spent decades
and Virgin Galactic are closing in on sending the first studying the impacts of spaceflight for NASA, and
paying customers on jaunts to the fringes of space, is now an emeritus professor of psychiatry at the
developments that could serve as a springboard to University of California, San Francisco.
even bolder space tourism endeavors, such as the For tourists on suborbital flights, Kanas expects
orbital tourism plans of SpaceX and Axiom Space. that kind of tension to be minimal to nonexistent,
Courage and money alone are not all that these given the brevity of the experiences. Blue Origin’s
pioneering space tourists will need for these first proposed time in the capsule will clock in at 41
flights and the journeys to orbit and deep space that minutes, including 30 minutes of boarding time and
could follow. They’ll need varying degrees of psy- four minutes of weightlessness, while Virgin Galac-
chological preparation not only for safety but to get tic’s is approximately 1.5 hours with a similar amount
the most out of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of weightless time. At its worst, customers might feel
they’ll spend on the experience. like they are stuck in an elevator with work colleagues
for an hour. This is a discomfort that Kanas suggests
could be easily tolerated.

For space travel,

That said, with customers paying up to $250,000
for the experience of weightlessness and the view
of Earth from an altitude of about 100 kilometers, a

“psychological
wild card remains the reactions of those customers
should a mission not unfold exactly as planned. For
example, last month’s Virgin Galactic suborbital test

and physical flight was cut short moments after the release of the
VSS Unity spaceplane from the WhiteKnightTwo
carrier aircraft, when Unity’s flight computer lost its

preparedness are data connection to its hybrid rocket motor, prompt-

ing the computer to end the ignition sequence. The
two pilots maneuvered Unity for a glided landing at

equally important.” Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Ideally, customers would be prepared enough
through their training programs to adapt to any
changing circumstances, but Kanas says that there’s
— Space psychologist Raphael Rose
always a risk — albeit rare — in space travel of hav-
ing a negative reaction.
“You’re worried about somebody reacting with

34 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

maybe palpitations or heart pressures, a heart attack touch, Virgin Galactic’s Unity will be operated by Anousheh Ansari, in
of some kind or stroke [or] becoming acutely psy- two professional pilots. white, spent nine days on
the International Space
chotic,” says Kanas. However, these are concerns Orbital experiences would be a different matter.
Station in 2006 after six
associated more with orbital flights, which are further Such flights would not necessarily take tourists much months of training and
from reality, and are conditions that would hope- higher than suborbital flights, but by going faster, paying $20 million.
fully be discovered by a psychological screening 28,000 kilometers per hour versus 6,000 kph for NASA

before the customer ever left Earth. suborbital flights, orbit could be maintained for days
Also, tourists won’t have the stress of operating or weeks. Customers on those flights may include
the vehicle. Rather, they’ll have to be comfortable academics or visiting scientists who, like Ansari,
trusting their fates to automated software. Unlike would have a little more work to do when they’ve
Ansari, who was involved in the ascent and descent reached their final destination, such as Axiom Space’s
procedure of her flight and completed science ex- proposed space station. [See Page 10.]
periments on the ISS, suborbital tourists will just be Kanas is still not too concerned about the
along for the ride. Blue Origin’s New Shepard sub- mental impact of these longer flights, but he does
orbital rocket and capsule would complete flights stress that mental preparation — in addition to
autonomously, and instead of pilots onboard with physical preparation — will be even more import-
passengers, ground controllers would intervene ant during such flights to ensure tourists remain
should the need arise. For a slightly more human calm for the duration.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 35

Mentally training sending astronauts to ISS, the number of times an Virgin Galactic says
As far as I could learn, orbital tourism companies do astronaut has exhibited such behavior can be its passengers will be
able to look out 12
not yet have concrete training plans, although Space counted on one hand.
cabin windows, and
Adventures, the spaceflight company that will run A modified version of this NASA training might 16 cameras will record
SpaceX’s orbital tourism programs, does say its train- last a matter of weeks, just as Space Adventures and their experiences on
ing will likely be a few weeks long, and Axiom Space Axiom are planning. Training for suborbital flights video and stills. The
estimates its at 15 weeks. Kanas speculates that these would be much shorter. Virgin Galactic and Blue illustration shows the
cabin interior that the
programs may be scaled back versions of what NASA Origin have both clocked their training programs
company says is roomy
astronauts experience before flying to the ISS. between two and three days. The exact preparation enough for travelers to
Tom Jones, a former NASA astronaut who spent of each program varies but generally includes enjoy the experience of
a total of 53 days in space, tells me that when he was physical training in the form of zero-gravity expe- weightlessness.
training for his space shuttle flights in the mid-1990s riences and familiarization with the cabin and Virgin Galactic

the crew spent extensive time training together in automated procedures.

stress-inducing scenarios, like wilderness exploration, Virgin Galactic also plans to give its customers
in order to learn how to work together in trying times. comprehensive medical evaluations to identify
“If you find out somebody has the personality vulnerabilities that might put them or others at risk
where they become self-centered or withdrawn, it’s during the flight, which may include conditions like
important to find that out back here on Earth in an claustrophobia or poor stress management. But
analog situation so that you don’t send the person whether these conditions would ultimately disqual-
up to space for six months where they make life ify tourists from flying is not yet certain.
miserable for everybody else,” says Jones. Kanas speculates that space tourism companies
This preparation is why in the past 20 years of will have softer guidelines when it comes to psycho-

36 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 “If you find out somebody
has the personality
where they become self-
centered or withdrawn,
it’s important to find that
out back here on Earth.”
— Tom Jones, former NASA astronaut

ernment leaders and entrepreneurs come to fruition

over the next 20, 50 or 100 years, the space tourism
playground would expand far beyond Earth’s orbit.
Both ESA and NASA have announced their concepts
for establishing a Moon Village in the next decade
that would function as a mining base and potential
tourist destination, and — who knows? — maybe
200 years from now as a retirement destination for
those who want to try low-gravity golf. In the far
logical screening than do government space programs. term, Elon Musk tweets regularly about establishing
Instead of potentially grounding someone with bi- colonies on Mars with transportation provided by
polar disorder because they may have had a manic his Starship spacecraft, versions of which SpaceX
episode in the past, Kanas suggests that participants engineers are building and flying at the company’s
with otherwise disqualifying psychological disorders test site in Boca Chica, Texas.
could be given care plans to follow that would ensure And while today’s space tourists are unlikely to
their safety and that of others on the excursion. experience much psychological distress on their short
As a result, Kanas believes the risk of seriously trips, with longer flights such as a seven-month jour-
causing harm to fellow tourists out of ignorance of ney to Mars comes the heightened risk for negative
zero-gravity procedures or poor stress management psychological effects, such as depression, as a result
is unlikely for short suborbital flights. of extended social isolation and loneliness, explains
If a passenger were to go rogue and attempt to, space psychologist Rose. For the past 12 years, Rose
for example, pry open the spacecraft door, those has conducted research with NASA on stress, resilience
actions still won’t put other tourists in harm’s way. and behavioral health and is principal investigator on
Virgin Galactic tells me that because of pressure two ongoing NASA projects, one titled “Asynchronous
created against the spacecraft’s plug door, the term Behavioral Health Treatment Techniques.”
also applied to the doors on commercial airliners, Developing a therapeutic plan that can work
it isn’t possible to open the spacecraft midflight. even with the communications latency of deep space
will be crucial for the well-being of these explorers,
Beyond orbital flight says Rose.
Space tourists in the next five to 10 years will not be “We developed a stress management resilience
straying too far from home, but if the plans of gov- training program that autonomously trains people

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 37

to develop a tool set of skills they can use to deal eler’s home and generate realistic and interactive The European Space
with stressful situations,” explains Rose. He defines projections of loved ones that they could commu- Agency runs a three-
week course in which
resilience as “a rebound and recovery” from stress, nicate with. Solutions like this won’t irradicate the
astronauts explore caves
“not an elimination of stress.” potential stress of the situation, but they can provide while testing technology
During these longer trips, Rose says individuals a better way to cope with it. and conducting
must be provided with tactics for managing their “Stressful reactions to stressful situations is ex- experiments that prepare
own stress when professional counselors can’t be pected,” says Rose. “There isn’t a magical way to do them for the rigors of
space travel. Astronauts
on hand to help. Crew bonding activities will help, something that’s challenging and not feel stress —
from space agencies
but connections must somehow be maintained with that’s not a bad sign. It’s more about how you cope around the world
family and friends, perhaps through memories, when with these situations that make a difference.” participate.
communications with Earth become intermittent. ESA

“Thinking about their family or other things in Positive effects of space travel
their community that provide meaning to them can Space tourists who have paid hundreds of thousands
help them feel more connected,” Rose says. of dollars for a once-in-a-lifetime experience will
Rose imagines that someday artificial intelligence likely want to maximize the positive psychological
and virtual reality software might simulate a trav- effects of this foray to space. In fact, Loretta White-

38 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

sides, the wife of Virgin Galactic Chief Space Officer looking down on Earth as a spiritual and unique
George T. Whitesides and author of the book “The experience that transformed them into more char-
New Right Stuff: Using Space to Bring out the Best itable versions of themselves upon return.
in You,” believes that someone who pays to go to This “overview effect” is something that Ansari
space can return a new person. Whitesides herself and Jones both say they experienced during their
is a “founder astronaut” at Virgin Galactic, meaning travels.
she will be one of the first several participants to “Being in space has made me feel the intercon-
ride in Unity when commercial service begins. nectedness of us human beings with each other and
In her space training and consultation program, our planet,” says Ansari. “As the world shrunk in
SpaceKind, Whitesides coaches space industry front of my eyes in my ascent to orbit, so did the
professionals about how to embrace vulnerability, problems of the world. This new perspective has
humility and integrity in order to bring their best made me more hopeful than ever that we can solve
selves to their future space travels. Whitesides believes the problems that seem so big and overwhelming.”
that leaving your personal baggage at home is cru- In the future, Kanas muses that the overview effect
cial to fully experiencing the beauty of space and may even be prescribed as a form of treatment for
the fragility of Earth. Astronauts have widely described Earthly ennui, similar to a therapeutic retreat today.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 39

 European Space Whitesides believes that creating the right mind- This is something that Virgin Galactic is focusing
Agency astronauts set for space travelers to receive this experience can on heavily in its Astronaut Readiness Program in
joined their Chinese
enable space tourists, professional astronauts and which its ticketed future astronauts will gain detailed
counterparts for nine
days of survival training
everyone in between to return home with a new information about Unity, even down to its sounds
off China’s coast in 2017. mission to be more generous on both a personal and smells. Separate from SpaceKind, this three-day
They practiced jumping and community level. program was announced in 2019 and is led by former
into inflatable lifeboats SpaceKind is not likely to be mandatory for space NASA engineer Beth Moses.
from a mock Shenzhou
tourists, says Whitesides, but she believes that pro- The company also announced a contract with
capsule and being
hoisted aboard a rescue
grams like these could be offered as a la carte options NASA last year to develop a separate “private orbit-
ship. that tourists can choose to take for their own benefit. al astronaut readiness program” to help NASA meet
ESA “Most of them are so passionate about space its goal of increasing commercial use of the ISS by
— like a lot of my fellow ‘future astronauts’ at Virgin finding and training private spaceflight participants.
Galactic [who do extra training] because that’s what Ultimately, says Kanas, regardless of what these
we like to do,” says Whitesides. “I’m counting on the training programs entail, this industry is going to
customers to go even beyond what’s required.” continue expanding. Where space travel exists, there
will never be a shortage of space tourists.
Where we are now “There’s always some population that’s willing
When it comes to preparing future space tourists to do anything, so I don’t think that’s going to slow
for the mental and physical rigor of spaceflight, down things,” says Kanas. He says it is more a ques-
Kanas and Rose say that the No. 1 mindset that must tion of “the technology of getting this thing up
be imparted on trainees is a sense of familiarity with safely and get it back down again.” ★
the spacecraft and mission plan, as well as assurance
of its safety. Staff reporter Cat Hofacker contributed to this report.

