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AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 1
THE TELEMETRY Vol 2A, Issue 1 January 2016
CONNECT WITH AIAA
Newsletter of the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Upcoming Events ....................................................................................................... 2
Letter from the Chair ................................................................................................. 3
Letter from the Editor ................................................................................................ 3
From the Regional Director ....................................................................................... 4
Section Chair Road Trip to Student Branches ........................................................... 4
Giving Santa a Hand at MindGear Labs .................................................................... 5
Interview with a Member: Dr. Brian Thurow ............................................................ 6
Blast from the Past ..................................................................................................... 7
Book Review – Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers: A History of the AIAA… and
What Came Before ..................................................................................................... 8
Greater Huntsville Section Rallies Engineering Community to Watts for Tots ....... 10
November Luncheon Presentation “An Engineer at War” ....................................... 12
Pumpkin Blast .......................................................................................................... 14
Young Professionals Brunch .................................................................................... 15
Young Professionals Symposium in Fall of 2016 .................................................... 15
Region II Student Conference .................................................................................. 15
AIAA and Boeing to co-Host 2016 Huntsville Engineer’s Week Awards Banquet 16
2015 Energy Summit ............................................................................................... 16
The Mobile Chapter of the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section ................................. 16
Greater Huntsville Section AIAA Fellows of the Class of 2016.............................. 17
Robin Osborne Named 2016 AIAA Engineer of the Year ....................................... 17
Anthony Bartens Receives the Greater Huntsville Section Exceptional Service Award
................................................................................................................................. 17
Alabama Lt. Gov. Ivey Receives AIAA Public Service Award .............................. 18
Short Course: In-Space Electric Propulsion ............................................................. 18
Section Monthly Luncheons .................................................................................... 19
University of South Alabama Student Branch Receives Charter ............................. 19
UAH AIAA Branch News ....................................................................................... 20
Mississippi State AIAA Branch News ..................................................................... 20
Auburn University AIAA Branch News .................................................................. 21
Tuskegee University AIAA Branch News ............................................................... 21
Athens State AIAA and Florida Tech Students Listen to Virgo-A .......................... 22
Honors and Awards: Upcoming Nominations ........................................................ 23
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Council
Chair
Kurt Polzin
Vice-Chair, Programs
Brandon Stiltner
Secretary
Tammy Cottam
Treasurer
Darby Cooper
Membership
Roger Herdy
Education
Jesse Jones
Public Policy
Robert La Branche
Honors and Awards
Sheree Gay
Young Professionals &
Career Enhancement
Cody Crofford
Technical
John Lassiter
Pre-College Outreach
Megan Beattie
Supernumerary
Keith Koenig
Liaison to Student Branches
Neal Allgood
Immediate Past Chair
Ken Philippart
Region II Director
Mark Whorton
AIAA Staff Liaison
Chris Jessee
Webmaster
Arloe Mayne
E-mail Coordinator
Todd Honeycutt
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 2
The Telemetry January 2016
Upcoming Events
Feb 6 - AIAA Emeritus Member Ceremony for Earl Pearce at
Southern Museum of Flight
Feb 10 - Associate Fellow Nomination Prep Workshop
Feb 20 - Alabama Science Olympiad
Feb 21-27 - Engineer’s Week
Feb 22 - Short Course: Cryogenic Fluid Management
Feb 24 - Section Luncheon and Seminar: Lessons Learned
from Apollo
Feb 25 - AIAA and Boeing-sponsored DiscoverE E-week
Dinner
Feb 26 - Great Paper Airplane Contest
March 8-10 - AIAA Defense 2016
March 8-14 - North Alabama Regional Science and
Engineering Fair
March 9-10 - Aerospace States Association’s Aerospace Week
in Montgomery
March 16 - Congressional Visits Day, Washington, D.C.
March 18 - Basic Soldering Course
March 28 - Deep Dive Tour of MSFC
March 31-April 2 - Alabama Science and Engineering Fair
April 4-5 - AIAA Region II Student Conference
April 7-9 - NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge
April 13-17 - NASA Student Launch Challenge
April 15 - Associate Fellow Nominations Due
For more information about the Greater Huntsville Section, visit our
website from the link icon or email [email protected]. For
suggestions or tips for future issues of Telemetry, or to volunteer to help
work on the newsletter, contact the editor Gabe Xu ([email protected]).
Also, if you want to know what the Section is doing or just want to drop us
suggestions, you can follow us on Twitter @AIAAHuntsville or 'like' us on
Facebook at facebook.com/GreaterHSV.AIAA.
Telemetry is a quarterly publication of the Greater Huntsville Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Lead editor: Gabe Xu, Associate editors: Jayme Allgood, Kelly Burnham
Contributors in this issue: Kurt Polzin, Jayme Allgood, Neal Allgood, Kelly Burnham, Rodger Herdy, Arloe Mayne, Ken
Philippart, Cody Crofford, Bob Coke, Gus Bunoviri, Zaria Silva, Brandon Stiltner, Daniel Cavender, Robert La Branche, Erin
Walker, Brittani Searcy, Ashley Scharfenberg, J. Wayne McCain, Sheree Gay, Mark Whorton
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 3
The Telemetry January 2016
Letter from the Chair
We are well into the second
half of the Section year and our
events calendar is beginning to
get very crowded. Many of these
activities and events simply
cannot happen without the
dedicated support of our
members. In the next few
months, I would like to
encourage everyone to consider
lending their talents and expertise
to help the Section with at least
one of these events, to help in
making them very best events possible for the many
participants that count on our Section’s support.
I’m extremely pleased with our Section’s winning ways
as our members continue garnering national AIAA awards and
accolades. Two of our esteemed members advance to the
grade of Fellow of the AIAA: Steven Cook of Dynetics and
Mark Whorton of Teledyne Brown Engineering. For the
second year in a row, it gives us great pride to announce that a
member of the Section has been named AIAA Engineer of
the Year. The 2016 award will be presented to Robin
Osborne of ERC, Inc./Jacobs-ESSSA Group. Finally, we are
thrilled that the AIAA Public Service Award will be
presented to Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey for her public service
as a distinguished leader and stalwart supporter of the
aerospace industry and profession in Alabama and throughout
the nation. I want to congratulate all of our winners for
receiving these well-deserved accolades. I hope that others
will be inspired to submit nominations for the AIAA national
awards throughout the year. With the great depth of across-
the-board aerospace expertise in our Section, these are awards
that our members can, and should, win.
We have some extremely interesting content in this first
issue of the second year of the renewed Telemetry. The
interview with a member is again fascinating as is Arloe
Mayne’s very good book review of Rocketeers and Gentlemen
Engineers: A History of the AIAA… and What Came Before,
by Tom Crouch. The review not only covers the book itself,
but also Arloe’s personal thoughts and memories over the past
60+ years that he has been involved with AIAA and its
predecessor organizations.
Ken Philippart (Lt. Col., USAF, ret.) recaps his
November luncheon presentation “An Engineer at War,” in
which he discussed his time deployed to both Afghanistan and
Iraq while on active duty. The article provides a feel for what
life was like on the ground in both of those countries, much
more so than what we saw on television during that time
period.
Finally, Daniel Cavender tugs on our heartstrings with the
very wonderful story of the creation and immense success of
Watts for Tots, where engineers, family, and friends
throughout Huntsville have united over the past two years to
modify toys so that special needs children can actually play
with their Christmas toys. Over the past two years, Watts for
Tots has provided these modified toys to United Cerebral
Palsy (UCP) of Huntsville, which in turn has passed them
along to many of the special needs children with whom they
work. I personally like that word of this program is getting out
and occupational therapists throughout the country want to
learn how they can start their own Watts for Tots and do
something as special and meaningful as what is happening
right here in Huntsville, AL.
Kurt Polzin, Chair
Letter from the Editor
We’ve come full circle with this issue. In December 2014
I put out the call for articles for the first issue of the revived
Section newsletter, Telemetry, which was published a year ago
in January 2015. It was very well received and I thank all the
contributors over the last year who helped to make this
possible. It’s the contributors who go to the events and write
up the reports. I just shuffle papers, as it were.
For this year, please welcome Ms. Kelly Burnham as our
student associate editor. She is an aerospace engineering
student at Auburn University and will be helping to edit the
university contributions. Kelly was gracious enough to
conduct and write the “Interview with a Member” column for
this issue, featuring Dr. Brian Thurow of the Aerospace
Engineering Department at Auburn University. Dr. Thurow
was the 2015 winner of the Section’s Konrad Dannenberg
Educator of the Year award.
Also in this issue, Arloe Mayne, your intrepid webmaster
and unofficial photographer, has provided a review of
“Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers: A History of the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics… and
What Came Before,” an interesting book about the history of
the AIAA. I greatly enjoyed reading his review and synopsis
of the book (doing research by mail sounds painful, a big
thank you to the internet). I’d like to thank Arloe for sharing
his thoughts on the book with all of us.
The Watts for Tots activity was truly a joy to read about.
It’s a simple but concrete way to use our skills and experience
to improve the lives of someone else. I’d like to thank Daniel
for putting it together and sharing the inspiring story with us.
Hopefully this will spread the word and bring more help in the
future.
If you have suggestions or new ideas, please send them to
me at [email protected]. I would like to thank all the
contributors and editors who helped put this issue together. I
hope you enjoy this issue of Telemetry.
Gabe Xu, Editor
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 4
The Telemetry January 2016
From the Regional Director
If you’ve watched a debate,
seen the news, or spoken to
someone at the coffeepot, then you
probably know it is a presidential
election year. Hopefully you are
planning to vote. But there is
another vote this year that you
may not know about that is also
very important. This year during
the normal AIAA election cycle
the membership of AIAA will vote
on a fundamental change to our
constitution and bylaws.
