Of the 81 students across the country receiving 2011 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships, 4 of them are from CU-Boulder. They will all be continuing toward completion of their master's or doctoral degrees, as well as performing research at NASA centers and various laboratories.
Kyle Berger is a graduate student and part of the Hrenya Research group of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The topic of research is entitled "Prediction of Regolith Ejection During Extraterrestrial Landings".
Regolith is a fine particulate layer that covers the Moon and other planetary body surfaces. Spacecraft exhaust gases eject these particulates at extreme speeds and distances when the craft lands. Predictions into the patterns of ejection of regolith have many advantageious applications, one of which is being able to avoid damage to equipment from the course material.
Daniel Vernon Guerrant is a graduate student in the Aerospace Engineering department. The research topic is entitled "Performance Quantification of Solar Sail Heliogyros for Planetary and Interplanetary Missions Using Multi-scale Dynamics and Control Analysis".
Spacecraft powered by solar sails do not require the use of any other propellant besides the energy output of the Sun. Continuous force of the solar power will increase the craft's speed higher than traditionally fueled crafts. With less weight to consider in transporting fuel, heliogyros can travel farther, at a more economic overall cost.
Erik Komendera is a computer science graduate student who's proposal is entitled "Autonomous Assembly of Structures in Space".
Research into efficiency of assembling structures in space has many benefits. One of which is the ability to assemble equipment at a more affordable level than human hands-on assembly, while at the same time, solving other efficiency issues.
Daan Stevenson is a graduate student of the Aerospace Engineering Sciences department at CU, in the field of Engineering and Applied Science. Stevenson's research proposal is entitled "Reduced Order Electrostatic Force Field Modeling of 3D Spacecraft Shapes".
Stevenson provided Examiner with an excerpt of his proposal as follows: "The Autonomous Vehicles Systems (AVS) Lab at CU-Boulder has been pursuing research in Coulomb charge control of spacecraft for several years ... As large space missions progress beyond Earth orbit and require more and more propellant to reach their destination, rendezvous with permanent refeuling stations may become necessary for mission success, and Coulomb charging is one option to achieve accurate docking. Moreover, to ensure external integrity, spacecraft may wish to deploy small cameras or other robotic devices that can optimally be controlled with Coulomb charging, but are too close to ignore 3D charge effects. Lastly, spacecraft can use electrostatic forces to deorbit space debris in an ever cluttered space environment and achieve improved Space Situational Awareness. Current and future formation flight missions that could benefit from Coulomb force control include PRISMA, NASA's proposed terrestrial planet finder and stellar imager concepts, and ESA's Darwin mission."
In a press release on July 27, 2011, Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, acknowledged, "These fellowships will develop America's technology leaders for tomorrow, leaders that will help us out-innovate, out-educate and out-build our competitors and maintain our leadership in space."
For a complete list of Fellowship receivers, go to http://go.usa.gov/BfN
attributions: NASA press release and Daan Stevenson
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