40 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

PROFESSIONAL
VIRTUAL
CAREER FAIR
26 JANUARY 2021, 1500–1800 HRS ET USA

CONNECTING LEADING EMPLOYERS WITH AEROSPACE PROFESSIONALS

ADVANCE YOUR CAREER IN AEROSPACE

› Free to participate and it only takes two minutes to register

› Speak directly with recruiters through private one-on-one online chats

› You choose which employers to connect and engage with

› Meet with as many employers as you would like

REGISTER NOW
aiaa.org/ProfessionalCareerFair
 OPINION

Why we’re not

there yet on CFD
The fundamental mathematics that aircraft designers rely Rotorcraft
computational
on to model fluid mechanics, the Navier-Stokes equations, fluid dynamics rendered
by FieldView.
were devised in the 19th century. This set of partial Intelligent Light

differential equations seems tantalizingly straightforward,

yet many challenges remain today in realizing an accurate
predictive capability. Stephen M. Legensky, founder of the
software company Intelligent Light, explains.

BY STEPHEN M. LEGENSK Y

42 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 n my journey as the founder and leader of measuring them accurately can be very challenging.

I
Intelligent Light, I have had the privilege of Even if we could manage boundary conditions, dis-
meeting some of the pioneers of CFD through cretization and solution method, there is a trade-off
our visualization and knowledge-extraction between what can be directly solved and what needs
software products. These visionaries freely to be modeled. Turbulence, the tendency for many
shared their valuable time, answering my naïve flows to exhibit an almost chaotic behavior, exists
questions and helping me to understand their field at many scales and directly impacts lift and drag,
and how our tools might help the CFD community. In supersonic combustion and other phenomena. The
the late 1980s, United Technologies Research Center quest to understand and model turbulence has been
used our 3DV software to produce animations of an ongoing pursuit for more than a century.
CFD results by converting them into formats that
could be rendered and recorded to video tape. Thus Moving to uncertainty quantification
began my adventure and a great opportunity for Where are we today with CFD and its application to
Intelligent Light through our FieldView software, real-world problems? For many years, engineers
which has helped countless engineers visualize applied CFD most often to analyze performance
and model aircraft performance by solving the trends due to design changes, rather than as a quan-
Navier-Stokes equations, the fundamental mathe- titative, predictive tool. If my airplane was not be-
matics for modeling fluid dynamics that were devised having as I expected, CFD might be used to simulate
in the 19th century. As powerful as the FieldView the flow, computing the velocity in each cell in three
tool remains under its new owner, FieldView CFD dimensions around my vehicle so that, with the
Inc., much innovation remains ahead to fully tap the appropriate software, I could visualize the flow field.
potential of applying the Navier-Stokes equations If the cause of the problem could not be located, a
for modeling aircraft in flight. change could be made to the shape of the wing, and
So why are the Navier-Stokes equations so dif- then another calculation would be performed. This
ficult to tame? Unlike static structural analysis and was probably much less expensive than modifying
other physical modeling regimes, the Navier-Stokes the actual aircraft and testing in flight.
formulae are partial differential equations that for Quantitative results could be expected only for
most interesting geometries and realistic flow con- certain situations that were well understood with
ditions do not have an analytical solution. You can’t well-behaved designs, such as an aircraft with smooth
just plug algebraic terms into the Matlab software flight surfaces operating at cruise conditions. These
and get an answer. Numerical methods for solving predictions were very important for estimating the
these equations have been under development for fuel efficiency of a new vehicle and identifying the
more than a half-century. The fundamental idea for design that was the best compromise. Airframers
the most popular methods is to discretize the flow have been refining the tools and processes for this
domain around or within the object under study: kind of application for years, but these revisions still
The physical space is divided into cells as small as do not cover more demanding scenarios. You see,
a millimeter on a 747-scale aircraft. Time is also these traditional calculations apply to airplanes that
broken down into very small timesteps, sometimes are deliberately shaped to avoid the types of fluid
on the order of microseconds or even nanoseconds. mechanics phenomena that plague CFD even to
Solution methods with names like Finite Dif- today: flow that separates from the flight surfaces
ference, Finite Volume, Finite Element and Direct and might possess unstable vortex behavior. In
Numerical Simulation are then applied to the millions such cases, the physics of the flow can reveal the
or billions of cells, timestep by timestep. (Techniques shortcomings in the solver code, discretization
such as Lattice-Boltzmann, Particle-in-Cell and and turbulence model. But, if you do not know the
Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics are also used but correct answer for a new design, how does one know
tend to have more specialized applications.) Each of if the calculations are truly predictive?
these methods has advantages and disadvantages in This is where the field of uncertainty quantifica-
terms of memory needs, computing power require- tion comes in. Over the past decades, UQ has gained
ments, stability (meaning: do we get an answer or prominence as a way to understand and to quantify
a program crash) and most importantly, accuracy. the reliability of analysis predictions. The simplest
Solving differential equations has another import- way to understand the role of UQ is that it provides
ant requirement: boundary conditions. For example, a rigorous statistical framework to incorporate ex-
what is the speed of the airplane or the temperature perimental data, variations in CFD methodologies
and pressure at the inlet of a jet engine combustor? and boundary conditions into the analysis process.
These conditions are natural to us in the real world, Rather than just stating that the predicted drag will
but expressing them accurately as inputs to the be 107 under particular conditions, the engineer is
solution program (known as the solver code) or even provided with what are called “confidence intervals”

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 43

 the status quo is not good enough. In general, the
precision of the discretization has to be increased
in order to truly capture the object’s shape and
perhaps the turbulent scales. In the emerging con-

“Working in cept of the digital twin, geometry is modeled as built,

rather than from the idealized computer aided design.
Then the boundary conditions need to more close-

uncertainty ly approximate the real world: Is the Mach number

truly exactly 0.85, or is it between 0.82 and 0.87, and

quantification,
subject to some probability distribution? Finally,
there are the numerical modeling issues: Are there
compromises in the methods of solving the differ-

or UQ, is an ential equations and handling turbulence? All of this

co-exists with limitations on computing resources,
solver performance, the workforce and even the

eye-opening ability to gather useful ground truth from tests.

The CFD development community is vibrant
today and actively developing new technologies

exercise for to improve the robustness, accuracy and efficiency

of codes that use the various numerical methods.

CFDers.”
NASA funded an effort to set goals for CFD by the
year 2030, and a report was published in 2014. These
goals have brought focus to advancing the areas
of solver methodology, discretization, turbulence
modeling, UQ and also knowledge extraction. An
update is due for publication at AIAA’s SciTech
2021; see that white paper for the technical details
of the progress being made and the teams that are Stephen M.
advancing toward the goals. Legensky founded Intelli-
For our part, Intelligent Light has been playing gent Light in 1984 and remains
a supporting role for the CFD community, focused president and chief technology
on UQ, knowledge extraction and data science officer. He helped grow the
applications for CFD. One of the problems with company from a producer of 3D
the increase in fidelity and the number of simula- animations to a leading suppli-
tions is data size. Although supercomputing has er of tools for CFD workflow and
that might read like: “Within a 95% confidence level, scaled in performance by orders of magnitude over UQ. He has a bachelor’s degree
the drag is predicted to be between 104 and 110.” the decades, we humans have not. Two interesting in engineering and a master’s
Currently, the UQ process can be computationally aspects of work in this area are extract workflows degree in mathematics from
and experimentally expensive, since instead of doing and solution interpretation guided by data science Stevens Institute of Technology
one simulation with fixed boundary conditions or techniques. Extract workflows attempt to get the in New Jersey.
turbulence models, many such computations are most meaningful portions of a CFD solution directly
needed to create the statistical picture of the sim- from the solver memory into a compact useful form.
ulation certainty. Creating efficient workflows for Data science techniques, either modal analysis or
UQ is certainly a topic of extensive research today. machine learning, can help to find patterns or co-
Intelligent Light has been funded in this area by the herent structures within the sea of raw data.
U.S. Department of Energy, whose DAKOTA software It should be clear at this point that CFD, a field of
is the gold standard for UQ and optimization. study with a rich history, still has many opportunities
for improvement. I am confident that the dedicated
Increased precision practitioners out there in the world will continue
Working in UQ is an eye-opening exercise for CFDers. to push the boundaries of the technology for years
Several sources of uncertainty have been identified to come. At the same time, machine learning is
in the CFD workflow: discretization, model form making strides to complement the current state of
and boundary conditions are a few. What were once the art. I read in MIT Technology Review about a
accepted as good enough are no longer: If you real- deep learning technique developed at Caltech that
ly want to predict the behavior and performance of can solve families of partial differential equations
brand new concepts or you want to understand flow such as Navier-Stokes a thousand times faster than
regimes that are not well behaved, then, in reality, traditional methods. Stay tuned. ★

44 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

NEW AIAA CAREER CENTER
CAREERS IN THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY START HERE

Leading aerospace companies are searching for candidates just like you!

Search thousands Get found by Get alerts when a new job

of job listings in the employers by uploading is posted for the position
aerospace industry your resume you are seeking

YOUR JOB SEARCH RESOURCE CENTER

The AIAA Career Center is dedicated to matching qualified
job seekers to aerospace employers. Here you will find
everything you need to make your resume stand out, ace
the interview, advance your career, and navigate the digital
world. New jobs are listed every day!

DISCOVER WHO IS HIRING

careercenter.aiaa.org
 THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY—NOW ONLINE
Now more than ever, communities and personal connections are of
the utmost importance. AIAA Engage is your community and the
virtual place to connect with the global aerospace community. As an
AIAA member you can start or join wide-ranging discussions with
people as passionate about aerospace as you are. At the same time,
you will grow your personal network and make a friend or two. Join
our 30,000-strong community and tap into shared resources and
well-regarded aerospace advice that are just a click away.

REASONS TO ENGAGE

2,800+ 20,000+ 100+ 57

Member-to-Member Files in Shared Committee Section
Connections Made Libraries Communities Communities

Visit engage.aiaa.org to start connecting today.

To access Engage, use your AIAA log-in credentials.
JANUARY 2021 | 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 event. 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 / Alex D’Imperio, ext. 7536 • Book Sales /

800.682.AIAA or 703.661.1595, Dept. 415 • Communications / Rebecca Gray, 804.397.5270 • Continuing Education / Jason Cole, ext. 7596 • Corporate Programs / Nancy Hilliard, ext.