Why change? AIAA was formed more than 50 years ago
when two organizations, the American Rocket Society and the
Institute of the Aerospace Sciences merged. The governance
model that AIAA uses today is a legacy of that time. Since
then the aerospace industry and its technologies have evolved
and so have the ways in which people communicate and share
information. To ensure that AIAA is best positioned to be
relevant today and in the future, the Board of Directors formed
a Governance Working Group in August of 2014 which has
met twice weekly since. Why should we care? In the end, it
probably won’t affect many of us at the member level, but the
proposed changes are important to help the Institute evolve
with the times and are aimed at attracting and retaining
members and increasing opportunities for members to be
engaged.
For the vote to carry, 15% of the Institute membership
must vote, so please consider the changes carefully and
exercise your duty as a society member and vote. More
detailed information can be found at the governance web
site: https://www.aiaa.org/Governance/. Please review the
changes and whether you are for the change or against it,
please vote!
Mark Whorton, AIAA Region II Director
Section Chair Road Trip to Student Branches Kurt Polzin, Kelly Burnham, Zaria Silva Images courtesy of Kurt Polzin, Auburn University, and Tuskegee University
Our student Branches are thriving, representing not only a
source of great Section pride but also serving as one of our
largest segments of membership growth. The Chair feels it is
important that the professional membership of the Section
make every effort possible to reach out to the Branches and
include them in Section activities. This is a challenge for a
Section as geographically dispersed as ours, with a majority of
the student Branch members residing at least several hours
outside of Huntsville.
To reach out to the Branches, the Chair completed a
three-school swing visiting with students and faculty at the
University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB), Tuskegee
University, and Auburn University in early November. For the
latter two visits, the Section’s Liaison to Student Branches
Neal Allgood joined the Chair.
The Section does not presently have a student Branch at
UAB, but we are encouraging students and faculty there to
start a new Branch within the engineering school. The
discussion in Birmingham focused on the benefits of being
members of AIAA and the general nuts and bolts of how a
Branch is formed within the Section.
At Tuskegee University (winning an unofficial award for
sharpest custom AIAA shirts), we discussed activities that the
Branch could undertake and how they could reach out to other
engineering disciplines to further grow membership. It was a
great opportunity to not only provide specific advice to a
Branch but to also hear some of their ideas on Section
activities in which the students would like to be included.
In the final visit at Auburn University, we were greeted
by a large group of students who came to talk about their
Branch and hear a research seminar. The seminar on electric
propulsion and ensuing question and answer session were a lot
of fun, with faculty advisor Prof. Majdalani sharing a lot of
great additional information on the Branch’s activities and
accolades garnered by current and recent Auburn students and
faculty members.
A very special thanks goes to Profs. Roy Koomullil
(UAB), Javed Khan (Tuskegee), and Joseph Majdalani
(Auburn) for hosting these visits, and to the students and
faculty that came to meet and discuss AIAA at all three
institutions.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 5
The Telemetry January 2016
Kurt Polzin (Chair) and Neal Allgood (Liaison to Student
Branches) with Tuskegee University Branch Members.
(Left to right) Joseph Majdalani, Kelly Burnham, Titus
Benjamin, Alicia Ratcliffe, Lindsey Batté, Kurt Polzin,
Bethany Bittinger, Gabriel Smith, Noel Cervantes, Neal
Allgood, and Kegan Buchhop.
Giving Santa a Hand at MindGear Labs Kurt Polzin Images courtesy of Kurt Polzin
On December 14th, the Section Council and their families
lent a hand to Santa. For the second year in a row, the group
came to MindGear Labs (now in Lowe Mill) to assemble,
paint, and wrap toys for disadvantaged children as part of
Santa’s Lab.
Santa’s Lab is a charitable program started by AIAA
member and MindGear Labs owner Rob Adams. Volunteers
use MindGear’s design and fabrication tools to produce and
assemble toys, which are then distributed to disadvantaged
children in the greater Huntsville area through a variety of
outlets.
The Section Council, which has volunteered for the past
two years, served as Santa’s Elves for the evening in lieu of
the regular December Council meeting. The group assembled,
painted, and wrapped a number of different toys throughout
the evening. A special thanks goes to Rob Adams and Tia
Wheeler for letting us come help, and to all our Elves: Chris
and Sheree Gay, Robert La Branche, Cody Crofford, Matt
Sclafani, Tammy Cottam, Matt Statham, Ken and Lisa
Philippart, Brandon Stiltner, Alan Lowrey, and Kurt Polzin.
Santa’s Lab Elves - (left to right) Chris Gay, Robert La
Branche, Cody Crofford, Kurt Polzin, Rob Adams (Santa),
Sheree Gay, Tammy Cottam, Matt Sclafani, Matt Statham,
Brandon Stiltner, Lisa and Ken Philippart, Alan Lowrey.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 6
The Telemetry January 2016
Interview with a Member: Dr. Brian Thurow Kelly Burnham Images courtesy of Brian Thurow
Dr. Brian Thurow intends to
change the future of imaging. He is
the W. Allen and Martha Reed
Associate Professor in the
Department of Aerospace
Engineering at Auburn University,
as well as the 2015 Greater
Huntsville Section’s Konrad
Dannenberg Educator of the Year.
I got the opportunity to ask him
about his unique research and its
applications beyond aerospace
engineering. This interview has
been edited for space and clarity.
What sort of research do you and the Advanced Flow
Diagnostics Laboratory work on?
We’re really facilitators. The heart of what we do is the
development of various optical diagnostic techniques to make
3D measurements of turbulent, unsteady flow fields. The main
technology we’ve been working with is the plenoptic camera.
We take a regular camera, but inside the camera we mount a
microlens array. There’s hundreds of thousands of these little
microlenses in front of the image sensors. The function of
those microlenses is that as light enters the camera, not only
do we record the position that it hits the sensors with, we also
record the angle. We can construct our own images, whether
it’s refocusing or changing the perspective. Then we link that
together with computational tomography algorithms to do full
3D reconstructions of whatever we’re looking at. We’re
working to develop this technology but also develop methods
to make measurements that people wouldn’t have thought of
before.
What new developments have you been able to make?
Our lab is the first lab in the world to really apply this
technology for 3D flow measurements. We’re pioneering the
development of this technology and starting to get a lot of
momentum. Since there’s not yet a vender that can just give
you a plenoptic camera suitable for scientific applications, we
build our own from scratch. With one camera, we can capture
all this 3D information, whereas all of the competing
technologies are using multiple cameras and multiple lasers.
Those very complex, very expensive setups really need a lot of
skills and expertise to operate and are prone to difficulties. We
really simplify the experimental arrangement by using a single
camera. For a lot of practical flow fields, especially in
anything involving high pressures, the practical test facilities
can’t look at the flow from a hundred different angles. They
might be lucky to have a four-inch window viewing inside. By
maximizing the amount of information collected from a
limited set of viewing angles, this technology has the potential
to solve many problems.
What sort of collaborations have you done?
Collaboration has been a huge emphasis because I love
the diagnostics and the techniques, but we need to be tied to
the applications. In my view, you can’t be an expert in
everything, so we team up with people who are experts in
other areas. Right now we have an active project with Florida
State University, the University of Texas, and The Ohio State
University to study shock boundary layer interactions.
Another collaboration with the University of Notre Dame and
the University of Illinois looks to study turbulent boundary
layers over porous walls. One question we want to answer is
what is the effect of porosity on the turbulence? There’s a lot
known about turbulent boundary layers over nonporous walls,
rough walls, and fixed walls, but when you add porosity to
that mix, what effect does that have on the flow? So we’re
using these cameras to look at that in three dimensions.
I have a project started with the University of Iowa, sort
of a biologically-inspired flow. The general area of
biologically-inspired flows is being studied at a lot of different
places. We’re looking at 3D measurements of the vortices
shed as a wing is flapping to understand some of the vortex
interactions so we can actually apply flow control and actively
manipulate the flow. We’ve done some work with Georgia
Tech to look at flow inside models of heart valves, basically
different cardiovascular applications.
Obviously, this can be applied for a number of other
things. You can also use the camera for range finding. If I took
a picture of this room you could analyze the picture and figure
out how far away all the objects are. That was actually an
undergraduate project on this topic that won first place in the
AIAA Region II Student Conference last year. There are ways
to adapt it for hyperspectral imaging with a single camera. We
want to see how we can adapt this technology to look at
chemical reactions taking place inside a flame, reacting flow,
or rocket engine. There’s lots of directions for this technology.
We’re always searching for new applications.
What inspired you to pursue this unique area of aerospace
engineering?
Naturally, I’ve always had this love for the hands-on lab
activities like making the measurements in wind tunnels, and
for some reason I always gravitated toward the
instrumentation. When I started here, one of the first things I
built was a high-energy laser that can produce one million
pulses per second. I used a high speed camera to image things
at a million frames per second as I scanned this laser through.
But at the end of the day, while I developed this really cool
technique and it produced really cool results, if I wanted to
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 7
The Telemetry January 2016
collaborate with someone I either needed to convince them to
spend close to a million dollars on their own instrumentation
or I needed to load up a U-Haul truck and bring mine to their
lab. I knew there had to be a better way to do this.
By playing around on the internet and Googling things, I
stumbled upon a technology developed for consumer
photography. With it, you can go out to your kid’s soccer
game, take a picture, and— oh, it’s out of focus! Then you just
fix it on the computer . . . and immediately the light bulb went
off. If you can do that we can definitely find some scientific
applications.
What does your future look like?
