Cadet research helping NASA return shuttles to space

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) --  Academy research here is helping NASA shuttles return to space.

The shuttle program has been landlocked since the Feb. 1, 2003, loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

This academic year, the academy is assisting NASA’s return-to-flight program by using the skills of instructors and cadets to put a model of the space shuttle through its paces in the aeronautics department wind tunnels.

That research includes the impact of leading edge damage on the shuttle’s wings, said Cadet 2nd Class Matt Karmondy.

“The objective was to see if leading-edge damage would adversely affect lift, drag and stability of the shuttle after reentry,” he said. “It turned out certain damage configurations did raise some concern, and further investigation will be conducted to see if the shuttle has the capability to overcome stability issues caused by wing-leading edge damage.”

The research is being accomplished in the academy’s aeronautics research center. This 38,400 square-foot facility houses world-class experimental and computational facilities, including five wind tunnels, officials said. NASA provided a 1/60 scale model of the shuttle for use in the academy’s subsonic wind tunnel. This tunnel simulates speeds of 50 to 600 feet per second, officials said.

Last semester’s research started with a baseline evaluation of the shuttle model. Once the baseline data was collected, several different leading edges were fitted onto the model, officials said. These changes simulate damage at different locations, allowing researchers to evaluate the resulting changes in pitch, roll, yaw, stabilization and other aerodynamic characteristics of a damaged shuttle.

NASA officials are making a new wing for the model, said Dr. Thomas Yechout, aeronautics department professor and research adviser for the project.

“It will also have a variety of damage configurations along the left wing,” he said. “It differs from the first model wing since it will include a cavity inside the wings’ leading edge, with pressure taps . . . to measure pressure loads in the vicinity of the damaged structure.”

Those pressure changes inside the wing relate directly to the reason for the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, officials said.

Columbia Accident Investigation Board officials said the loss of the shuttle was caused by a piece of insulating foam that separated from the external tank seconds after launch and struck the left wing’s leading edge. Upon re-entry, this breach allowed superheated air to penetrate the leading edge insulation and progressively melt the aluminum structure of the wing. Columbia broke up at an altitude of 203,000 feet while traveling at Mach 18, just 15 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., killing all on board, officials said.

“This is an excellent program for the cadets to be involved in, providing very needed and necessary answers to real-world problems, and (providing) wonderful experience for our cadets to do hands-on research work that has a direct impact,” Dr. Yechout said.

“We’ve been involved with NASA, doing wind tunnel investigations, for the past 8 to 9 years,” Dr. Yechout said. “That research and support has evolved through various programs, from the X-38, to orbital space plane design configurations and most recently for (escape capsules) for the next-generation spacecraft.”

The return-to-flight research is one of about 300 undergraduate research projects currently under way at the academy.