7509 • Editorial, Books and Journals / Heather Brennan, ext. 7568 • Exhibits and Sponsorship / Paul doCarmo , ext. 7576 • Honors and Awards / Patricia Carr, ext. 7523 • Integration

and Outreach Committees / Nancy Hilliard, ext. 7509 • Journal Subscriptions, Member / 800.639.AIAA • Journal Subscriptions, Institutional / Online Archive Subscriptions / Michele

Dominiak, ext. 7531 • K–12 Programs / Sha’Niece Simmons, ext. 7590 • Media Relations / Rebecca Gray, 804.397.5270 • Engage Online Community / Luci Blodgett, ext. 7537 •

Public Policy / Steve Sidorek, ext. 7541 • Section Activities / Lindsay Mitchell, ext. 7502 • Standards, Domestic / Hilary Woehrle, ext. 7546 • Standards, International / Nick Tongson,

ext. 7515 • Technical Committees / Angie Lander, ext. 7577 • University and Young Professional Programs / Michael Lagana, ext. 7503

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 | JAN UARY 2021 | 47

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Calendar
ABSTRACT
DATE MEETING LOCATION DEADLINE

2021

9–10 Jan 5th AIAA Propulsion Aerodynamics Workshop (PAW05) ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

10–12 Jan AIAA International Student Conference VIRTUAL EVENT

11-15 & 19-21 Jan AIAA SciTech Forum VIRTUAL EVENT 8 Jun 20

21–22 Jan 1st AIAA CFD Transition Modeling Prediction Workshop ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

26–27 Jan 1st AIAA Stability and Control Prediction Workshop ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

Sydney, Australia —HYBRID

28 Jan–4 Feb* 43rd Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research & Associated Events 14 Feb 20
EVENT (cospar2020.org)

31 Jan–4 Feb* 31st AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting VIRTUAL EVENT (http://space-flight.org)

26 Feb–16 Apr Design of Experiments: Improved Experimental Methods in Aerospace Testing Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

4 Mar–28 Apr Fundamentals of Classical Astrodynamics and Applications Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

6–13 Mar* 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference VIRTUAL EVENT (www.aeroconf.org)

15–19 Mar AIAA Congressional Visits Day VIRTUAL EVENT

18 Mar–8 Apr Hypersonics: Test and Evaluation Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

24 Mar–14 Apr Technical Writing Essentials for Engineers Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

26–27 Mar AIAA Region III Student Conference Ann Arbor, MI 5 Feb 21

26–27 Mar AIAA Region IV Student Conference Stillwater, OK 1 Feb 21

2–3 Apr AIAA Region V Student Conference Iowa City, IA 21 Feb 21

3–4 Apr AIAA Region VI Student Conference Long Beach, CA (VIRTUAL) 6 Feb 21

6–8 Apr* AIAA SOSTC Improving Space Operations Workshop VIRTUAL EVENT (https://isow.space.swri.edu)

6 Apr–13 May Design of Space Launch Vehicles Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

7–16 Apr Fundamentals of Data and Information Fusion for Aerospace Systems Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

8–9 Apr AIAA Region II Student Conference Tuscaloosa, AL 23 Feb 21

9–10 Apr AIAA Region I Student Conference New Brunswick, NJ 19 Feb 21

Understanding Space: An Introduction to Astronautics and Space Systems

9, 16, 23 Apr ONLINE, 3 full days (http://learning.aiaa.org)
Engineering Course

48 | JAN UARY 2021 | 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.).

12–14 Apr* 55th 3AF Conference on Applied Aerodynamics (AERO2020+1) Poitiers, France (http://3af-aerodynamics2020.com)

13–29 Apr Fundamentals of Python Programming with Libraries for Aerospace Engineers Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

14– 30 Apr Missile Aerodynamics, Propulsion, and Guidance Course ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)

15–18 Apr AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition Tucson, AZ

20–22 Apr* Integrated Communication, Navigation, and Surveillance (ICNS) Conference VIRTUAL EVENT (https://i-cns.org)

5–7 May* 6th CEAS Conference on Guidance Navigation and Control (2021 EuroGNC) Berlin, Germany (https://eurognc2021.dglr.de)

Electrochemical Energy Systems for Electrified Aircraft Propulsion: Batteries and

5–28 May ONLINE (http://learning.aiaa.org)
Fuel Cell Systems Course

7, 14, 21 May Foundations of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Course ONLINE, 3 half days (http://learning.aiaa.org)

31 May–2 Jun* 28th Saint Petersburg International Conference on Integrated Navigation Systems Saint Petersburg, Russia (elektropribor.spb.ru/en)

5–6 Jun 3rd AIAA Geometry and Mesh Generation Workshop (GMGW-3) Washington, DC

5–6 Jun 4th AIAA CFD High Lift Prediction Workshop (HLPW-4) Washington, DC

5–6 Jun 1st AIAA Ice Prediction Workshop Washington, DC

6 Jun 2nd AIAA Workshop for Multifidelity Modeling in Support of Design & Uncertainty Quantification Washington, DC

7–11 Jun AIAA AVIATION Forum Washington, DC 10 Nov 20

21–23 Jun* 3rd Cognitive Communications for Aerospace Applications Workshop Cleveland, OH (http://ieee-ccaa.com)

22–25 Jun* ICNPAA 2021: Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Aerospace and Sciences Prague, Czech Republic (icnpaa.com)

9–11 Aug AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum Denver, CO 11 Feb 21

17 Aug AIAA Fellows Dinner Washington, DC

18 Aug AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala Washiington, DC

6–10 Sep* 32nd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences Shanghai, China (icas.org) 15 Jul 19

Madrid, Spain (http://reg.

13–15 Sep* 3rd IAA Conference on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA) 15 Jun 21
conferences.dce.ufl.edu/ICSSA)

14–16 Sep AIAA DEFENSE Forum (Postponed from April) Laurel, MD 17 Sep 20

25–29 Oct* 72nd International Astronautical Congress Dubai, UAE

15–17 Nov ASCEND Powered by AIAA Las Vegas, NV

AIAA Continuing Education offerings *Meetings cosponsored by AIAA. Cosponsorship forms can be found at
aiaa.org/events-learning/exhibit-sponsorship/co-sponsorship-opportunities.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 49

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

2021 AIAA Sustained Service AIAA is pleased to announce the

winners of the 2021 Sustained Service
Awards, which recognize sustained,

Award Winners Announced significant service and contributions

to AIAA by members of the Institute.

Willem A. Mat French James A. Keenan Dimitri

Anemaat Northrop U.S. Army Aviation N. Mavris
DARcorporation Grumman & Missile Research, Georgia Institute
For your extensive In recognition of Development, of Technology
service to AIAA his service to AIAA and Engineering For 40 years of
through your work on technical for the creation, development, Center (AMRDEC) continuous meritorious
committees, national awards, and leadership of the Digital For impactful leadership service to AIAA in
publications, and conferences. Engineering Integration contributions to AIAA through technical, honors and
Committee (DEIC), a the Thermophysicsand awards, publications, and
Kevin Burns transformational enabler Applied Aerodynamics international activities.
American Legion for the aerospace technical Technical Committees,
For sustained and community, and for his Aerospace Sciences Group, Andrew J. Neely
dedicated service sustained leadership of AIAA Board of Directors, and UNSW Canberra
to the AIAA History SciTech and CASE sessions. Council of Directors. at the Australian
Committee, San Diego Section, Defence Force
Niagara Frontier Section, John. C. Hsu Ronald J. Kohl Academy
AIAA conferences/forums, California State R J Kohl & Assoc. For the sustained and trusted
and decades of mentorship University, Long For sustained management of activities
to students from universities Beach service in the advancing AIAA values and
across the country. In recognition pursuit of interests at the section, regional,
of his contributions to technical collaborations and and international levels.
Terry J. Burress multiple AIAA technical improved communications
Lockheed Martin committees, and coordination between numerous technical Krishnaswamy
Aeronautics of conference sessions, committees, between different Ravindra
For continuous publications, and short TAD groups, and between Saint Louis
and exemplary courses over three decades of multiple AIAA divisions. University
service to the AIAA South exemplary service to AIAA, For significant
Central Region and the most notably to the Systems Frank K. Lu contributions in aerospace
Modeling and Simulation Engineering Technical University of Texas engineering education and
Technical Committee, Committee. at Arlington dedicated service to the AIAA
including strengthening the For sustained Committee on Higher Education.
membership and the technical Michel D. and diverse
excellence of the Institute and Ingham leadership in student branch, Joseph A. Schetz
its committees in both formal NASA Jet local section, technical Virginia
and informal leadership roles. Propulsion committee, and editorial and Polytechnic
Laboratory publications activities. Institute and State
Dean Earl Davis For tireless commitment to University
For his 46 years AIAA technical activities, David W. Levy For sustained and outstanding
of active AIAA particularly the Information Sierra Nevada service to the Institute’s technical
contributions from Systems Group, including Corporation committees and publications
college chairman service as Deputy Director, TC For sustained and as Editor-in-Chief of the
to LA-LV Section and STEAM Chair, Conference Technical service as AIAA Education Series.
chairman. Chair, and IC Member. AIAA Wichita Section and
Aircraft Design Technical Elana M. Slagle
Jeanette Vicki S. Johnson Committee Chair, Design/ Starfish Education
L. Domber Spirit AeroSystems Build/Fly Competition In appreciation of
Ball Aerospace (retired) Contest Administrator, and her leadership in
Honoring over 15 For continuous, Drag Prediction Workshop STEM advancement
years of inspiring consistent, and Organizing Committee. and continued commitment
leadership and dedicated service effective contributions to and to the attributes of AIAA in the
to the SDM Conferences, AIAA leadership and conduct of Pacific Northwest Section.
SciTech Forums, Aerospace Wichita Section activities,
Design and Structures Group, and support of national Mitchell L.
and Structures Technical committees, over many years. Walker, II
Committee. Georgia Institute
of Technology
In recognition of
long-term sustained service
For more information on the Sustained Service Award, please visit aiaa.org/awards. and technical leadership of
AIAA.

50 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

Young Professionals, Students, and Educator
Conference Held Virtually in October
The AIAA Region I Young Professionals, Students, and
Educator (YPSE) Conference was held virtually for the
first time by the AIAA Mid-Atlantic Section on 15–16
October 2020. More than 130 young professionals (under
age 35), educators, graduate, undergraduate, and high
school students were in attendance. Presenters called in
from across the United States and the world to give over
30 technical presentations on aerospace-related topics,
including space exploration, robotics, aerodynamics, and
navigation. The event was an opportunity for young pro-
fessionals and students to learn from each other about
a large breadth of topics in the aerospace community,
gaining knowledge in areas they may not have yet been
exposed to. YPSE 2020 featured a keynote address from
former NASA astronaut and current Deputy Director of
Engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for
the Undersecretary of Research and Engineering, Dr. Sandra Magnus. She discussed
her distinguished career and answered questions regarding her time as an astronaut,
advice for professional development and leadership development, and the aero-
Please email aiaa.midatlantic@
space profession as a whole. The conference also featured talks from AIAA Executive
gmail.com for more details.
Director Dan Dumbacher, AIAA President Basil Hassan, and AIAA Region 1 Director
Steve Bauer. The AIAA Mid-Atlantic Section will be hosting the 2021 YPSE Conference
Check https://engage.aiaa.org/
on 15 October 2021, at the Kossiakoff Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied
midatlantic for upcoming events.
Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD.

YOUR INSTITUTE, YOUR VOTE

POLLS OPEN 27 JANUARY

Your vote is critical to shaping the future of AIAA!

TO VOTE ONLINE: Visit aiaa.org/vote. If you have not already logged in, you will be
prompted to do so. Follow the on-screen directions to view candidate materials and
cast your ballot. Vote by 19 February 2021.

TO REQUEST A PAPER BALLOT: Contact Survey & Ballot Systems at 952.974.2339 or

support@directvote.net (Monday – Friday, 0800 – 1700 hrs CDT). All other questions,
contact AIAA Member Services at 703.264.7500, or (toll-free, U.S. only) 800.639.2422.

VOTING CLOSES
19 FEBRUARY 2021

aiaa.org/vote
aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 51
AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Aerospace Career Pathways:

AIAA Student Webinar Series
In spring 2020, AIAA launched a free
webinar series for members called “Aero-
space Career Pathways” to introduce
students to a variety of career opportu-
nities in the aerospace industry with the
goal of inspiring the future workforce.
We featured seven different pro-
fessionals who represent four different
tracks in the aerospace industry: public
service, academia, professional engi- 1 2
neering, and entrepreneurship. Over
200 students have tuned in to learn
how these individuals developed their
professional skills, overcame career chal-
lenges, and gained insights that will help
students during their student-to-profes-
sional transition.
The last planned webinar in the
series is scheduled for February 2021. 3 4
However, all the webinars are available
online at aiaa.org/events-learning/
aiaa-webinars.

Help us to continue inspiring the

future workforce with a gift to the
AIAA Foundation. Donate today:
www.aiaa.org/foundation.
5 6

1 Col. Brian Stahl, U.S. Air Force and Senior Air Force Advisor, Office of Undersecretary of

Defense for Policy, Strategy, and Force Development, discussed career pathways for the
military and public service.

2 Ingo Jahn, deputy director for the Centre for Hypersonics at the University of

Queensland, explained career pathways to research, academia, publishing, and teaching.

3 Allison Tsay, a radio frequency engineer at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, discussed

professional engineering. 

4 Victoria Chibuogu Nneji, lead engineer and innovation strategist at Edge Case Research,

highlighted career pathways to entrepreneurship and business leadership. 7

5 Dani Soban, a senior lecturer (associate professor) in Aerospace Engineering at Queen’s
University Belfast in Northern Ireland, UK, explained aerospace career pathways in aca-
demia, research, teaching, and publishing.