Five, ten, fifteen years from now, my hope is that we’re
building something that will become a common tool in the
toolbox of all these researchers out there. Not only in the
aerospace industry but through a broad range of applications
involving unsteady 3D flows. We’re just building a really
cool, really powerful tool.
Dr. Thurow and his graduate students at the Advanced Flow
Diagnostics Laboratory, (left to right) Brian Thurow, Tim
Fahringer, Kyle Johnson, Elise Munz, Johnathan Bolton,
Jenna Klemkowsky, Jeffery Bolan, and Dominic Hildebrandt
Blast from the Past Jayme Allgood, Gabe Xu
The following excerpt is from the March 1967 issue of the
Explorer newsletter, and covers a talk given on the Gemini
Program. A brief history of the Gemini program follows.
Gemini Program Discussed at February Meeting (From the Vol. 4 Number 5, March 1967 issue of Explorer,
the newsletter of the AIAA Alabama Section)
Mr. R. L. Seat, Program Systems Manager, McDonnell
[Aircraft], discussed aspects of the design and test of the
Gemini Spacecraft at the February meeting of the Alabama
Section.
In his presentation, he stated that during McDonnell’s
eight years of manned spacecraft experience with the Mercury
and Gemini Spacecraft, they had encountered many problems
and made many mistakes. He indicated that they have always
tried to improve their operations to overcome these problems
and to correct these mistakes in a positive manner. He
mentioned that if there is a short way to state their philosophy,
it might be to simply say that they found “continuous
introspection mandatory and routine management
unsatisfactory”. They feel this applies because of the
characteristics of manned spacecraft programs, wherein:
Production numbers are comparatively small.
Each mission has a unique requirement.
Each flight must correct previous problems.
Costs mount rapidly during delays.
Crew safety is a paramount requirement.
The white heat of publicity is ever present.
He highlighted the things that worked well with them
from the beginning of our manned space activity until the
preset time. Some of the areas discussed were:
Emphasis on obtaining a truly operational
configuration for Gemini (e.g., modular construction,
accessibility to equipment, separate test points, etc.).
Fabrication and assembly techniques centered upon
motivation and qualification of the personnel
involved.
One cardinal principal has been to assure “no stone
left unturned” in guaranteeing astronautic safety (e.g.,
thorough equipment qualification program, judicious
use of redundancy, elimination of single point
failures, etc.).
Mr. Seat received his BSME from Bradley University,
1950, and MEA from Washington University, 1962. [His]
work experience since joining McDonnell in 1951 progressed
through airplane design, stress, and test assignments. In early
1959, he was assigned the functional test program for the
Mercury Spacecraft, followed by appointment to direct all
Production testing of the Mercury Spacecraft. In 1962, he was
given design responsibility on the Gemini Spacecraft for the
Aerospace Ground Equipment, Production Spacecraft Systems
Testing, and Operational Test Procedures. This led to
assignment, in April 1964, as Company-wide Manager for the
first manned Gemini Spacecraft, Gemini #3, directing
company activities through culmination of the successful
flight in March 1965. He was then appointed Program
Systems Manager, responsible for management and control of
flight vehicle systems on all McDonnell Spacecraft and
missile programs.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 8
The Telemetry January 2016
Brief History of Gemini Gemini was the second human spaceflight program
conducted by NASA from 1961-1966 as part of President
Kennedy’s original vision to land on the moon. Gemini was
preceded by Project Mercury and followed by Project Apollo.
Gemini was so named as it carried two crew members instead
of Mercury’s solo astronaut. The engineers, scientists, and
astronauts of Project Gemini developed and tested many of the
techniques necessary for Apollo 11’s eventual landing on the
moon. Some of the notable accomplishments of the Gemini
Program include
First American to make a spacewalk on Gemini 4.
First demonstration of a long duration (8 day)
spaceflight necessary for lunar trip.
First use of fuel cells for electrical power.
First rendezvous in space between Gemini 6 and 7,
the first docking was done by Gemini 8.
Underwater training for spacewalk simulations were
first conduced for Gemini 12.
McDonnell Aircraft, likely better known today as
McDonnell Douglas, was best known for developing the F-4
Phantom II, a jet fighter/interceptor in the 60’s that saw
extensive use in the Vietnam War, and the Mercury and
Gemini capsules. McDonnell Douglas would later merge with
the Boeing Company in 1997.
Book Review – Rocketeers and Gentlemen Engineers: A History of the AIAA… and What Came Before Arloe Mayne
I have just finished reading a history of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and its
predecessor organizations, by Tom
Crouch, a curator at the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum.
It’s an AIAA publication, and I
recently obtained my copy, on sale,
from an offering by the AIAA. I
recommend the book; it’s medium-
sized (about 300 pages); and it
covers the ups and downs, mergers,
moves, people, awards, etc., etc. of
the AIAA. I found the book an easy
read, and quite informative about an
organization that I have been
involved with since about 1962.
It’s been a long time since I wrote a book report, but a
few people asked if I would do so after I sent out a brief email
recommending the book discussed in this review. (Does
anyone else remember book reports based on Classic Comic
Books? I believe that was a not uncommon thing when I was
in high school. Before you jump to conclusions, no, I didn’t do
that.)
When was the AIAA founded? That’s one of those “Well
it depends” questions. The AIAA celebrated its 50th
anniversary in 1981, so maybe it was founded in 1931.
Actually nothing significant, AIAA-wise, happened in 1931,
but that is the average of the dates when the American Rocket
Society (ARS) and the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences
(IAS) were founded, so 50 years later yields 1981. Crouch’s
book, by the way, is a sort of 75th anniversary item, covering
the AIAA through 2006.
The ARS and the IAS were the two organizations that
merged in 1963 to form the AIAA, and they are the basis for
the title of Tom Crouch’s book “Rocketeers and Gentlemen
Engineers: A History of the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics… and What Came Before”. The ARS began
as a sort of amateur rocket club, while the IAS was modeled
after the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) and was indeed a
group of “gentlemen engineers”. I believe that Crouch means
restrictive and elitist, as the RAeS was, when he says
“gentlemen”. It is true, however, that the IAS had a class of
membership for pilots, and of the two most famous pilots in
the US, only one was eligible for membership – Charles
Lindbergh was qualified, while Amelia Earhart was not. This
lasted until 1939 when Miss Elsa Gardner was invited to join.
The ARS began in New York in 1930 as the American
Interplanetary Society (AIS), a group of friends interested in
science fiction about interplanetary travel. They met at a
speakeasy and Italian restaurant below the apartment of
Edward Pendray and his wife Lee, two of the founders of the
AIS. In a couple of years, as the AIS began designing,
building, and testing rockets, the name was changed to the
ARS. Rockets were not exactly mainstream in the 1930’s, and
after ten years, the ARS had only 130 members. They grew to
334 members in 1944, and to 20,500 in 1962 as the space race
blossomed.
Arloe Mayne, Section
Chairman Emeritus
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 9
The Telemetry January 2016
The IAS was also formed in New York, in 1932, by a
group that included Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Sr., father of the
Apollo 11 astronaut, who wrote the foreword to Crouch’s
book. An early challenge was to elevate aeronautics so that it
was seen as a profession by others. IAS membership came
from aviation companies, the military, colleges, and other
sources, and in five years membership was up to 1795. By
1962 they had grown to 15,600 members.
The IAS, ARS, and then the AIAA had their headquarters
in New York until 1988, when the AIAA moved to
Washington. Today, that strikes me as a bit unusual, but I
think that I still remember mailing dues, etc. to the AIAA at
1290 Avenue of the Americas in New York. And I remember
presenting perhaps my first technical paper at the 1968
Aerospace Sciences Meeting, always held in those days in
New York, and referred to as the “Winter Meeting”.
Over the years, the IAS received several collections of
aeronautical memorabilia, art, artifacts, literature, etc. These
included items ranging from the Wright brothers’ stopwatch
used at Kitty Hawk to decorated snuffboxes, and the size of
the collection ultimately became too much to deal with, so in
the early 1960’s the material was dispersed to the Smithsonian
Institute, the Library of Congress, and similar places. For
many years the IAS had the largest aeronautical library in the
country, and lent items by mail to persons not able to come to
the library. (How would you like to do your research by mail?) The IAS and ARS merger was effective January 31, 1963,
and the AIAA had 36,500 members at the end of that year. I
lack documentation, but I believe that I was a student member
of the IAS prior to the merger; I certainly remember it being a
pretty big deal even at the student level when the merger
occurred. Membership reached essentially 40,000 in 1968, and
then dropped, following post-Apollo industry declines, to
27,500 in 1974. I recall being one of many whose membership
lapsed in about 1971 when I felt that AIAA dues were rising
faster than my salary.
The book provides interesting information about the IAS
and ARS founders and subsequent leaders, as well as about the
executive directors, probably the most significant being Jim
Harford, and various other staff members. The organizations’
publications and meetings are discussed – perhaps the largest
meeting of all being the 1961 ARS Space Flight Report to the
Nation, attended by 12,800 professionals. It was amusing to
read that in 1945 when the IAS was looking at a mansion with
Fifth Avenue frontage as a new headquarters building, they
were told that “scientific societies” were not allowed in
residential areas. By declaring that the IAS could be
considered a “museum, library and ... similar to a club”,
Secretary Lester Gardner was given approval for the IAS to
move into the mansion.
Crouch brings his training and experience as a historian
into full play in describing the beginnings of technical
societies in general, followed by descriptions of the formation
and growth of the IAS and the ARS, their merger to form the
AIAA, and its subsequent activities. Each chapter has a list of
references, and Presidents of the three societies and their
various award recipients are given in appendices. I enjoyed
seeing the names of people that I had some connection to (e.g.,
Hermann Schlichting of boundary layer fame, the 1973 Wright
Brothers Lectureship Award recipient – I had used his book as
a textbook, and was really excited when he sat in on a paper
that I presented in the 1970’s; Allan Bailey with whom I
worked at AEDC, the 1979 Losey Award recipient; and
several others). There were, of course, many other names that
were familiar, ranging from Orville Wright to Theodore von
Karman to Steve Squyres.