6 Sarah Shull, NASA’s Strategic Architecture and Formulation Lead for Human Missions to

the Moon and Mars, discussed aerospace career pathways to government.

7 Paul Dees, Technical Fellow, Airplane Configuration & Integration at Boeing Commercial

Airplanes, discussed his experiences working as a design engineer and project manager in
the aircraft industry.

52 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

AIAA Sydney Section Student
Conference/Region VII Student
Conference Held in November
From 25 to 26 November, the AIAA Syd-
ney Section Student Conference, held
virtually and hosted by the AIAA Univer-
sity of New South Wales (NSW, Australia)
Student Branch and the AIAA Sydney
Section, took place online and featured
27 presentations from student members
from eight countries. Students presented
in three categories, with two categories
making their debuts in the Region VII
Student Conference for the first time in
several years: Undergraduate, Master by
Research, and Master by Coursework.
Their presentations were evaluated by
industry peers with many years of expe-
rience in the aerospace sector. Model of Radiative and Convective Heat Alberto of the University of New South
Judges collated their results and Flux for Fuel Regression Rate of Wax- Wales Sydney, with “Aeroacoustic Impact
announced the winners of the presen- based Hybrid Rocket.” The winners of the of Propeller Tip Geometry on Low
tation prizes, sponsored by the AIAA Master by Coursework Category were: Reynolds Number UAV Propellers.” The
Sydney Section. The winners of the 1st place – Yusuf Asalani of the Institut winning Master by Research Category
Undergraduate Category presentations Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia), who papers were: 1st place – Genya Naka of
were: 1st place – Miguel Vila of the presented “RLS-based Indirect Adaptive the University of Tokyo (Japan), who
University of New South Wales Canberra Model Predictive Control for Aircraft presented “Numerical Model of Radia-
(Australia), who presented “Digital Image Application as MIMO Systems”; and 2nd tive and Convective Heat Flux for Fuel
and Pressure Analysis of Supersonic place – Adam Arif, of the Insitut Teknologi Regression Rate of Wax-based Hybrid
Aerospike Instability Frequency”; 2nd Bandung (Indonesia), who presented Rocket”; 1st place – 2nd Lt. Francesco
place – Marco Alberto of the University “Failure Identification and Fault Tolerant Riboli of Università degli Studi di Napoli
of New South Wales, Sydney (Australia), Control of Passenger Aircraft.” Federico II (Italy), who presented “Store
who presented “Aeroacoustic Impact of Students also submitted their papers Separation Predictions for Weapon
Propeller Tip Geometry on Low Reynolds for technical evaluation to the Region Integration on a Fighter-Type Aircraft”;
Number UAV Propellers”; and 3rd place VII Student Paper Competition, which and 3rd place – Chung-Hao Ma of the
– Jarrod Moonen of the Royal Melbourne ran concurrently with the AIAA Sydney University of New South Wales, Sydney
Institute of Technology (Australia), who Section Student Conference. Technical (Australia), who presented “Aeroacous-
presented “Powerplant Hybridisation papers were evaluated and scored by tics and aerodynamics of flow over a
of a High Altitude Mountain Rescue industry peers all over the world. Papers forward-backward facing step.” The first-
Helicopter.” The winners of the Master by were scored in two categories, Under- place winners of the technical papers
Research Category were: 1st place – 2nd graduate and Master by Research. The competition are invited to compete in
Lt. Francesco Riboli of Università degli winning Undergraduate Category papers the 2021 AIAA International Student
Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy), who were: 1st place – Mudit Agrawal of the Conference, which will take place virtu-
presented “Store Separation Predictions University of New South Wales, Sydney ally at the 2021 AIAA SciTech Forum.
for Weapon Integration on a Fighter-Type with “Effect of a leading-edge fillet on AIAA would like to thank Lockheed
Aircraft”; 2nd place – Chung-Hao Ma wall pressure fluctuations associated Martin and the AIAA Sydney Section for
of the University of New South Wales, with flow past an appendage-body its support of this program and would
Sydney (Australia), who presented “Aero- junction”; 2nd place – Miguel Vila of the like to recognize the AIAA University
acoustics and aerodynamics of flow over University of New South Wales Canberra, of New South Wales Student Branch
a forward-backward facing step”; and 3rd with “Digital Image and Pressure Anal- planning committee and its advisors,
place – Genya Naka of the University of ysis of Supersonic Aerospike Instability Drs. Sonya Brown and Danielle Moreau,
Tokyo (Japan), who presented “Numerical Frequency”; and 3rd place – Marco for hosting the conference.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 53

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Dr. Tom I-P. Shih Appointed

as New Editor-In-Chief
of the AIAA Journal
In January 2021, Tom Shih, Professor of
Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue
University, will assume responsibilities
as the new editor-in-chief of the AIAA
Journal (AIAAJ). Shih succeeds Prof.
Alexander Smits of Princeton Universi-
ty, who has served as editor-in-chief of
Celebrate the
AIAAJ since 2015. He was selected from a Class of 2021
competitive pool of applicants following a AIAA Associate Fellows!
rigorous search supported by the Publica-
tions Committee.
Shih holds M.S.E and Ph.D. degrees in
Mechanical Engineering from the Univer-
THURSDAY, 21 JANUARY 2021,
sity of Michigan and a B.S.E in Mechanical 1600 HRS ET
Engineering from National Cheng Kung
University, Tainan, Taiwan. He recently
stepped down as head of the School of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, serving from 2009 to 2019. Before coming to Purdue,
he was chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University,
Please join us
to celebrate the
from 2003 to 2009. His primary professional interests include computational fluid
dynamics, gas-turbine aerodynamics and heat transfer, and thermal management of
aerospace systems.
An AIAA Fellow, Shih has spent his entire career in aerospace engineering and induction the
has provided wide-ranging service to the Institute. Past AIAA awards and recognition
include a service citation for contributions to the Journal of Propulsion and Power
(JPP) in 2007, a Sustained Service Award and a Distinguished Service Award from the
Class of 2021
Terrestrial Energy Systems Technical Committee in 2010, the Energy Systems Award
in 2015, and the Thermophysics Award in 2020.
AIAA Associate
Fellows. This is a
Motivating Shih’s interest in seeking the editor-in-chief position is the opportu-
nity to further contribute to the profession in a meaningful way. He is well respected
for his administrative skills and also for his scholarship and leadership as an
educator seeking to support and inspire students to explore new research areas and free virtual event.
disciplines. From a publishing perspective, Shih has gained significant experience as
an associate editor and editorial advisory board member to a wide range of techni-
cal journals, including service to JPP. He can claim authorship on over 200 papers
published in journals and conference proceedings.
The AIAA Journal was established by AIAA in 1963, following the merger of the
For viewing, please register and
Institute of the Aerospace Sciences and the American Rocket Society, and grew out watch at https://live.remo.co/e/2021-
of these predecessor societies’ journals, the Journal of the Aerospace Sciences and aiaa-associate-fellows-indu-1
ARS Journal, respectively. Tom Shih will become the eighth editor-in-chief of the (Chrome and Firefox browser only).
journal.

For more information about the

Class of 2021, please visit aiaa.org/
Associate Fellows2021.

54 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

Obituaries systems at NASA in preparation for the
first Space Shuttle launch, his curi-
osity led him in search of innovative
Teets attended the University of
Colorado at Boulder and the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, earning
solutions to complex problems. After degrees in applied mathematics and
AIAA Fellow Weiss retiring from Lockheed, Weiss began a business administration, respectively.
Died in March 20-year academic career dedicated to He worked for the Martin Company as
Stanley Weiss, who spent 50 years in helping develop the next generation an engineer, working in different roles
industry, government, and academia of engineers and forging connections as the company expanded to become
exploring the possibilities of engineer- between universities and industry. At Martin Marietta Corporation. He was
ing, died on 6 March at the age of 94. MIT, he was Jerome C. Hunsaker Visit- elected president of its Space Group in
Weiss graduated from Rensselaer ing Professor in Aeronautical Engi- 1993, and soon after the company’s 1995
Polytechnic Institute with B.S (1945) neering and co-principal investigator merger with Lockheed Martin, became
and M.S. (1947) degrees in aeronautical for the Lean Aerospace program. He president and COO of the new Lockheed
engineering. He received a Ph.D. in later became a consulting professor at Martin Corp.
theoretical and applied mechanics Stanford University in the Aeronautics In 2001, Teets retired from Lock-
from the University of Illinois at Urbana and Astronautics department. During heed Martin and undertook the jobs
(1949) and is a graduate of Harvard this time, he wrote Product and Sys- of undersecretary of the Air Force and
University’s Advanced Management tems Development: A Value Approach head of the National Reconnaissance
Program (1969). His military service was (Wiley, 2013). Office, which then was a dual position
with the U.S. Navy. Weiss participated in a variety of that reported to the Secretary of the
Weiss spent his early career in the government panels and advisory com- Air Force, the Secretary of Defense and
Midwest where he developed and mittees. He was a Fellow of AIAA and head of national intelligence. He served
analyzed aircraft design at Goodyear the International Council on Systems briefly as Acting Secretary of the Air
Aircraft Corporation and the Aircraft Engineering (INCOSE). Force. Teets resigned from the undersec-
Products Division at Kawneer Com- retary/NRO job in March 1995.
pany. He moved to California in 1957 AIAA Senior Member In retirement, Teets served on the
and began his long association with boards of the Aerospace Corporation,
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company,
Sharples Died in Draper Laboratories, and Challenger
where he started as product manager November Center of Colorado. He was recognized
for the Polaris Missile project. He held Robert E. Sharples died on 22 Novem- with many awards including AIAA’s
various positions over the years includ- ber 2020. He was 83 years old. highest honor for notable achieve-
ing assistant program manager and Sharples graduated from Coo- ments in the field of astronautics, the
then development program manager per Union, New York, with a B.S. in Goddard Astronautics Award in 2010,
for satellite reconnaissance programs; Chemical Engineering, the University for his four decades of contributions
assistant general manager for special of California, Berkeley, with an M.A. to manned and unmanned access to
programs; and vice president, engineer- in Mathematics, and the University space and significant contributions
ing and development. of California, Los Angeles, Executive to the world’s aerospace community.
From 1978 to 1983, Weiss served in Management Training program. He also received the Wernher von
the government, first as Deputy Assis- Sharples had a long career in aero- Braun Space Flight Trophy, the Robert
tant Secretary for Utility and Industrial space as an engineering manager and Goddard Memorial Trophy, and the
Applications in the Department of proposal manager. He managed numer- Gen. James V. Hartinger Award for
Energy. He later worked at NASA as ous very large proposals for Northrop contributions to military space.
Associate Administrator for Space Trans- Grumman/TRW, including James Webb,
portation Operations and then as Chief National Polar-Orbiting Environmental
Engineer, where he oversaw Spacelab Satellite System (NPOESS), and Jupiter
development and Space Shuttle Icy-moons Orbiter (JIMO).
operational preparation. He received
the NASA Distinguished Service Medal AIAA Honorary Fellow
in 1983.
Weiss returned to Lockheed in
Teets Died in
1987 as vice president of engineering November
and general manager of research and Peter B. Teets, former undersecretary
development, positions he held until his and Acting Secretary of the Air Force,
retirement in 1990. head of the National Reconnaissance
Whether he was working on sat- Office, and president and chief operat-
ellite programs at Lockheed Missiles ing officer of Lockheed Martin, died 29
and Space Company or analyzing November 2020.

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 55

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

AIAA Student Branches, 2020–2021

AIAA has over 200 student branches around the world. Each branch has a chair elected each year and a faculty advisor who serves
long term to support that branch’s activities. Like the AIAA sections, the student branches invite speakers, take field trips, pro-
mote career development, and participate in projects that introduce students to membership with AIAA and help kickstart their
professional futures. The branches, and their officers in particular, organize branch activities in addition to their full-time school-
work, and their advisors clearly care deeply about their students’ futures. Please join us in acknowledging the time and effort that
all of them take to make their programs successful.

FA = Faculty Advisor Manhattan College United States Military Academy-West Point Auburn University University of Florida-Gainesville
SBC: Student Branch Chair (Long Island) (Long Island) (Greater Huntsville) (Central Florida)
FA: John Leylegian FA: Jeremy Paquin FA: Rob Kulick FA: Richard Lind
SBC: Amber Perez SBC: Brandon Cea FA: Norm Speakman SBC: Jose Aguilar
REGION I Massachusetts Institute of Technology United States Naval Academy
SBC: Olivia Green
University of Memphis
American Public University System (New England) (Mid-Atlantic) Duke University (Tennessee)
FA: Marvine Hamner FA: David Darmofal FA: Jeffery King (Carolina) FA: Jeff Marchetta
SBC: Catherine Taylor SBC: Shannon Cassady SBC: Alec Engl FA: Kenneth Hall SBC: William Bowen
SBC: Miles Burnette
Boston University McGill University University of Connecticut University of Miami-Coral Gables
(New England) (Niagara Frontier) (Connecticut) East Carolina University (Palm Beach)
FA: Sheryl Grace FA: TBD FA: Chih-Jen Sung (Carolina) FA: Ryan Karkkainen
SBC: Kathryn Moslener SBC: TBD SBC: Stephen Price FA: Tarek Abdel-Salam SBC: TBD
SBC: Jacob Rose
Brown University National Institute of Aerospace University of Delaware University of Mississippi
(New England) (Hampton Roads) (Delaware) Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ-Daytona (Greater Huntsville)
FA: TBD FA: TBD FA: TBD Beach/FL (Cape Canaveral) FA: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: TBD SBC: TBD FA: Habib Eslami SBC: TBD
SBC: Sarah Ketchersid
Carleton University New Jersey Institute of Technology University of Maine University of North Carolina at Charlotte
(Niagara Frontier) (Northern New Jersey) (New England) Florida A&M University (Carolina)
FA: Steve Ulrich FA: TBD FA: Alexander Friess (Northwest Florida) FA: Jerry Dahlberg
SBC: Carmen Huang SBC: TBD SBC: Jack O’Kelly FA: Chiang Shih SBC: Spencer Owen
SBC: TBD
Carnegie Mellon University New York Institute of Technology University of Maryland, University of Puerto Rico
(Mid-Atlantic) (Long Island) Baltimore County Florida Atlantic University (Palm Beach)
FA: TBD FA: James Scire (Mid-Atlantic) (Palm Beach) FA: Guillermo Araya
SBC: TBD SBC: TBD FA: Charles Eggleton FA: Stewart Glegg SBC: Harrison Rivera Colon
SBC: Caroline Vantiem SBC: Diego Salvatierra
Catholic University of America Northeastern University University of South Alabama
(National Capital) (New England) University of Maryland-College Park Florida Institute of Technology (Greater Huntsville)
FA: Diego Turo FA: Andrew Gouldstone (National Capital) (Cape Canaveral) FA: Carlos Montalvo
SBC: Virginia Boras SBC: Cameron Bracco FA: Norman Wereley FA: David Fleming SBC: Jossellyn Vieyra-Sanchez
SBC: Rachel Cueva SBC: Sean Dungan
City College of New York Old Dominion University University of South Carolina
(Long Island) (Hampton Roads) University of Massachusetts Lowell Florida International University (Carolina)
FA: Prathap Ramamurthy FA: Colin Britcher (New England) (Palm Beach) FA: Michael Van Tooren
SBC: Mazen Alhirsh SBC: Forrest Miller FA: Marianna Maiaru FA: George Dulikravich SBC: Floris Van Zanten
SBC: TBD SBC: Matthew Barreto
City University of New York Pennsylvania State University University of South Florida
(Long Island) (Central Pennsylvania) University of Pittsburgh Florida State University (Central Florida)
FA: TBD FA: Robert Melton (Mid-Atlantic) (Northwest Florida) FA: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: Ryan James FA: Peyman Givi FA: TBD SBC: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: Austin Robertson
Clarkson University Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn University of Tennessee Knoxville
(Northeastern New York) (Long Island) University of Toronto Georgia Institute of Technology (Tennessee)
FA: Kenneth Visser FA: TBD (Niagara Frontier) (Atlanta) FA: James Corder
SBC: Colin Branigan SBC: TBD FA: Kamran Behdinan FA: Dimitri Mavris SBC: Benjamin Ingling
SBC: TBD SBC: Andrew Morell
Columbia University Princeton University University of Tennessee Space Institute
(Long Island) (Northern New Jersey) University of Vermont Kennesaw State University (Tennessee)
FA: Robert Stark FA: Michael Mueller (New England) (Atlanta) FA: Trevor Moeller
SBC: Nathan Coulibaly SBC: TBD FA: William Louisos FA: Adeel Khalid SBC: Lauren Lester
SBC: Anthony Julian SBC: Cindy Vo
Concordia University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
(Niagara Frontier) (Northeastern New York) University of Virginia Louisiana State University (Tennessee)
FA: Hoi Dick Ng FA: Farhan Gandhi (National Capital) (Greater New Orleans) FA: Kidambi Sreenivas
SBC: TBD SBC: Richard Healy FA: Christopher Goyne FA: Keith Gonthier SBC: Morgan Young
SBC: Rikia Freeman SBC: Jacqueline Cloutier
Cornell University Rochester Institute of Technology University of West Florida
(Niagara Frontier) (Niagara Frontier) Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Mississippi State University (Northwest Florida)
FA: Dmitry Savransky FA: Agamemnon Crassidis Technology (Greater Huntsville) FA: Carolyn Mattick
SBC: Christopher Chan SBC: Blake Olson (Long Island) FA: Robert Wolz SBC: William Preston
FA: Amir Elzawawy SBC: Ryan Cook
Dartmouth College Rowan University SBC: Utsav Shah Vanderbilt University
(New England) (Southern New Jersey) North Carolina A&T State University (Tennessee)
FA: TBD FA: John Schmalzel Villanova University (Carolina) FA: Amrutur Anilkumar
SBC: TBD SBC: Nicholas Gushue (Greater Philadelphia) FA: Michael Atkinson SBC: Cameron Schepner
FA: Sergey Nersesov SBC: Donovan McGruder
Drexel University Royal Military College of Canada SBC: Nick Florio
(Niagara Frontier) North Carolina State University
(Greater Philadelphia)
FA: Ajmal Yousuff FA: Ruben Perez Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State (Carolina) REGION III
SBC: Will Culbertson SBC: TBD University (Hampton Roads) FA: Jack Edwards Air Force Institute of Technology
FA: Mayuresh Patil SBC: Carissa Hardy (Dayton/Cincinnati)
École de Technologie Supérieure Rutgers University SBC: Todd Stefan FA: Marc Polanka
(Niagara Frontier) (Northern New Jersey) Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
Wentworth Institute of Technology (Palm Beach) SBC: Matthew Fuqua
FA: Ruxandra Botez SBC: Steven Calalpa
SBC: Mathieu Lavoie FA: Francisco Diez (New England) FA: Jose Pertierra Case Western Reserve University
FA: Haifa El-Sadi SBC: Yan Casanova (Northern Ohio)
École Polytechnique de Montreal Ryerson University SBC: Kylee Julia FA: Paul Barnhart
(Niagara Frontier) (Niagara Frontier) Tennessee Tech University
FA: Seyed Hashemi West Virginia University (Tennessee) SBC: Genevieve Timmermann
FA: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: TBD (Mid-Atlantic) FA: TBD Cleveland State University
FA: Christopher Griffin SBC: TBD (Northern Ohio)
George Washington University Southern New Hampshire University SBC: Zachary Halterman
(New England) Tuskegee University FA: Nicole Strah
(National Capital) SBC: Zach Allen
FA: Peng Wei FA: Xinyun Guo Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Greater Huntsville)
SBC: Joshua Groover SBC: Rasheed Blake (New England) FA: Mohammad Khan Illinois Institute of Technology
FA: John Blandino SBC: Stefon Harris (Illinois)
Hofstra University Stevens Institute of Technology SBC: Krystina Waters
(Northern New Jersey) University of Alabama at Birmingham FA: Boris Pervan
(Long Island)
FA: Siva Thangam Yale University (Greater Huntsville) SBC: Zoey Krevitz
FA: John Vaccaro
SBC: TBD SBC: Amir Choudhury (Connecticut) FA: Roy Koomullil Indiana University-Purdue University
FA: Mitchell Smooke SBC: Jordan Fuse Indianapolis (Indiana)
Howard University Stony Brook University SBC: Rowan Palmer
(Long Island) University of Alabama-Huntsville FA: Hamid Dalir
(National Capital)
FA: Sotirios Mamalis (Greater Huntsville) SBC: TBD
FA: Nadir Yilmaz
SBC: Paa Sey SBC: Le Si Qu
REGION II FA: D Brian Landrum
SBC: Jacob Clark
Kettering University (Michigan)
FA: TBD
Johns Hopkins University SUNY/Buffalo
(Niagara Frontier) Alabama A&M University University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa SBC: TBD
(Mid-Atlantic)
FA: Paul Schifferle (Greater Huntsville) (Greater Huntsville)
FA: TBD FA: TBD Lawrence Technological Unversity
SBC: TBD SBC: Michael Berger FA: Weihua Su (Michigan)
SBC: TBD SBC: Abby Feeder
Syracuse University FA: Andrew Gerhart
Lehigh University
(Northeastern New York) Athens State University University of Central Florida SBC: Rose Gebara
(Greater Philadelphia)
FA: John Dannenhoffer (Greater Huntsville) (Central Florida)
FA: Terry Hart
FA: J Wayne McCain Michigan State University (Michigan)
SBC: Michael DeMasi SBC: Paul Mokotoff FA: Seetha Raghavan FA: Patton Allison
FA: Michelle Allen SBC: Emma Turner SBC: Douglas Heine