Some of you probably remember Tony Springer when he
was in Huntsville. He was a member of our Section, and I
recall a dinner meeting at the Radisson where the bar was far
removed from the meeting room. Tony offered to be the
runner to bring drinks from the bar (but, no, he didn’t buy). It
wasn’t until shortly after that I learned that he was a candidate
for Regional Director, and that the runner task was probably a
bit of campaigning. Tony is a fine fellow, I voted for him, and
he won the election. Tony, who has held the position of
Chairman of the History Technical Committee, and his wife
Emily, AIAA’s Manager, Region and Section Programs, and a
person who has been able to sort out a lot of problems for us
in the provinces, together with Rodger Williams, are credited
with conceiving of and supporting the writing of this book.
Speaking of the provinces, it was Emily Springer from whom I
once received an email said to be from “AIAA Galactic
Headquarters”.
I have seen Dr. Tom Crouch on television several times,
usually with some part of the Air and Space Museum or the
Udvar-Hazy Center in the background; I have read many
articles by him in the Smithsonian Air and Space magazine,
the Smithsonian Magazine, and others. He has had articles
published in Astronautics and Aeronautics and the AIAA
Journal, and he has written several books about aviators,
flying, balloons, and airships, etc. I mention these magazines
and journals because I believe that the readers of this review
will recognize them; Crouch has been published in many
more, especially history magazines. He is the author of the
book The Bishop's Boys: A Life of Wilbur and Orville
Wright, and he is staunch believer in and defender of the
Wrights having been the first to achieve sustained powered
flight in a heavier-than-air machine. I will admit that I did not read all of the lists of references,
and that surely shortened the book by several pages. The book
is generally well-done, but I did run across a few problems
with the index; e.g., Lindbergh is mentioned on page 61, but is
cited in the index only for his photograph on page 163. Also,
they are probably all mentioned at one point or another, but I
would like to have seen a list of the various organizations’
executive directors.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 10
The Telemetry January 2016
Greater Huntsville Section Rallies Engineering Community to Watts for Tots Daniel Cavender
Meaningful and Purposeful
Webster’s Dictionary defines engineering as “the
application of science and mathematics by which the
properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are
made useful to people.” I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about
that definition since I married my wife Laura. And no, that’s
not meant to be a joke. Laura is an Occupational Therapist
(OT) and works with children with special needs at United
Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Huntsville. At its simplest, OTs help
people participate in meaningful and purposeful activities…
their occupations. The OT focuses on enhancing participation
and improving the patient’s quality of life. This often involves
the application of assistive technologies (AT). Now, if you are
like Laura and I, you see the parallels between an engineer and
an OT – namely the end goal: making something useful to
bring meaning and purpose to someone.
Engineers solve problems, but what are the problems we
need to solve? Going back to that definition of engineering,
specifically that last part, “…made useful to people” is the
answer. Nearly every one of the engineers in Huntsville
contributes to national defense or space exploration. We all
agree those things are useful, purposeful, and far reaching.
But, a few weeks before Christmas 2014, my wife and I asked
ourselves what could we do together here in Huntsville with a
local impact? What is the physical manifestation of our shared
goal to offer meaning and purpose? Many of Laura’s kids have difficultly playing with toys.
They lack the fine motor control or strength to “activate” the
toy. Plush toys are the easiest to adapt, so I’ll explain how that
works to give some understanding of the problem we seek to
address. Consider a plush tiger that sings a certain Alma
Mater’s fight song, but you have to squeeze a paw to make it
go. That could take 1-2 lbs of force to activate, and a child
diagnosed with extreme muscle weakness or poor neurological
motor control may not be able to muster the control or strength
to make Aubie sing. An adapted toy will either add in parallel
or completely bypass the paw switch with a 3.5 mm mono
jack female that can connect to an AT switch device. The most
commonly used AT switch device is a large, brightly colored
button the size of a coaster that has a very low activation force
of 50-100 g. Now, with a light press-of-a-button, Aubie can
sing all live-long day. Specially adapted toys do exist
commercially, but the price tag would shock you. To place
that in context, an adapted version of a standard $15 plush
tiger from the toy store might cost $60 or more. It’s a small
market and not cost competitive. That was the problem we
identified and wanted to address. Some toys were recently
donated to UCP for Christmas, and we decided to adapt them.
Hence, “Watts for Tots” was born.
The Hosts of Christmas Past
Last year, a few days after we decided to adapt toys so
they could be given as Christmas presents, we hosted a dozen
of our engineer and non-engineer friends, ate pizza and drank
craft beer, watched an “Off-Christmas” Christmas movie
(Gremlins), and adapted nearly fifty toys. The toys were sent
back to United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Huntsville to be given
out to their clients for Christmas. The whole event was
immensely gratifying. All year long, we were hearing stories
of kids playing with their specially adapted toy. We had given
ourselves meaning and purpose by helping to improve the
quality of life for those kids.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 11
The Telemetry January 2016
Fast forward to Christmas 2015
Laura and her co-workers at UCP wanted to know if we’d
do another Watts for Tots event. “Absolutely! And we’re
going to do it bigger!” Most of the engineers from the first
Watts for Tots were also members of AIAA Greater
Huntsville Section (GHS). If we were going to make Watts for
Tots bigger, we wanted their support doing it. This was an
opportunity to engage our younger members and the
community in a hands-on social setting. Now that we had an
experienced crew, and the full support of UCP and AIAA
GHS, we were setting goals. We were going to adapt every
single toy they gave us, and we did, all eighty of them.
Hop to It
By nature, engineers are meticulous and quality-oriented.
It is no surprise then that most engineers like craft beer.
Invoking Vulcan wisdom, it was only logical that Watts for
Tots would be hosted in a local brewery. There’s one place
that came to this engineer’s mind. Where else can you find
beers named Monkeynaut, Laika, or Von Brown? It had to be
Straight to Ale Brewery. And besides, the author owns the
rocket hanging in the taproom. The owners, Bruce and Jo, are
both engineers and really rallied behind Watts for Tots,
including rescheduling a concert so we could hold the event
that night.
The outpouring of support we saw that night was
incredible. The early arrivals, Donna and Penny, were serious,
showing up with their own soldering kits and tools. They
immediately tackled the RC cars. Then, our core group of
seasoned Watts for Tots warriors from last Christmas arrived.
Adam, Alex, Daniel, David, Jarvis, and Jesse were our
coaches and the foundation of our success. They were
responsible for coaching our volunteers through the adaptation
process while ensuring it was all done safely. It was the first
time some volunteers had ever seen a soldering iron.
Conversely, it was the first time some of our coaches taught
soldering. Fortunately, our AIAA Section recently hosted a
soldering class and most of our coaches attended. Not a beer
was spilled and not a thumb was burned. Oh, and the “Off-
Christmas” Christmas movie was Edward Scissorhands,
though Santa Claus versus the Martians MST3K was
honorably mentioned.
Do No Harm
You would not believe how some toys are made, or how
hard it is to get them apart and back together… with them still
working. Our default mantra became “Do No Harm”.
Basically, don’t do anything you can’t undo. No kidding, we
felt like surgeons carefully working our way through stuffing,
fabric, plastic, and tiny 30 gauge wires. In preparation, I
developed and printed general guidance for adapting toys, but
each toy would prove to be unique. Most of the prints ended
up serving as coasters.
Oh, the “-ilities”
Most of the plush toys only had one function, but the cars
go forward, backwards, left, and right; Operability. To make a
car do all that, it would require four switches. But, remember
above when it was mentioned that each toy would prove to be
unique? The RC cars were no exception. Every PCB in the
remotes are unique, so goodbye Commonality. Each time,
some lucky soul had to map the traces, remove the conformal
coating, solder to the traces, mount the 3.5mm female
connectors, and reassemble the controller. Plus, the controls
are small, so there is limited real-estate for the modifications
anyway. We started directing volunteers to adapt the two
functions they thought were most appropriate. Specifically,
Motility. There was the Possibility that the Inevitability of
reworks due to Quality would lead to Irritability, but that
didn’t happen thanks to the Dependability of our group of
steely-eyed missile men and women who were self-diagnosing
their issues and coming up with some impressive solutions.
Results
We’ve learned several things from the Watts for Tots
experiment. First, you don’t have to be an engineer or an OT
to want to do this. We had more than 40 volunteers that night.
When asked why they came, they answered “it sounded like
fun and I wanted to help.” Some brought their own toys to
adapt and donate. They wanted to be a part of something
meaningful and purposeful. That, I think, speaks volumes
about the people of Huntsville. Second, this doesn’t have to be
just a stand-alone event. During a home therapy session earlier
that day, Laura mentioned our Watts for Tots event. By the
end of the session, the mom returned with a singing sock
monkey toy. She said “Is this what you mean? We want to
give this to him for his birthday, but we know there is no way
he can play with it by himself.” There truly is a year-round
need for this type of work. Laura returned the modified sock
monkey during the next home visit, and it was a
transformative experience. “That’s the first time he’s ever
really played with a toy.” The mother tearfully exclaimed
while capturing a video of her son making the sock monkey
sing. That was a profoundly impactful moment for them… and
for us.
This is a need all over the country and people want to
replicate our success. Since we began Watts for Tots, we have
been contacted by occupational therapists from Philadelphia to
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 12
The Telemetry January 2016
Albuquerque asking “How do we do this here? How can we
get in touch with some engineers for help?” Some have asked
how to get in touch with a local AIAA section for support. We
did so much more than just rewire toys and drink beer that
night. Watts for Tots revealed a fun way to connect with
people in the community and to do something special by
improving the quality of life of children here in Huntsville.