56 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

Miami University (Dayton/Cincinnati) University of Kentucky-Lexington Oklahoma State University University of Texas-Austin University of Colorado-Colorado Springs
FA: James Van Kuren (Dayton/Cincinnati) (Oklahoma) (Southwest Texas) (Rocky Mountain)
SBC: Nick Toll FA: Alexandre Martin FA: Andrew Arena FA: Renato Zanetti FA: Lynnane George
SBC: Michael McKinney SBC: Alex Greenfeather SBC: TBD SBC: Natalie Dilts
Milwaukee School of Engineering
(Wisconsin) University of Kentucky-Paducah Rice University (Houston) University of Iowa
(Dayton/Cincinnati)
FA: William Farrow
SBC: Nicholas Hahn FA: Sergiy Markutsya
FA: Andrew Meade
SBC: Wyatt Crider REGION V (Iowa)
FA: Kamran Samani
SBC: Lexi Parks Colorado School of Mines SBC: AJ Schmitt
Ohio Northern University Texas A&M University (Houston)
(Rocky Mountain)
(Dayton/Cincinnati) University of Michigan at Ann Arbor FA: Gregory Chamitoff University of Kansas
FA: Angel Abbud-Madrid
FA: Jed Marquart (Michigan) SBC: Matthew Elmer (Wichita)
SBC: Claire Thomas
SBC: Anthony Bothe FA: Benjamin Jorns FA: Ronald Barrett-Gonzalez
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California
SBC: James Stieber Colorado State University SBC: Ethan Wissmann
Ohio State University (Dayton/Cincinnati) (Houston)
(Rocky Mountain)
FA: Ali Jhemi University of Notre Dame FA: Juan Antonio Paz University of Minnesota
FA: Xinfeng Gao
SBC: Tony Kuenzli (Indiana) SBC: Christian Sanchez (Twin Cities)
SBC: Brennan O’Connor
FA: Thomas Juliano FA: Yohannes Ketema
Ohio University (Dayton/Cincinnati) Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua
SBC: Michael Rogers Iowa State University SBC: Campbell Dunham
FA: Dennis Irwin (Houston)
(Iowa)
SBC: Elijah Couchman University of Wisconsin-Madison FA: Carlos Sanchez University of Missouri-Columbia
FA: Anupam Sharma
(Wisconsin) SBC: Fernando Fernandez (St. Louis)
Purdue University (Indiana) SBC: Andrew Townsend
FA: Matthew Allen FA: Craig Kluever
FA: Li Qiao University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
SBC: Sam Jaeger Kansas State University SBC: Kendall Feist
SBC: Zach Marshall (Oklahoma)
(Wichita)
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee FA: Po-Hao Huang University of Missouri-Kansas City
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology FA: TBD
(Wisconsin) SBC: Andrew Overton (Wichita)
(Indiana) SBC: TBD
FA: Ryoichi Amano FA: Travis Fields
FA: Calvin Lui University of Houston (Houston)
SBC: Abdel Rahman Salem Metropolitan State University of Denver SBC: Shawn Herrington
SBC: Taylor Lueking FA: Edgar Bering
(Rocky Mountain)
Western Michigan University SBC: Kelly Graham University of North Dakota
Trine University (Indiana) FA: Randall Owen
(Michigan) (Twin Cities)
FA: James Canino University of New Mexico SBC: Jonathan Swavely
FA: Peter Gustafson FA: TBD
SBC: Ismar Chew (Albuquerque)
SBC: Ethan Reid Missouri University of Science and SBC: TBD
FA: Svetlana Poroseva
University of Akron Technology (St. Louis)
Wright State University SBC: Jeremy Holder University of Wyoming
(Northern Ohio) FA: Kakkattukuzhy Isaac
(Dayton/Cincinnati) (Rocky Mountain)
FA: Alexander Povitsky University of Oklahoma SBC: Rory Margherio
FA: Mitchell Wolff FA: TBD
SBC: Matthew Ripple (Oklahoma)
SBC: Hunter Gilliland North Dakota State University SBC: TBD
FA: Thomas Hays
University of Cincinnati (Twin Cities)
Youngstown State University SBC: Alexandria Caudill Washingtion University in St. Louis
(Dayton/Cincinnati) FA: Yildirim Suzen
(Northern Ohio) (St. Louis)
FA: Bryan Brown University of Texas at Dallas SBC: TBD
FA: Kevin Disotell FA: Swami Karunamoorthy
SBC: Matthew Ha (North Texas)
SBC: TBD Saint Louis University SBC: Jonathan Richter
FA: Arif Malik
University of Dayton (St. Louis)
SBC: Rohit Gattamaraju Wichita State University
(Dayton/Cincinnati) FA: Michael Swartwout
FA: Sidaard Gunasekaran REGION IV University of Texas at San Antonio SBC: Samantha Carlowicz
(Wichita)
FA: Linda Kliment
SBC: Scott Chriss (Southwest Texas)
Lamar University (Houston) United States Air Force Academy SBC: Colton Wagner
FA: Christopher Combs
University of Illinois at Chicago FA: Kendrick Aung (Rocky Mountain)
SBC: Austin Rendon
(Illinois) SBC: Mason Munoz FA: Barrett McCann
FA: Kenneth Brezinsky
New Mexico Institute of Mining and
University of Texas El Paso SBC: TBD REGION VI
SBC: Christopher Dantis (White Sands)
Technology (Albuquerque) University of Colorado-Boulder Arizona State University
FA: Jack Chessa
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign FA: Mostafa Hassanalian
SBC: Rene Aguilar (Rocky Mountain) (Phoenix)
(Illinois) SBC: Savannah Bradley FA: Donna Gerren FA: Timothy Takahashi
FA: Laura Villafañe Roca University of Texas-Arlington SBC: James Guthrie SBC: Ryley Miller
New Mexico State University
SBC: Ari Jain (North Texas)
(White Sands)
FA: Zhen-Xue Han
FA: Andreas Gross
SBC: Michael Ibanez
SBC: Ian Ruacho

Nominate Your Peers and Colleagues!

NOW ACCEPTING AWARDS AND LECTURESHIPS NOMINATIONS

PREMIER AWARD
› Daniel Guggenheim Medal

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS

› Aerospace Power Systems Award › Space Automation & Robotics Award
› Air Breathing Propulsion Award › Space Operations & Support Award
› Energy Systems Award › Space Systems Award
› Haley Space Flight Award › von Braun Award for Excellence in
› Hypersonic Systems and Space Program Management
Technologies Award › Wyld Propulsion Award
› Propellants & Combustion Award

LECTURESHIPS
› Dryden Lecture in Research
› Durand Lecture for Public Service

Please submit the four-page nomination form and

endorsement letters to awards@aiaa.org by 1 February 2021

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards Program and a
complete listing of all the AIAA awards, please visit aiaa.org/HonorsAndAwards.

21-0011 - AD Feb 1 2021 Award Deadline AA dec2020-Jan2021.indd 1 11/20/20 8:49 AM

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 57

AIA A BULLETIN | AIA A NEWS AND EVENTS

Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus Oregon State University University of California/San Diego Emirates Aviation College Northwestern Polytechnical University
(Phoenix) (Pacific Northwest) (San Diego) FA: TBD FA: Zhicun Yang
FA: TBD FA: Roberto Albertani FA: Mark Anderson SBC: TBD SBC: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: Adam Ragle SBC: Brenda Williamson Queen’s University Belfast
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering
Boise State University Portland State University University of Idaho (Pacific Northwest) Sciences and Technology FA: TBD
(Pacific Northwest) (Pacific Northwest) FA: TBD FA: Khalid Rahman SBC: TBD
FA: TBD FA: Andrew Greenberg SBC: TBD SBC: TBD Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
SBC: TBD SBC: Jim Foley FA: Cees Bil
University of Nevada/Las Vegas Hindustan University SBC: Nick Vrazas
Brigham Young University San Diego State University (Los Angeles-Las Vegas) FA: TBD
(Utah) (San Diego) FA: William Culbreth SBC: TBD Technion Institute of Technology
FA: Andrew Ning FA: Allen Plotkin SBC: Jet Baroudi FA: TBD
SBC: Jon Rice SBC: Diego Chavez Hong Kong University of Science & SBC: TBD
University of Nevada-Reno Technology
United Arab Emirates University
California Institute of Technology San Jose State University (Sacramento) FA: Larry Li FA: Emad Eldeen Jamil Elnajjar
(San Gabriel Valley) (San Francisco) FA: Jeffrey LaCombe SBC: Marco Clark SBC: TBD
FA: Soon-Jo Chung FA: Periklis Papadopoulos SBC: Kevin Watson
SBC: Luis Pabon Madrid SBC: Fernando Ferreira-Velaquez Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur University of Adelaide/Australia
University of Southern California FA: TBD (Adelaide)
California Polytechnic State University- Santa Clara University (Los Angeles-Las Vegas) SBC: TBD FA: Rey Chin
Pomona (San Gabriel Valley) (San Francisco) FA: Geoffrey Spedding SBC: Natalie Hayman
FA: Subodh Bhandari FA: Christopher Kitts SBC: Randi Arteaga Institute of Space Technology/Pakistan
FA: Abid Khan Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana
SBC: Nathan Watje SBC: Karla Raigoza FA: TBD
University of Utah (Utah) FA: Shuja Rehman
California Polytechnic State University-San Stanford University FA: TBD SBC: Muhammad Farhan SBC: TBD
Luis Obispo (Vandenberg) (San Francisco) SBC: TBD Universidad de San Buenaventura
SBC: Aaron Drake FA: Stephen Rock Istanbul Technical University
FA: TBD
SBC: Nicole Bartal SBC: Racheal Erhard University of Washington at Seattle FA: TBD SBC: TBD
(Pacific Northwest) SBC: TBD
California State University, Fresno University of Alaska-Fairbanks FA: Behcet Acikmese Universita di Naples Federico II
(Antelope Valley) (Pacific Northwest) SBC: Athil George Khalifa University of Science Technology FA: Francesco Marulo
FA: Deify Law FA: Michael Hatfield and Research SBC: TBD
SBC: Kyle Sweeney SBC: Zachary Barnes Utah State University (Utah) FA: Ashraf Al-khateeb
FA: Stephen Whitmore SBC: Nouf Al Suwaidi Universita di Roma - La Sapienza
FA: Giuliano Coppotelli
California State University-Fullerton University of Arizona at Tucson SBC: Daniel Falslev SBC: Alessandro Cervelli
(Orange County) (Tucson) Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
FA: Salvador Mayoral FA: Jekan Thangavelautham Washington State University Technology (KAIST) University of Canterbury
SBC: TBD SBC: Matthew Banko (Pacific Northwest) FA: Jiyun Lee FA: Dan Zhao
FA: Colin Merriman SBC: You Hwankyun SBC: Sam Walls
California State University-Long Beach University of California/Berkeley SBC: Roman Sanelli
(Los Angeles-Las Vegas) (San Francisco) Middle East Technical University University of New South Wales (Sydney)
Weber State University (Utah) FA: TBD FA: Danielle Moreau
FA: Eun Jung Chae FA: George Anwar SBC: Muhammad Arfin
SBC: Ian Clavio SBC: Parker Trautwein FA: TBD SBC: TBD
SBC: TBD University of Palermo
California State University-Northridge University of California/Davis MLR Institute of Technoloy
FA: TBD FA: TBD
(San Fernando Pacific) (Sacramento) SBC: TBD
FA: Peter Bishay FA: Case Van Dam SBC: TBD
REGION VII
SBC: Luis Ferrusquilla SBC: Balram Kandoria University of Queensland
Monash University FA: TBD
Beihang University
California State University-Sacramento University of California/Irvine FA: Daniel Edgington-Mitchell SBC: TBD
FA: Zhiqiang Wan
(Sacramento) (Orange County) SBC: Sweta Balakrishna
SBC: TBD Universität Stuttgart
FA: Ilhan Tuzcu FA: Haitham Taha Moscow Aviation Institute FA: TBD
SBC: TBD SBC: Grant Tsuji British University of Egypt
FA: TBD SBC: TBD
FA: Talat Refai
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ-Prescott University of California/Los Angeles SBC: TBD
SBC: TBD University of Sydney (Sydney)
(Phoenix) (Los Angeles-Las Vegas) Nagoya University FA: Gareth Vio
FA: David Lanning FA: Jeff Eldredge Cairo University SBC: Cole Scott-Curwood
FA: TBD
SBC: Elizabeth Mitchell SBC: Oliver Lam FA: Osama Saaid Mohammady
SBC: TBD Von Karman Institute of Fluid Dynamics
SBC: TBD
Northern Arizona University (Phoenix) University of California/Merced Nanjing University of Aeronautics and FA: TBD
FA: TBD (Sacramento) Chulalongkorn University SBC: TBD
Astronautics
SBC: TBD FA: Yang Quan Chen FA: Joshua Staubs
FA: TBD
SBC: Tomny Hang SBC: Supakorn Suttiruang
SBC: TBD

NOMINATIONS NOW
BEING ACCEPTED
The Daniel Guggenheim Medal is as an international award for the purpose
of honoring an individual who makes notable achievements in advancing the
safety and practicality of aviation. The Medal recognizes contributions to
aeronautical research and education, the development of commercial aircraft
and equipment, and the application of aircraft to the economic and social
activities of the nation.

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

For more information and for nomination forms,
please visit guggenheimmedal.org

21-0009-2021
58 | Guggenheim
JAN UARY Medal
2021AD for Dec2020
| and Jan 2021 AA.indd 1
aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org 11/19/20 2:30 PM
REGIONS & SECTIONS

Alaska

Yukon Teritory

Nunavut
Northwest Territories
Newfoundland and Labrador

British Columbia
Quebec

Alberta Manitoba
Prince Edward Island
New Brunswick

Saskatchewan

Ontario Nova Scotia

I Northeastern NY
New England
Pacitic Northwest Niagra Connecticut
Frontier
Twin Long Island
Sacaramento Cities Wisconsin
Michigan

V
Central PA Northern NJ
San Francisco Greater Philadelphia
Northern Ohio
Iowa

VI
Point Lobos Dayton- Southern NJ
Illinois Indiana Cincinnati

III
Mid- Delaware
China Lake Atlantic
Utah National Capital
Antelope Valley Rocky
Mountain Hampton Roads
Wichita St. Louis
Vandenberg Tennessee
Carolina

II
San Fernando Pacific Oklahoma
Albuquerque
Phoenix Atlanta
San Gabriel Valley Savannah
North Texas Greater

IV
Huntsville Central Florida
Tucson
Los Angeles/Las Vegaas
San Diego Cape Canaveral

Orange County Palm Beach

Hawaii Northwest
Southwest Houston Florida
White Sands Texas Greater New
Orleans
Mexico

Also part of Region II

(no section)
Puerto Rico
U.S. Virgin Islands

International

VII
VII
REGION I
REGION II
REGION III
REGION IV
REGION V
Sections (Australia)
REGION VI

Sydney REGION VII

Adelaide

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 59

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Multiple Open Rank AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Tenure-Track Faculty Positions AND MECHANICS
College of Science and Engineering
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University invites applications
for multiple open rank tenure-track faculty positions (Assistant, Associate or Full UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Professor). Applications are invited in all areas related to aerospace engineering.
Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply with expertise in: aerodynamics and
propulsion; computational fluid dynamics; flight dynamics; and space systems and The Department of Aerospace Engineering
payloads. Candidates will be expected to fully contribute to the department’s mission and Mechanics(AEM) seeks to fill a
through (i) the development of a strong, nationally recognized, funded research tenure-track faculty position in the area
program, (ii) teaching aerospace engineering related courses at both the undergraduate of experimental fluid dynamics or
and graduate level, and (iii) professional service. Successful candidates will have a experimental solid mechanics.
demonstrated track record of scholarship, a creative vision for research, an active AEM (https://cse.umn.edu/aem) has
interest in engineering education, and strong communication skills. For applications vibrant and active research programs in
at the rank of Associate or Full Professor, an emphasis will be placed on the strength all areas of aerospace engineering and
and caliber of the candidate’s existing research program and the candidate’s ability mechanics, including fluid dynamics,
and desire to provide mentorship and leadership to a young, enthusiastic, and hypersonics, aerospace systems,
rapidly growing department. Candidates must have an earned Ph.D. in aerospace, computational mechanics and
mechanical engineering, or a closely related field at the time of employment. aerospace structures and materials.
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Auburn University is in the midst of Applicants for the position must have an
unprecedented growth with undergraduate enrollment increasing by over 50% in last earned doctorate in a related field by the
six years to 535 students. This growth has been complemented by aggressive faculty date of appointment. The successful
hiring with the department now consisting of four full professors, one associate professor, candidate is expected to have the potential
eight assistant professors and two lecturers. Our current focus is on the development to conduct a vigorous and significant
of world-class research programs and growth of the graduate student body from its research program and the ability to
current size of 72 students to a goal number of over 100 graduate students within the collaborate with researchers with a wide
next five years. The department is part of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, range of viewpoints. This candidate
which has a total enrollment of over 6,500 students and is home to several nationally will participate in all aspects of the
recognized research centers, which among others would include National Center Department’s mission, including (I)
for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME), Center for Polymer, Advanced teaching undergraduate and graduate
Composites (CPAC), Center for Advanced Vehicle and Extreme Environment courses to a diverse group of students in
Electronics (CAVE3), Auburn University Small Satellite Program, and Cyber Research aerospace engineering and mechanics;
Center. Auburn University’s proximity to the aerospace, defense, and government (II) participating in service activities for
enterprises located from Huntsville, AL down to the Florida Space Coast presents the department, university, broader sci-
a unique opportunity for the department to emerge from this growth phase as entific community, and society; and (III)
one of the premier aerospace engineering departments in the country. Additional supervising undergraduate and graduate
information about the department may be found at: www.eng.auburn.edu/aero/. students and developing an independent,
Auburn University. (www.auburn.edu/) is one of the nation’s premier public land- externally-funded, research program.
grant institutions. In 2020, the college of engineering was ranked 29th among public The intent is to hire at the assistant
universities by U.S. News and World Report. Auburn maintains high levels of professor rank. However, exceptional
research activity and high standards for teaching excellence, offering Bachelor’s, applicants may be considered for higher
Master’s, Educational Specialist, and Doctor’s degrees in engineering and agriculture, rank and tenure depending upon experi-
the professions, and the arts and sciences. Its 2020 enrollment of 30,737 students ence and qualifications. It is anticipated
includes 24,505 undergraduates and 6,232 graduate and professional students. that the appointment will begin fall 2021.
Organized into twelve academic colleges and schools, Auburn’s 1,450 faculty
members offer more than 200 educational programs. The University is nationally AEM is committed to the goal of achieving
recognized for its commitment to academic excellence, its positive work a diverse faculty as a way to maximize
environment, its student engagement, and its beautiful campus. Auburn (https:// the impact of its teaching and research
www.auburnalabama.org) residents enjoy a thriving community, recognized as mission. To learn more about UMN equity
one of the “best small towns in America,” with moderate climate and easy access and diversity visit diversity.umn.edu.
to major cities or to beach and mountain recreational facilities. Situated along Apply on-line through Interfolio at:
the rapidly developing I-85 corridor between Atlanta, Georgia, and Montgomery, http://apply.interfolio.com/80465
Alabama, the combined Auburn-Opelika-Columbus statistical area has a population
Required attachments: 1) cover letter, 2)
of over 500,000, with excellent public school systems and regional medical centers.
detailed resume, 3) names and contact
Candidates should log in and submit a cover letter, CV, research vision, teaching information of three references, 4) a
philosophy, statement on diversity, equity and inclusion, and three references at www. statement of teaching interests, and, 5)
auemployment.com/postings/19572. Cover letters may be addressed to: Dr. Brian a statement of research interests. The
Thurow, Search Committee Chair, 211 Davis Hall, Auburn University, AL 36849. To teaching and research statements should
ensure full consideration, candidates are encouraged to apply before December 1, 2020 include prior or proposed contributions
although applications will be accepted until the positions are filled. The successful to diversity, equity and inclusion.
candidate must meet eligibility requirements to work in the U.S. at the time the
Application Deadline: Review of appli-
appointment begins and continue working legally for the proposed term of employment.
cations will begin on December 1, 2020;
Auburn University is understanding of and sensitive to the family needs of faculty, applications will be accepted until the
including career couples. See “Guidelines for Dual Career Services” www.auburn. position is filled.
edu/academic/provost/policies-guidelines/#guidelines
The University of Minnesota is an equal
Auburn University is an EEO/Vet/Disability Employer opportunity educator and employer.

60 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

 JAHNIVERSE
Faculty Position in Aerospace Engineering
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 66
Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901
This is where big data has a role. Let’s assume
The Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences at the Florida Institute of that the information content is zero for what we wish
Technology invites applications for a full-time faculty positions in Aerospace Engineering
with an expected start date of August 2021. The appointment will be tenure-track, at the to know in any specific source of data. However, by
Assistant Professor rank. We are interested in candidates who are committed to teaching creating a big data problem, aggregating massive
at both the undergraduate and graduate levels while conducting cutting edge, externally
quantities of disparate sources of data, we can create
funded research in one or more of the following areas: controls, flight dynamics, and system
design of spacecraft. Applicants shall demonstrate a strong research background and plans an opportunity for ourselves to discover something
for externally funded research in one of these fields. Candidates are required to hold a that is only measured in the mutual information of
Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering or a closely related field.
this multiple-source data set. For example, I may
Information about the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences and the
have lots of data about solar flux activity, a separate
College of Engineering and Science can be found at http://floridatech.edu/apss/. We are
at the heart of the vibrant aerospace community on the U.S. Space Coast and nestled in set of data on satellite locations in multiple orbital
an area of outstanding natural beauty. Melbourne enjoys a low cost of living, is served by regions, a separate set of data on hardware that some
the Orlando-Melbourne International Airport, and is consistently ranked as one of the best
places to live in the U.S. of these satellites may be equipped with, and finally a
separate set of data on satellite failures or anomalies.
To apply, send a single PDF document to apss-search@fit.edu containing a cover letter,
CV, a statement of research experience and interests, a statement of teaching experience By aggregating and curating this multisource data set,
and philosophy, and contact information for at least three references. Strong candidates my question might be, “is there a causal relationship
will articulate a significant collaborative research program that meets the mission of the
department. Positions will be open until filled, but applications received by January 31st between space environment phenomena and satel-
will be given full consideration. lite hardware loss, disruption or degradation?” No
Florida Tech is an equal opportunity employer. The department is building a diverse faculty single source of these data can answer this question
committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. Women, minorities, because the answer is only contained in the mutual
individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply.
information content of this multisource data set.
For further information, contact:
Linking these disparate data sets transforms an
Dr. David Fleming, Head of Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences unknown unknown to an unknown known. Asking
dfleming@fit.edu
a relevant question of this mutual information found
in the multisource data set enables me to transform
this unknown known to a known known.
In order to realistically create this mutual in-
formation landscape that is exploitable, I need to
Aerospace Engineering,
perform data engineering, modeling and curation.
University of Kansas
In essence, I need to develop and maintain a digital
The University of Kansas Aerospace Engineering Department invites applications for a library along with a data dictionary that describes
tenure track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the area of aerospace
these data, defines their meaning, orients them in
air-breathing or air-cooled propulsion. The Aerospace Engineering Department is seeking
to expand in the area of aerospace propulsion including but not limited to gas-turbine their proper scales and frames of reference, and
engines, turbomachinery, hybrid electrics, hydrogen fuel cells, hypersonics, technologies makes this semantically and even scientifically
to improve fuel efficiency, propulsion systems for unmanned aerial systems and advanced
air mobility systems, environmentally friendly propulsion, or related areas. The ideal consistent to be meaningfully queried. A user should
candidate will have experience and interest in both teaching and research aspects of be empowered to query this aggregated data and
aerospace propulsion system design and development. receive knowledge as a consequence. The goal must
Applications are sought from candidates with earned doctorates in Aerospace Engineering, be successful decision intelligence, which is the
Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field in Engineering by the time of appointment.
Candidates should demonstrate a sustained commitment to excellence in undergraduate ability to understand, use and manage information
and graduate teaching, scholarly research, local and international service, departmental in such a way that leads to desired outcomes.
and student advising. The successful candidate will be results-oriented, have a record We don’t have that capability, at least in the U.S.
of superior scholarship, have a promising vision for externally funded research, have
experience in externally funded research, develop or maintain an externally funded space community, because of a misperception. Most
research program, and teach high-quality courses at both the undergraduate and graduate people confuse having lots of data to curate and man-
levels. The department values diversity in pedagogy, in the curriculum, in outreach to
age with having a “big data” problem, which is the
students, and in research. In a continuing effort to enrich its academic environment
and provide equal educational and employment opportunities, the university actively challenge of fusing lots of data from disparate sources.
encourages applications from members of underrepresented groups in higher education. Once a big data process is established for the
Review of complete applications will begin on February 1, 2021 and continue until the space domain, satellite operators and legislators
position is filled. The successful candidate must receive valid U.S. work authorization
would have the knowledge required to satisfy the
prior to the specified start date, August 18, 2021. Salary is commensurate with experience.
plethora of space safety, security and sustainability
For additional information or to apply, go to https://employment.ku.edu/academic/18145BR.
Applications should include a cover letter, complete curriculum vitae, a vision statement needs and demands for space activities. Unknown
for research interests and plans, a statement of teaching philosophy and plans including unknowns will be turned into unknown knowns
efforts to diversify the field of engineering, and contact information for three professional
references KU is an EO/AAE, full policy at http://policy.ku.edu/IOA/nondiscrimination.
through data aggregation and fusion, and then into
known knowns. Until then, I shall continue to be a
decision intelligence evangelist. ★