Conclusions
Engineers and occupational therapists share the goal to
enhance life through application of natural phenomena. Out of
that goal arose Watts for Tots, but the definition of natural
phenomena has changed for me. We saw that people naturally
wanted to help do something special. Watts for Tots provided
an avenue for people to help. The ineffable result was the
enhancement of lives. We were all enriched by the experience,
shared that with our community, and sparked ideas to recreate
the experiment in other parts of the nation. Most notably, our
Watts for Tots experiment offered meaning and purpose to the
lives of children with disabilities, their parents that love them,
and for a special little boy who can now play with his sock
monkey.
November Luncheon Presentation “An Engineer at War” Ken Philippart Images courtesy of Ken Philippart and Arloe Mayne
In recognition of Veterans’ Day, the Greater Huntsville
Section hosted a presentation titled, “An Engineer at War” by
Ken Philippart, Lt Col, USAF (retired), and Immediate Past
Section Chair, on his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Ken served 29 years on active duty with the US Air Force,
deploying twice to Afghanistan (2006, 2010 – 11) and once to
Iraq (2007 – 08). He spent 30 months deployed downrange in
support of the Global War on Terror and was awarded two
Bronze Star Medals and the Afghanistan and Iraq Campaign
Medals with four campaign stars.
Ken Philippart’s Presentation of “An Engineer at War”
Lt Col Philippart began with an overview of the
chronology of his deployments and missions. His deployments
supported advising, training, and equipping Afghan and Iraqi
national security forces, specifically, the Afghan National
Army (ANA), Afghan National Policy (ANP) and the Iraqi
Air Force (IqAF). The ultimate goal was to professionalize
these forces to enable them to defend themselves, enabling the
withdrawal of US forces. Ken’s first deployment to
Afghanistan involved mentoring the ANA Chief of Logistics,
organizing the ANA’s supply depot system and equipping the
ANA with vehicles and weapons. His deployment to Iraq
supported setting up the first post-Saddam IqAF flight school,
equipping the IqAF with rotary and fixed wing aircraft and
advising IqAF flight crews and maintenance personnel.
During his final deployment to Afghanistan, he served as the
chief of the literacy program, arranging classes to teach
illiterate Afghans soldiers and police to read, write and do
math in their native languages of Dari and Pashto.
Afghan soldiers in literacy class
To orient the audience, the next portion of the talk
focused on the environment, or battlespace, liberally sprinkled
with pictures taken in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ken discussed the
varied climate ranging from extreme heat to freezing
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 13
The Telemetry January 2016
temperatures, dust storms, high altitudes and rain. He showed
pictures of both urban and rural environments and discussed
the state of the infrastructure in both countries including battle
damage.
Bala Hissar Fortress in Kabul
Lt. Col. Philippart in front of Baghdad’s Swords of Victory
The presentation next focused on Afghan and Iraqi culture
including the long history of both countries, the central role of
Islam, evolving gender roles, attitudes toward children, and
the very different perspectives on safety.
Ken then spoke briefly about military camp life such as
accommodations, meals, local markets and entertainment,
including a USO tour by Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong,
Jim Lovell, and Gene Cernan.
He followed this by explaining the threats to US
personnel such as improvised explosive devices, rockets,
mortars, unexploded ordnance and “green on blue” attacks. A
brief illustration of modes of travel within Iraq and
Afghanistan concluded the background portion of the
presentation.
Ken then presented images of humorous signs and
assorted exotic aircraft he saw while deployed before
launching into the engineering observations portion of the talk.
He explained that while none of his deployments were
engineering-specific, he did learn several lessons relevant to
engineering. He categorized these lessons as: engineers see
things differently (and that’s a good thing); understanding how
non-American perspectives can affect engineering; and how
operational experience improves requirements engineering.
His first point was that those with an engineering
background see things differently in being able to
methodically assess the causes of problems and propose
solutions. He illustrated this with a discussion about attempts
to use computer based training in Afghanistan for basic
literacy education and how engineers immediately recognized
the drawbacks of this approach. He also discussed the first
application of earned value management to literacy training,
by an engineer, and how it helped reveal areas of concern.
The second major lesson learned was to understand non-
American perspectives and how these can affect engineering
problems. He explained how engineers are esteemed in
Afghanistan especially, with the title “Engineer” being used
much like “Doctor” is used in the US. He illustrated the effect
of non-American perspectives through four real-world
examples during his deployments: the outfitting of a Mi-17
helicopter with a door gun, equipping the ANA with AK-47
small arms, training IqAF pilots, and an aviation accident and
investigation.
Finally, he explained how he learned that having
operational experience helps better understand operational
requirements and leads to superior engineering solutions. He
supported this lesson with several examples including the use
of cell phones versus hand held radios, the adoption of up-
armored non-tactical vehicles for routine transportation,
indirect fire defenses, and better test simulation of deployed
defenses back home.
Ken also brought several items to illustrate his talk
including the flags of Afghanistan and Iraq, a “blood chit,”
and an Afghan burka, pakol, and war rug. Lt Col Philippart
ended his talk with a listing of names of US Air Force
personnel who paid the ultimate price during his deployments
and asked the audience to never forget their sacrifices.
Ken Philippart with Afghan war rug
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 14
The Telemetry January 2016
Pumpkin Blast Brandon Stiltner
In November, the Section once again participated in
Pumpkin Blast. This is an annual Punkin-Chunkin style event
held at Tate Farms near Meridianville, AL. Tate Farms is
largely a pumpkin farm, so naturally they cap off the end of
the season with Pumpkin Blast. In this event, each team
designs and builds a pumpkin-throwing machine to toss a
pumpkin (2-10lbs) at a target. The rules of the competition
are: 1) throw a pumpkin between 75 and 125 yards, 2)
closeness to the target determines the team’s score, and 3) the
team with the highest total score from their best 5 shots wins.
There are also rules regarding the throwing machines. No
combustion sources can be used to propel the pumpkin, nor
can one use drones or flight to “air drop” the pumpkin. This is
a tough pill to swallow for us rocket scientists and aircraft
designers, but, the team manages to get in touch with their
mechanical side.
You may recall that last year’s team built a trebuchet and
took home 2nd prize, along with the Judges’ Award for
“Blastmanship”. Using the lessons learned from last year, this
year’s team decided instead to design and build an onager. An
onager is a cross between a catapult and a trebuchet, resulting
in the best of both designs. At present, a modified onager
holds the record distance for ANY mechanical throwing
device, including catapults and trebuchets. The onager’s only
competition is non-mechanical air cannons. Unlike a
trebuchet, the onager
uses a torsional spring
- traditionally, a
twisted rope bundle -
whereas a trebuchet
uses large weights for
stored energy. And,
unlike a catapult, the
onager uses a sling to
gain mechanical
advantage to throw the
pumpkin.
One of the major lessons learned from 2014 is that a
trebuchet requires a very strong pivot-axle for operation. This
is the main pivot about which the throwing arm rotates. The
2014-team’s pivot axle was permanently deformed after
consecutive throws, robbing energy from the machine. The
2014 team deemed this one of the machines major points of
failure. The solution is either to use a very strong and durable
axle or remove the axle from the design altogether. In the
latter case, the onager removes the use of a “hard” axle via the
twisted rope bundle. Here, the rope bundle provides both the
energy and serves as the axle about which the throwing arm
rotates.
However, as you may be thinking, this has problems of its
own that are difficult to foresee. The major issue with the rope
bundle is the amount of force it generates (tension) when
twisted. The rope bundle
design shown in the image was
composed of 0.25” diameter
twisted-nylon rope, which
looped through the machine’s
frame and around our throwing
arm. This design resulted in a
bundle of nearly 4” in
diameter. Once looped through
the machine, it was twisted
using the tire-irons. Twisting
the rope bundle acts like
loading a torsional spring, and
the torsional energy is
proportional to the number of
turns. However, twisting the
bundle also results in
tensioning of the rope bundle, placing the frame of the onager
under a significant amount of compression. While the actual
amount of tension is difficult to calculate, the team estimated
that there was greater than 1-ton of compressive force acting
on the frame of our machine.
The amount of compression that our machine was under
severely limited the number of twists in our rope bundle.
Secondly, the tire-irons were not strong enough to twist the
rope. As the rope bundle came under tension, the tire irons
deformed inward, further limiting the number of twists we
could apply to the rope bundle. After encountering these
problems, it became clear that our rope bundle could not
provide enough energy to throw our pumpkin.
So, to add energy to our machine, two garage springs
were used as shown. These springs have a force of 120 lbs
when extended. After adding these springs, our throwing
distance improved by a factor of 2 compared to test throws
using only the rope bundle.
On November 7th, six
teams arrived at Tate Farms to
launch pumpkins. Among the
designs were three traditional
trebuchets, a floating arm
trebuchet, and a slingshot style
ballista. The AIAA team took
3rd place in the 2015
competition, coming in second
to two of the trebuchet teams.
The team’s longest shot was
115 yards, using a 3 lb
pumpkin. Of special note is
that the AIAA Greater
Huntsville Section commanded
the entire podium this year, having section members on each
of the top three teams. The first place team was led by Neal
Allgood, the section’s Liaison to the Student Branches. The
second place team was the Engineers of Madagascar, which
included section members Jeff Finckenor, Dave Schultz. The
Engineers of Madagascar were the defending 2014 champions
GHS’s Onager
The twisted rope bundle that
generates the torsion to
throw the pumpkin.