JAN UARY 2021 | 61

100, 75, 50, 25 YEARS AGO IN JANUARY

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

1921
1
Jan. 21 Noted aviation pio-
1946
Jan. 10 A U.S. Army Sikorsky
1971
Jan. 1 Two galaxies are discov-
Jan. 25-26 The Intelsat-IV F-2
communications satellite is
launched by NASA for Com-
neer Gianni Caproni launch- R-5 sets an unofficial world ered, according to the Astro- munications Satellite Corp.,
es the first aircraft to feature helicopter record by climbing physical Journal. Maffei 1 and on behalf of Intelsat, on an At-
three sets of triplane wings, the to 21,000 feet from the Sikorsky Maffei 2, named after their dis- las-Centaur booster from Cape
massive Ca.60. It is also the first plant in Stratford, Connecticut. coverer, the Italian astronomer Canaveral, Florida. The satellite
aircraft designed to carry 150 E.M. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and Paolo Maffei, are about 3 million is the first in the Intelsat-IV
passengers. The Ca.60 lifts off Astronautics, 1915-60, p. 52. light years from Earth. In 1968, series and the largest commer-
from the surface of Lake Mag- Maffei had observed two strange cial communications satellite
giore in Italy under the power of Jan. 16 The U.S. upper atmo- objects on an infrared photo of launched to date, at 5.4 meters
eight 400-horsepower Liberty spheric research program, using a region between constellations high, 2.3 meters in diameter
engines. On the second flight, in captured V-2 rockets, is initiated. Perseius and Cassiopeia and that and weighing 1,397 kilograms
March, the aircraft will sink into A V-2 panel of interested agen- had been previously obscured at launch. It has 12 responders,
the lake. David Baker, Flight and cies is created, and more than by interstellar dust. A team of providing a dozen TV channels
Flying: A Chronology, p. 137. 60 V-2s are fired at the Army’s astronomers of the University of and 3,000 to 9,000 telephone
White Sands Proving Range in California at Berkeley, Caltech circuits and is capable of mul-
Jan. 27 The British R.34 New Mexico before the supply and the Carnegie Institution tiple-access and simultaneous
2 airship is destroyed when runs out. As a result of the confirmed the discovery with transmissions. Astronautics and
it flies into a hill in Yorkshire program, the Applied Physics tools including the Mount Astronautics, 1971, p. 14.
under foggy conditions. While Laboratory of Johns Hopkins Palomar and Lick Observatory
attempts are made to save the University develops a medi- telescopes, according to the re- Jan. 26 Sen. Edward
ship, the damage is irreparable. um-altitude research rocket, port in the journal. Astrophysical
5 Kennedy of Massachusetts
The R.34 made history when it the Aerobee, while the Naval Journal, Jan. 1, 1971. introduces a bill in the Senate to
crossed the Atlantic nonstop in Research Laboratory develops a authorize the National Park Ser-
both directions in 1919. David large, high-altitude rocket called Jan. 23 Lovell Lawrence Jr. vice’s acquisition of the historic
Baker, Flight and Flying: A the Neptune (later renamed
4 dies at age 55. He was one site at Auburn, Massachusetts,
Chronology, p. 137. the Viking). E.M. Emme, ed., of the four founders and the first where Robert H. Goddard (in
Aeronautics and Astronautics, president of Reaction Motors photo) launched the world’s
Jan. 28 Robert H. Goddard 1915-60, p. 53. Inc., or RMI, the United States’ first liquid-propellant rocket on
visits the Linde Air Products Co., first liquid-propellant rocket March 16, 1926. Astronautics and
manufacturer of liquid oxygen, Jan. 19 Bell Aircraft test engine company. James H. Wyld, Astronautics, 1971, p. 17.
to obtain a sample, marking his
3 pilot Jack Woolams makes well known for his development
transition from experimenting the first unpowered glide flight of the Wyld regeneratively Jan. 27 The National Religious
with solid fuel to liquid fuel in of the Army Air Forces-NACA cooled rocket motor, John Shes- Broadcasters association at its
rocket development. The liquid Bell XS-1 rocket research airplane ta, Hugh F. Pierce and Lawrence annual convention in Wash-
oxygen, now commonly called at Pinecastle Army Air Base in formed RMI in December 1941, ington, D.C., beams its closing
“lox,” is to be his oxidizer, the Florida. A Boeing B-29 Superfor- two weeks after Pearl Harbor program around the world in
substance in which the fuel tress carries and drops the craft. was bombed. All were members the first international religious
burns. Goddard chooses gaso- Woolams, a noted racing and of the American Rocket Soci- broadcast transmitted live by
line as his fuel since it is cheap test pilot, reports that the new ety, the predecessor of AIAA. satellite, New York Times, Jan.
and readily available, and in experimental aircraft has surpris- Although a small company, 28, 1971, p. 1.
1926, he uses these propellants ingly well-coordinated controls RMI developed and built the
to launch the first liquid fuel and flies well without power. 6000C-4 engine that powered Jan. 31-Feb. 9 NASA’s
rocket. Esther C. Goddard and E.M. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and the Bell X-1 that achieved the
6 Apollo 14 mission carrying
G. Edward Pendray, eds., The Astronautics, 1915-60, p. 53. first supersonic flight in 1947. astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart
Papers of Robert H. Goddard, New York Times, Jan. 25, 1971, p. Roosa and Edgar Mitchell is
Vol. I, p. 460. Jan. 26 A coast-to-coast speed 39; Frank H. Winter, America’s launched on a Saturn V rocket.
record is set when a Lockheed First Rocket Company: Reaction Shepard and Mitchell land on
P-80 Shooting Star jet fight- Motors, Inc., passim. the moon’s Fra Mauro region
er is flown from Long Beach, in the lunar highlands. During
California, to La Guardia Field, two walks on the surface, they
New York, in 4 hours, 13 minutes, collect 42.8 kilograms of moon
at an average speed of 939 kph rocks and deploy scientific ex-
(584 mph). The Aeroplane, Feb. periments. New York Times, Feb.
1, 1946, p. 124. 1-10, 1971.

62 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

1996
Jan. 12 Space shuttle Endeavour
is launched from Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. Among the
six-man crew is Koichi Wakata
of Japan. One of Endeavour’s
missions is to retrieve the
Japanese Space Flying Unit
from orbit. The crew will test
new spacesuits that better
protect astronauts from the cold
1
during extended spacewalks.
As part of the mission, the crew
will operate the robotic arm
to retrieve the 1,100-kilogram
NASA Office of Aeronautics and
Space Technology Flyer satellite.
Endeavour returns to Earth on
Jan. 21. NASA, Astronautics and
Aeronautics: A Chronology,
1996-2000, p. 2.
2 3
Jan. 12 Measat-1, the first Malay-
sia East Asia Satellite, is orbited
by an Ariane 4 rocket from the
European Space Agency’s site in
French Guiana. Measat-1 is used
by the government of Malaysia
to control news broadcasts in
that country. The spin-stabilized
1,500-kilogram communication
satellite was built by Hughes.
Aviation Week, Jan. 22, 1996,
p. 56.

Jan. 30 NASA and the Russian

Space Agency announce they
have agreed to extend their
shuttle and Mir collaboration
until 1998. This will help the Unit-
ed States and Russia maintain
the Mir space station, which it is
hoped will lead to the comple-
tion of the International Space
Station. The first node of the
ISS from NASA is scheduled for 4 5
launch in December 1997. NASA,
NASA
Astronautics and Aeronautics: A
Chronology, 1996-2000, p. 4.

The Apollo 14 crew, at front

from left, Ed Mitchell, Stuart
Roosa and Alan Shepard, look
at some of the lunar rocks they
brought back from the moon.
6

aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org | JAN UARY 2021 | 63

 S E
E R
I V
H N
J A

In space, finding the

facts we don’t know
we know
BY MORIBA JAH Moriba Jah is an
astrodynamicist, space

B
environmentalist and
ack in 2002, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously waxed bureaucratic at a associate professor of
Defense Department briefing: “As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we aerospace engineering and
engineering mechanics at
know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are
the University of Texas at
some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns. The ones we don’t know we Austin. He holds the Mrs.
don’t know.” Well, beyond a funny sound bite, Rumsfeld missed a major category: the Unknown Pearlie Dashiell Henderson
Knowns, which in his phraseology would be “things we do not know that we know.” Centennial Fellowship in
In order to know something, you have to measure it. So, interpret the first word in the pair as Engineering and is an AIAA
fellow. He also hosts the
what you are aware of and the last word in the pair as what you have measured. Therefore, a known
monthly webcast
known is something you are aware of that’s been measured. A known unknown is something you are “Moriba’s Vox Populi” on
aware of that has not been measured. The unknown unknown is something that can’t be known by SpaceWatch.global.
definition because you are unaware of it and you’ve not measured it. Again, anything that is not mea-
sured cannot be known. This leaves us with the unknown knowns, which are things we’ve measured
but just don’t know it. Unveiling these hidden knowns amounts to the holy grail of big data science
and analytics. Finding them requires fusing data from multiple sources to create and exploit what
data scientists call mutual information, meaning knowledge that can be divined only by combining
information housed in discrete data sets, thus bringing to our awareness things that we may have
unknowingly measured. View this as mapping from the unknown knowns to the known knowns.
Let’s take a brief step back and underscore the fact that data exists everywhere in the universe.
For example, we’re in an environment saturated by signals, radio and such. Just because we are not
aware of them doesn’t mean they’re not there. We don’t care about all data. There are specific things
we wish to know, and the thing that determines whether or not the data in our environment is rele-
vant to that is the question we ask of it. Once we pose a question, we can quantify the information
content in said data related to the thing we wish to know. It may indeed be zero.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 61

64 | JAN UARY 2021 | aerospaceamerica . aiaa .org

ONLINE COURSES
AIAA online short courses help you stay sharp while
strengthening your knowledge base. We’re committed
to assisting in your development and maximizing your
success. Enroll in an upcoming course.

2021 SPRING CATALOG

Design of Experiments: Improved
Experimental Methods in Aerospace Testing
26 February–16 April | 8 Lectures | 16 Total Hours

Fundamentals of Classical Astrodynamics

and Applications
4 March–22 April | 8 Lectures | 16 Total Hours

Hypersonics: Test and Evaluation

18 March–8 April | 4 Lectures | 8 Total Hours

Technical Writing Essentials for Engineers

24 March–14 April | 4 Lectures | 8 Total Hours

Design of Space Launch Vehicles

6 April–13 May | 12 Lectures | 24 Total Hours

Fundamentals of Data and Information Fusion

for Aerospace Systems
7–16 April | 4 Lectures | 8 Total Hours

Understanding Space: An Introduction

to Astronautics and Space
9, 16, and 23 April | 3 Immersive Days | 21 Total Hours

Fundamentals of Python Programming

with Libraries for Aerospace Engineers
13–29 April | 6 Lectures | 24 Total Hours

Missile Aerodynamics, Propulsion, and Guidance

14–30 April | 6 Lectures | 12 Total Hours

Can’t attend the live online lectures?

All courses will be available on demand.

FOR A FULL LIST OF COURSES VISIT

learning.aiaa.org
REGISTER FOR AIAA’S
Hypersonics: Test and Evaluation
ONLINE SHORT COURSE

OVERVIEW
AIAA’s new course will introduce the concept of hypersonic flight and describe
the critical physics encountered at this unique and formidable speed regime.
Gain an understanding of the system benefits and uses for this flight regime
and how system performance and evaluation through test can potentially
create difficulties for the tester, test facility developer, and project manager.

DETAILS
› Every Thursday, 18 March – 8 April 2021
› 1300–1500 hrs Eastern Time USA
› All sessions will be recorded and
available on demand
› Cost: $595 USD Members
$395 USD Student Members
$795 USD Nonmembers

ON-DEMAND COURSES

Hypersonic Flight Vehicle Hypersonic Air-Breathing

Design and Performance Analysis Propulsion
Learn how innovative component designs Explore the technologies required
and careful integration of the various for the successful development of
components can achieve an efficient propulsion systems for hypersonic
flight vehicle. missiles and hypersonic cruise aircraft.

REGISTER NOW
learning.aiaa.org