Garage springs were added
to assist the rope bundle.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 15
The Telemetry January 2016
of this event and took home the Judges Award for
“Blastmaship” in 2015.
Section Pumpkin Blast team members.
Young Professionals Brunch Cody Crofford
The young professionals had a brunch at Another Broken
Egg on January 23rd at 11:00 am. Seven YP members came
out to the brunch despite the winter weather from the previous
night. During Brunch, we discussed future events, work, and
the YP Symposium to be held this coming fall.
Young Professionals Symposium in Fall of 2016 Kurt Polzin
The Section’s Young Professionals and some of our more
senior members have been working on something new and
very exciting. As most people know, the AIAA Forums
(national conferences) are the venue of choice for the
presentation of cutting edge developments in the field while
our Student Members attend the Regional Student Conference,
where they present, network, and have useful and beneficial
experiences and interactions. In discussions with several
Section, Regional, and National-level officers and directors, it
occurred to us that opportunities for Young Professionals to
attend technical events and actually present their work are
sorely lacking, especially with government travel restrictions
and tight conference attendance budgets. This conclusion is
true not just within the Institute but for the profession as a
whole and even for other technical disciplines. To address this
shortfall, the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section has begun to
plan a new Section-hosted event that will be held in Huntsville
in the fall of 2016 that is tailored for our Young Professionals.
The event tag line is “Bridging the Gap Between Students
and Senior Professionals.” As the line suggests, this event will
provide professional development and growth opportunities
for Young Professionals that can no longer attend the Regional
Student Conference but also may not be able to attend and
present at the national AIAA Forums. The new symposium
will provide a chance for Young Professionals to deliver a
technical presentation to a group of peers and promote
opportunities for interaction (technical and non-technical) with
senior professionals in attendance. In addition to technical
presentations, the symposium will include panel discussions, a
proposal writing workshop, and professional development and
networking opportunities.
A great deal of thanks goes to two of our Young
Professionals, Jayme Berstell and Matt Statham, who
volunteered to lead the planning and execution of this event.
In addition, there has been significant support to date from
several people, including Cody Crofford (Section Young
Professional Director) and Tracie Prater (Region II Young
Professional Deputy Director), and much encouragement from
Mark Whorton (Region II Director) and James Keenan
(National Director – Technical, Aerospace Sciences Group).
A call for abstracts for those wishing to present at the
symposium will be distributed shortly. We hope that all our
Young Professionals will consider participating in this event.
In addition, we want to highly encourage our senior
professional members to attend to interact with and provide
constructive feedback and conduct peer review for our Young
Professionals. In our profession, we hear a lot of talk about
professional development, STEM, and mentoring of the
younger engineers that represent the future of aerospace
engineering and our Institute. We hope this event will be a
model in helping to develop our Young Professionals into the
future senior professionals of our field and our Institute, and
that as Fall of 2016 comes around our senior professionals will
choose to participate to help ensure success.
Region II Student Conference Neal Allgood
The annual AIAA Region II student conference will be
held in Huntsville this year on April 4-5. The UAH student
Branch and local companies are working hard to make this
year's conference run smoothly and provide a great experience
for all the students. Over the years, this conference has proven
to be a unique opportunity for students from around our region
to attend a conference, present their work, meet professional
members, and network with other AIAA students. As always,
there will be many opportunities for professional members to
get involved with the conference. If you or your company are
interested in sponsoring the conference, judging papers or
presentations, or simply interfacing with some of the brightest
young minds in aerospace today, please consider volunteering
for the event. Please keep an eye on your email for
forthcoming opportunities to interface with our esteemed
student Branches. If you would like to volunteer or find out
more information, please contact Neal Allgood
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 16
The Telemetry January 2016
AIAA and Boeing to co-Host 2016 Huntsville Engineer’s Week Awards Banquet Kurt Polzin
Engineer’s Week is coming up this Feb. 21-27. The
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section and The Boeing Company
are proud to present:
The 2016 Huntsville Engineer's Week Awards Banquet
Celebrating how engineers make a difference in our world!
Engineer's Week is a time to celebrate our profession, and
this banquet serves as a focal point of the celebration. ALL
engineers of all disciplines in the Huntsville area and their
guests are invited to attend the banquet, which is one of only a
small handful of events during the year where members of all
engineering disciplines gather. Please join us by registering at
this link for an evening of celebration, fellowship, and
socializing.
The event will be held at the Jackson Center on Thursday,
Feb. 25th starting at 5:00 PM. For the event, we have AIAA
Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Robert C. “Bob” Winn coming to
Huntsville to deliver his lecture entitled “The Collapse of Big
Blue.” The talk discusses the collapse of a 600 foot tall crane
during the construction of a new baseball stadium in
Milwaukee.
2015 Energy Summit Rodger Herdy
The 2015 Energy Summit, an annual conference of
energy practitioners and decision-makers sponsored by the
Energy Huntsville Initiative, was held at the US Space and
Rocket Center on Nov 17-18 and drew nearly 350
attendees. Launched in 2011 to raise awareness of energy
issues and emphasize energy's economic development
potential in the North Alabama area, Energy Huntsville brings
together industry, academia, utilities, and government to
search for solutions to energy concerns.
The Energy Summit provided opportunities to network
with Department of Defense and federal energy decision
makers involved with meter data management systems
(MDMS), including Ms. Katherine Hammack, Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Installation, Energy and the
Environment, who delivered the Day One keynote address.
Ms. Hammack focused on the challenges and successes of
the Army’s energy reduction efforts.
Energy efficiency has become a top priority in the U.S.
Army, having implemented a strategic process for ensuring
future energy security while reducing enterprise energy usage.
Ms. Hammack's presentation, Army Energy Programs,
Government and Industry State of Energy Markets and
Opportunities, discussed the state of Army energy
conservation efforts and the opportunities for industry to
partner with the Army in meeting its energy goals.
Hammack said the Army’s Energy Security and
Sustainability Strategy (ES2) provides a strategic roadmap for
Army energy plans, programs and processes while it adopts
security, resiliency and future energy choice as the foundation
for planning. The strategy is based on five goals: inform
decisions, optimize use, assure access, improve resilience, and
drive innovation.
Other key decision makers present included the Navy’s
Mr. David Curfman, Assistant Commander for Public Works,
Naval Facilities Engineering Command; Dr. Tim Unruh,
Director, Federal Energy Management Program; and Mr.
William Johnson, Tennessee Valley Authority President and
CEO.
Roger Herdy, the current AIAA Greater Huntsville
Section Membership Director and a member of the Executive
Leadership team for Energy Huntsville, also helped organize
panel speakers Gary Rochau of Sandia National Laboratories
and Brian Robinson of the Department of Energy. They spoke
of an initiative to generate electricity using supercritical
carbon dioxide as the working fluid in a Brayton cylce. This is
a technology that Mr. Herdy supports in his role with
Government Energy Solutions and that he briefed the Section
on in a seminar held on 28 Oct. 2015 (Telemetry, Vol. 1A, No.
4, Pg. 13).
The Mobile Chapter of the AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Bob Coke
Mobile Area Council of Engineers: Aerospace Engineer of the Year
In 2015, I attended the 2015 Mobile
Area Council of Engineers (MACE)
annual banquet. The banquet recognizes
engineering professionals and educators
in the Mobile area for their outstanding
achievements and contributions in
engineering. The profits from the banquet are used to fund
scholarships for students of the University of South Alabama.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 17
The Telemetry January 2016
During the banquet it became obvious that a very
important engineering discipline was missing. I contacted the
awards chairman and convinced the board to add an additional
category for the Aerospace Engineer of the Year. It is my
pleasure to announce the first recipient of the MACE
Aerospace Engineer of the year award is Alan Lang of Airbus
America’s engineering in Mobile. Alan was selected by
MACE based on his project in the development of an
innovative and simplified process to conduct Oxygen Hazard
and Fire Risk Analyses (OHFRA). He is an Engineering
Specialist and is part of the Airbus Engineering Oxygen Team,
as well as a member of the local AIAA Chapter located in
Mobile. Alan will receive his award at the annual banquet on
February 25, 2016. The banquet will take place at the Gulf
Coast Exploreum Science Center & IMAX Dome Theater
located at 65 Government St, Mobile, AL 36602. More details
and information about MACE can be located at
www.mobileareacouncilofengineers.com.
Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility
The Airbus U.S. Manufacturing facility in Mobile
currently has six aircraft in production and is on schedule to
deliver its first aircraft in the 2nd quarter of 2016. Airbus
currently employs more than 300 people at the facility.
Aircrafts in assembly at the Airbus Manufacturing Facility in
Mobile.
Greater Huntsville Section AIAA Fellows of the Class of 2016 Kurt Polzin
The AIAA membership grade of Fellow is an elite
achievement, reserved for recognition by the Institute of
distinction in aeronautics or astronautics for a person having
made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences,
or technology thereof. It is our pleasure to congratulate two of
our Section members on their being named AIAA Fellows of
the Class of 2016. These members are:
Steven Cook, Dynetics
Mark Whorton, Teledyne Brown Engineering
The entire class of new Fellows will be formally
recognized by the Institute at the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight
Awards Gala in Washington, D.C. on 15 June 2016.
Robin Osborne Named 2016 AIAA Engineer of the Year Kurt Polzin
For the second year in a row, the Section is proud to
announce that one of our members has been named AIAA
Engineer of the Year. The award is presented to a member of
AIAA who has made a recent individual contribution in the
application of scientific and mathematical principles leading to
a significant accomplishment or event worthy of AIAA’s
national or international recognition. This year’s awardee is
Robin Osborne, a senior mechanical engineer with ERC,
Inc./Jacobs-ESSSA Group working at NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center. Ms. Osborne is cited “For increasing the
aerospace industry’s understanding of spark torch ignition
systems and building a low-cost ignition test facility.” Ms.
Osborne will formally receive her award at the 2016 AIAA
Propulsion and Energy Forum in Salt Lake City, UT.
Anthony Bartens Receives the Greater Huntsville Section Exceptional Service Award Sheree Gay
In December, Anthony Bartens was awarded the Greater
Huntsville Section’s Exceptional Service award. This award is
given to a Greater Huntsville Section member who has shown
dedication and service going above and beyond expectations
to support the section.
Over the past two years Anthony served our section in
membership activities: contacting members with expired
membership, recruiting and retention efforts. He also served as
a key member within the section’s outreach efforts, including
our presence at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium,
Moontown Fly-in and NASA on the Square. He went above
and beyond in his service to this section and is very deserving
of the award.
If you know a member who is deserving of this local
AIAA Service award please contact Section Chair Kurt Polzin
or the Honors and Awards Director to nominate the individual.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 18
The Telemetry January 2016
Alabama Lt. Gov. Ivey Receives AIAA Public Service Award Robert La Branche and Erin Walker Image courtesy of Alabama.gov
Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey
has been selected as the 2016
AIAA Public Service Award
honoree. Lt. Gov. Ivey was
selected for her public service as
a distinguished leader and
stalwart supporter of the
aerospace industry and
profession in Alabama and
throughout the nation.
“There is no greater friend
of the space program than Kay
Ivey,” said Todd May, center director for NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center. “She has proven herself to be a
knowledgeable and dedicated public servant who is firm in her
support of the civil, defense, and commercial space programs
in Alabama and across the nation.”
Lt. Gov. Ivey has been Alabama’s lieutenant governor
since 2011 and currently serves as chairman of the Aerospace
States Association. In this role, she leads other lieutenant
governors from across the country in advancing the aerospace
profession and industry. She has also hosted Alabama
Aerospace Week annually and formed the Joint Legislative
Aerospace Caucus since becoming lieutenant governor.
“Lt. Gov. Ivey has a long history of distinguished service
to her community, the state of Alabama and the nation,” said
Dr. Mark Whorton, chief technology officer at Teledyne
Brown Engineering and AIAA Director for Region II. “She is
a strong advocate of aerospace and defense related issues that
profoundly affect our great state and nation in promoting and
maintaining a strong and vibrant aerospace community.”
Lt. Gov. Ivey’s advocacy for the industry was integral to
bringing Airbus to Mobile, Ala. The addition of Airbus to
Alabama represents an investment of more than $600 million
and has the potential to employ up to 4,000 individuals in the
aerospace industry. While her career has shown immense
advocacy for the aerospace industry, it has also shown a
sincere passion for STEM education and programs such as
Space Camp in Huntsville.
“She also was responsible for initiating the state’s
involvement in the Real World Design Challenge, a high
school-level competition where students solve real-world
engineering design problems in a team environment,” said Dr.
Kurt Polzin, AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Chair.
Lt. Gov. Ivey will receive her award on June 15th in
Washington, D.C., at the 2016 Aerospace Spotlight Awards
Gala. She will also be honored at the Section’s 64th Annual
Awards and Installation Dinner on May 27th.
Short Course: In-Space Electric Propulsion Kurt Polzin Image courtesy of NASA.gov
The AIAA Greater Huntsville Section continues to host
short courses as a benefit to its members. Most of these
courses are available to AIAA members free of charge.
Members in attendance are eligible for professional
development credit. This provides valuable continuing
education opportunities, and for licensed Professional
Engineers a way to help fulfill the professional development
requirements for upkeep of that license.
The course “In-Space Electric Propulsion” was presented
by Dr. Kurt Polzin on Jan. 26th at the Dynetics Solutions
Complex. Dr. Polzin is a propulsion research scientist and the
technical lead for in-space electric propulsion at NASA
MSFC. In the course, Dr. Polzin started with an introduction
to the different variants of electric propulsion; namely
electrothermal, electrostatic, and electromagnetic; providing
comparisons with more conventional solid and liquid
propellant combustion and catalyzed decomposition engines to
differentiate between chemical and electric propulsion.
Multiple electric thruster types were discussed over the course
of nearly two hours.
One of these thrusters was the very successful 1-kW
hydrazine arcjet widely deployed for station-keeping on
ComSats where the electric propulsion system allowed for a
lower propellant mass load relative to a chemical station-
keeping system. The other equally successful system
discussed was the NASA Solar Technology Application
Readiness (NSTAR) ion propulsion system first flown on the
Deep Space 1 technology demonstrator. This propulsion
system has imparted more in-space delta-v than any other
propulsion system to date in its role on the NASA Dawn
spacecraft. Dawn is presently residing in the asteroid belt in
orbit about the dwarf planet Ceres after having first visited and
orbited the asteroid Vesta. This mission, where the spacecraft
left Earth and then orbited two separate bodies, is enabled by
the electric thruster.
Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 19
The Telemetry January 2016
Section Monthly Luncheons Brandon Stiltner
November
On November 19th, the Section held its monthly luncheon
at Dynetics with speaker and past Section Chair Ken
Philippart. In honor of Veteran’s Day, Ken (Air Force Lt. Col.
Retired) discussed his three deployments to the Middle East.
The topic of Ken’s presentation was entitled An Engineer at
War: Training the Afghan National Army, Afghan National
Police, and the Iraqi Air Force. Ken discussed his deployments
to Iraq and Afghanistan, providing many pictures from his
time there. The major takeaway from Ken’s presentation was
how he used thought processes and skills developed through
his engineering experience during his time abroad. This is a
setting that many engineers never experience, and he provided
examples of how his skills as an engineer helped him perform
his duties abroad.
December
On December 9th, the Section held its monthly luncheon
at Dynetics with speaker Matthew Sclafani. The December
luncheon topic was Pumpkin Blast, and Matt gave a
presentation on the design and construction of the Section’s
Pumpkin Blast machine. Matt described the design approach
that the team took, which was heavily focused on lessons
learned from the 2014 team. He described how the team
down-selected their concepts, arriving at an onager (a type of
catapult). He then showed pictures of the construction of the
onager, and videos from its testing and the competition.
January
On January 13th, the Section held its monthly luncheon at
Dynetics with speaker Christopher Singer. Mr. Singer is the
Director of the Engineering Directorate at the NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Mr. Singer provided a
presentation on retooling engineering. He discussed some of
NASA’s changing philosophies over the years, from Apollo’s
“failure is not an option” to the X-vehicles’ “Faster-Better-
Cheaper: Pick any two”. He also discussed some of the
hurdles of the Ares program faced, as well as the lessons
learned from Ares that are now being applied on the SLS.
The Section would like to thank Dynetics for graciously
providing the venue for the luncheons.
University of South Alabama Student Branch Receives Charter
Ken Philippart Images courtesy of University of South Alabama
The Greater Huntsville
Section welcomes its newest
student Branch, the
University of South
Alabama (USA), to the
American Institute of
Aeronautics and
Astronautics (AIAA).
Professor Carlos Montalvo,
Faculty Advisor for the
USA Branch, notified
section leadership on
October 22 that he received
the official charter and
welcome package from AIAA. The USA Student Branch has
approximately 20 student members.
Receipt of the official charter culminates the process that
began in August of 2014 when Dr. Montalvo and Ms.
Kourtney Kronenberger contacted AIAA to ask about forming
a student Branch at USA and an AIAA Chapter in Mobile.
AIAA referred the requests to then-Region II Director Alan
Lowrey who then discussed with Greater Huntsville Section
leadership. The Greater Huntsville Section Council approved
the creation of the Mobile Chapter in September, 2014 and
initiated the chartering process for the USA Student Branch
shortly thereafter.
A student Branch must meet numerous requirements to be
chartered by AIAA. The school must be accredited by ABET,
Inc. or by the appropriate regional accrediting body. At least
one school faculty member, who is an AIAA Professional
Member, must agree to act as Faculty Advisor to the student
Branch. The Dean of the Engineering School, or an equivalent
academic official, must write a letter of endorsement giving
the school's official recognition of the group. At least fifteen
students must have enrolled as charter members of the student
Branch. The prospective Branch must submit proof of
accreditation of the school's engineering programs and a set of
bylaws. Finally, the AIAA Student Activities Committee and
Board of Directors must review and approve the charter
application.
Past Chair Ken Philippart traveled to Mobile last April
and met with Prof. Montalvo and the USA student Branch
members. While there, Ken welcomed the students to the
Greater Huntsville Section, presented an AIAA overview
briefing and suggestions for activities and helped the students
resolve the final administrative issues for their charter
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 20
The Telemetry January 2016
application package. Inspired by the discussions, the students
completed the Branch Bylaws and submitted them for review
that same evening.
The complete charter application was formally submitted
to AIAA last May, reviewed by the AIAA Student Activities
Committee and then forwarded to the AIAA Board of
Directors for approval. In October, the Board officially
approved the charter, making USA the eighth student Branch
within the Greater Huntsville Section.
The USA Student Branch is planning an official
chartering celebration that will include invitees from the
university, the Mobile Chapter, and Airbus Americas. The
Greater Huntsville Section congratulates the USA Student
Branch as a shining example of the section’s commitment to
increasing AIAA’s presence within the growing aerospace
community in southern Alabama.
Photo of USA Student Branch members with the AIAA banner
taken by a camera mounted UAV.
UAH AIAA Branch News
Brittani Searcy, UAH AIAA President Ashely Scharfenberg, UAH AIAA Outreach Director Images courtesy of UAH
This year the UAH AIAA Student Branch started an
outreach program entitled STEM outreach for University
Place Elementary School (S.O.U.P.). AIAA Branch volunteers
work with the 6th grade science teacher’s curriculum every
quarter to develop science labs to supplement the lesson plans.
During the labs, the 6th grade students are split into small
groups where they receive one-on-one attention and a personal
introduction to the STEM topics. On December 9th, the
students learned about tectonic plates, volcanoes, rock
formations, and earthquakes.
This program is focused on inspiring the students to not
only develop interest, but also to ignite a passion for STEM
and learning. The picture shows the four labs performed so
far. The next lab will be held at the end of February.
UAH AIAA is also excited to host the AIAA Region 2
Student Conference in 2016. The conference will be held at
the Marriott hotel in Huntsville, Alabama. Registration is now
open and more information can be found at
www.region2.aiaastudentconference.org.
(Left to right) Ashley Scharfenberg, UAH Branch Outreach
Director, with students at University Place Elementary. The
projects include making rock candy and categorizing geodes,
bridge building and stability testing, baking soda volcano, and
tectonic plates with graham crackers and cool whip.
Mississippi State AIAA Branch News Gus Bunoviri, MSU AIAA
2015 marked another fantastic year for the Mississippi
State University AIAA Student Branch. The Branch saw
terrific growth thanks to the generous donation of Dr. Achille
Messac providing AIAA membership to all aerospace
engineering students at MSU. With fresh new faces eager to
join the fold and old friends and colleagues returning from
internships and co-ops across the country, the Branch saw
excellent attendance at both meetings and its famous football
tailgates. This past fall, the August Raspet Student Branch at
MSU welcomed Rick Wally from Boeing. He spoke on career
in aircraft fuel analysis and gave advice, both professional and
personal, for aspiring aerospace engineers. The Branch also
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 21
The Telemetry January 2016
hosted a resume workshop, where freshman and sophomore
students had their resumes critiqued by experienced
upperclassman and graduate students. Of course, the capstone
of the semester was the Branch’s famous MSU football
tailgates, where students, faculty, and alumni mingled and
networked while enjoying great food and even better football!
This spring offers new and exciting prospects for both the
student Branch and department. Our senior members look
forward to presenting their seminar projects at this year’s
AIAA regional student conference. In addition, AIAA
members on the Xipiter UAS team are preparing to fly their
Xawk Light at a national competition in the summer. The
Space Cowboys Rocket Design team is working towards a
world record for the speed of a collegiate sounding rocket!
Auburn University AIAA Branch News Kelly Burnham, Auburn AIAA Images courtesy of Auburn University
The past few months have been very exciting for Auburn
University. Airbus Americas was pleased to donate a
$750,000 Airbus A330 elevator to Auburn University, citing
its strong aerospace engineering program. The elevator will be
used in aerospace structural courses to deepen the students’
understanding of composites. The aerospace engineering
department is very thankful for this opportunity. The Auburn
AIAA Branch hopes that the generous gift will entice new
members to join AIAA in the upcoming semester.
Auburn AIAA students and faculty with the Airbus A330 wing
elevator.
The Auburn University Hyperloop Team is finally
nearing the conclusion of its ambitious design project.
Working independently since last semester, the team
successfully designed a Hyperloop pod from scratch. Even
more remarkably, it was completed with little-to-no external
funding. The Hyperloop team is comprised of over fifty
students ranging from freshmen to doctoral candidates, with
specializations spanning from aerodynamics to industrial
engineering. The team is confident it will proceed to the finals.
The Auburn AIAA Branch hosted a much-needed “study
break” for aerospace engineering students on Tuesday of
finals week. The exhausted students were given doughnuts,
juices, and well-wishes. Student membership has remained
strong and is growing. Auburn’s AIAA Branch is looking
forward to many, many more exciting months ahead.
Tuskegee University AIAA Branch News
Zaria Silvia, Tuskegee AIAA Images courtesy of Tuskegee University
The Tuskegee University AIAA Branch has been active in
the campus and local community during 2015. The Tuskegee
Branch of AIAA volunteered to help spread Christmas cheer
during early December. On one festive Saturday morning,
Branch members decided to make a table to engage the youth
with stories, coloring, and of course writing letters to Santa.
The Branch received more than 20 letters.
Writing letters to Santa with the children.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 22
The Telemetry January 2016
Volunteering in Tuskegee Forest.
Albert Einstein once said “Look deep into nature, and you
will understand everything better.” The sweetest fruits of
organizations such as AIAA come from inspiring STEM
related interests in youth far and wide. The Branch was happy
to participate in the Tuskegee Forest National Park’s “Festival
in the Forest”. Student Branch members helped teach and
entertain the Tuskegee community in topics such as forestry
and explored the flora and fauna native to Tuskegee’s Forest.
Other activities during the day included archery, meeting
Smokey the Bear, a hike through the forest, and a bouncy
house.
The Branch tries to engage in activities that impact the
community as well as our members. Branch members
journeyed one late autumn evening to see a movie that our
members hoped would capture a glimpse of their bright
futures. The movie was The Martian, which details the
fictional events which occurred on a manned mission to Mars
in the year 2035.
Movie Field trip for the Martian.
In November of 2015 Section Chair Kurt Polzin, a
graduate of Princeton University in Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, and a research engineer at the NASA Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL visited to speak to the
students about AIAA and his research. Future Branch events
include Bowling with the AIAA Auburn Branch, volunteering
at Lego Land in Tuskegee, a movie night, and a Black History
program.
Athens State AIAA and Florida Tech Students Listen to Virgo-A J. Wayne McCain
It’s not every day that students are able to
immerse themselves in a real‐world (or in this case an
out‐of‐this‐world) application of classroom lessons, but that’s
exactly the opportunity afforded to our spring term
Technology Transfer class (AIAA Student Branch members)
and a Commercialization Strategy class at Florida Institute of
Technology (FIT) Huntsville’s Graduate campus. In a
collaboration effort, these classes are preparing a strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the
Radio Astronomy Software Defined Receiver (RASDR)
project, an offshoot of research originally conducted by the
Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). A fall 2015
FIT class developed a plan to build the first 100 production
units of this new device.
The RASDR receiver is specially designed for radio
astronomy applications. Software defined receivers have
become the rage in most radio circles because of their inherent
capabilities and versatility. Rather than being made up of lots
of discrete components for the receiver, the various receiver
functions are emulated with software and general purpose
programmable electronics such as a field programmable
gated‐array (FPGA). In the case of RASDR, much of the
software emulation is carried out by a host computer which is
fed with output from RASDR's radio frequency (RF) front‐end
via digital interface circuits. The RASDR then allows
programmable RF tuning between 400 MHz and 3.8 GHz with
two simultaneous receiving channels at 1.5‐28 MHz.
AIAA Greater Huntsville Section Vol 2A, Issue 1 23
The Telemetry January 2016
One example radio astronomy application is observation
of the many wandering hydrogen clouds that abound in our
Universe. A certain section of the sky may be analyzed at
1.420 GHz which is the natural radiation frequency of
elemental hydrogen. These clouds, leftovers from star
formation and the Big Bang, are plentiful in areas where new
stars are forming, such as nebulae. The Virgo‐A galaxy was
observed recently in West Virginia with splendid results using
a legacy National Radio Astronomy Observatory dish antenna
and a RASDR prototype. Virgo‐A forms part of the major
subgroup of galaxies within the main Virgo Cluster and is the
most massive galaxy within the Virgo constellation. It is
approximately 200 times more massive than our own Milky
Way galaxy and has abundant hydrogen clouds to study.
RASDR is presently undergoing the final design iteration
(officially deemed RASDR3) prior to production. This latest
update will include additional hardware and software features
and will require adjustment of the Virgo‐A (M 87) Galaxy
Radio Survey Map. Students will also consider the formation
of a RASDR, LLC separate from SARA or other existing
parties that will be dedicated specifically to the initial
production efforts.
Virgo-A (M 87) Galaxy Radio Survey Map using RASDR.
Honors and Awards: Upcoming Nominations Sheree Gay
Nomination Period Open for Associate Fellows
Information Session 10 February 2016
The nomination period for AIAA Associate Fellows is
presently open, and the Section hopes to build upon the
success of last year’s bumper class. On February 10th the
Section will host an information session at the Dynetics
Solutions Complex to assist Associate Fellow candidates with
the nomination process. John Dankanich and Chip Kopicz will
again share tips and hints for submitting a nomination package
that will adequately demonstrate the capabilities and
experience of a candidate. Nominations for Associate Fellow
are open through the 15th of April while the letters of reference
must be submitted no later than the 15th of May. Nomination
forms and information may be found at this link.
Nomination Period Open in March for AIAA Fellow
Nominations will be open for AIAA Fellows in March.
This is an honor bestowed to only a select few AIAA members
who are a person of distinction in aeronautics and astronautics
and have made valuable and notable contributions to the arts,
sciences, and technologies within those fields. Updated
information on the exact dates and forms may be found at this
link. Nominations are due on the 15th of June, with letters of
reference due no later than the 15th of July.
Nomination Period Open for Sustained Service Award
Nominations are presently open for the AIAA Sustained
Service Award. This award is presented to recognize
sustained, significant service and contributions to AIAA by
members of the Institute. The nominee/recipient must be a
member in good standing who has shown continuing
dedication to the interests of the Institute by making
significant and sustained contributions over a period of time,
typically 10 years or more. Active participation and service at
the local section/regional level, and/or the national level is a
potential discriminator in the evaluation of candidates. A
maximum of 20 awards are presented each year. These annual
awards are presented at a Forum or activity with which the
recipient is most associated or active, or may be presented by
the recipient’s local AIAA section at an appropriate section
event. The nominations are due on the 1st of July. The
scoresheet for this award may be downloaded at this link.
