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AIR SAFETY 36 AEROPUZZLER 8 TRENDING 9 Defeating MCAS Flying inverted Predicting aircraft electric needs Homo sapiens astronauta Should we modify our bodies for deep space travel? Here’s how it might be done. PAGE 10 Apollo 11 PAGE 20-34 JULY/AUGUST 2019 | A publication of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org INFLUENCE THE FUTURE OF SPACE COMMERCE AND GOVERNANCE 70TH INTERNATIONAL ASTRONAUTICAL CONGRESS WASHINGTON D.C. 2019 I N 21–25 OCTOBER 2019 S T S E E R R Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. N G A N T I O O C N A L L C A A T I S T R O N A U LIMITED EXPOSITION SPACE AVAILABLE 92% SOLD OUT – ACT NOW ENGAGE: Thousands of U.S. and international delegates from industry, government, and academia, including the world’s most influential experts, innovative technologists, and decision makers. INFLUENCE: Meet policymakers and their staff to share your organizations past contributions and future successes during Public Policy Day. STAND OUT: Enhance your presence on a global stage through sponsorships that fit any budget, promoting your brand in unique ways. Don’t miss the World’s Premier Global Space Event! GET STARTED TODAY iac2019.org/exhibit-and-sponsor SPACE: The Power of the Past, the Promise of the Future ORGANIZERS PARTNERS INDUSTRY ANCHOR SPONSOR IAA I S ‧ NT IAA I IAA I C ‧ E S ‧ NT S NT I R C ‧ E C ‧ ‧ E T I R I R U N T T A N N A U U A A T A N A T T I O N N O I I O O N O O R N N A T R R A L A T S T A L L S S A A A C F A A A O C D C F F Y E M A A O O D D Y E Y E M M FEATURES | July/August 2019 20 36 42 10 Why Apollo 11 Learning from Putting robots Homo sapiens still matters the MAX on the moon When Neil Armstrong The investigations A robotic “meet up” astronauta and Buzz Aldrin into two fatal with astronauts could landed on the moon, crashes continue, enhance NASA’s 2024 Manipulating human genes to it was so much more and one focus is pilot lunar mission. enhance astronauts’ ability to live than a technological training for handling beyond the magnetosphere may achievement. emergencies caused By Gordon Roesler become the next step in preparing by automation. By John M. Logsdon them for work in deep space. By Jan Tegler By Adam Hadhazy Above: NASA astronaut Anne McClain participates in an experiment onboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | JULY/AUGUST 2019 | 1 WILLIAM H. PICKERING LECTURE Rocketing to the Future: Space Electric Propulsion 19 August 2019 | JW Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana OPEN TO THE PUBLIC One of NASA’s most remarkable interplanetary missions, the Dawn Eight deep-space exploration missions with electric propulsion spacecraft, used ion propulsion to orbit and explore the two have been launched and yet we have just scratched the surface largest uncharted worlds in the inner solar system, dwarf planet of what electric propulsion can do. Under development in 20 Ceres (2015–2018) and protoplanet Vesta (2011–2012). Dawn is countries around the world, electric propulsion will continue to the only spacecraft ever to orbit a body in the main asteroid see widespread use on commercial communication satellites belt, the only spacecraft to orbit a dwarf planet, and the only with likely prolific use in large constellations in low altitude spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial destinations. Dawn’s orbits. It will be used for exciting new deep-space robotic mission would have been impossible without its xenon-fueled ion science missions. Higher power versions are expected to benefit propulsion system, which ultimately provided a total effective all forms of planetary defense techniques, human missions to velocity change of 11.5 km/s (25,700 miles per hour) — comparable Mars, and asteroid mining, and advanced versions will ultimately to that provided by the entire three-stage Delta II launch enable rapid transportation throughout the solar system. vehicle that started the spacecraft on its deep-space journey. The Pickering Lecture will describe this extraordinary space Ion propulsion is a type of space electric propulsion, a technology propulsion technology and how Dawn and other missions take that has now been used on nearly 600 spacecraft. Over 40% advantage of it to accomplish amazing interplanetary adventures. of commercial geosynchronous satellites launched in recent years rely on the extraordinary capability of this technology. aiaa.org/PickeringLecture2019 SPEAKERS: JOHN BROPHY MARC RAYMAN Expert in Space Electric Dawn Mission Director, Propulsion, JPL Fellow JPL Chief Engineer for Operations and Science, JPL Fellow The William H. Pickering Lecture is named for the former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director, to honor his initiation and leadership of America’s unmanned scientific space program, from Explorer I in 1958 through the development of the Viking orbiters and the Voyager outer planet and interstellar missions. The lecture is open to all attendees and the general public. IN THIS ISSUE AEROSPACE★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ AMERICA JULY/AUGUST 2019, VOL. 57, NO. 7 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Adam Hadhazy Ben Iannotta Adam reports on astrophysics and technology. His work has appeared in [email protected] Discover and New Scientist magazines. ASSOCIATE EDITOR PAGE 10 Karen Small [email protected] STAFF REPORTER Cat Hofacker John M. Logsdon [email protected] John is professor emeritus at George Washington University and has written EDITOR, AIAA BULLETIN Christine Williams books on the space policies of U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan. He founded GW’s Space Policy Institute in 1987 and directed it until 2008. [email protected] He is editor of “The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration.” EDITOR EMERITUS PAGE 20 Jerry Grey CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Adam Hadhazy, John M. Logsdon, Jan Tegler Robert van der Linden, Jan Tegler, Debra Werner, Jan covers a variety of subjects, including defense, for publications internationally. Frank H. Winter He’s a frequent contributor to Defense Media Network/Faircount Media Group and is the author of the book “B-47 Stratojet: Boeing’s Brilliant Bomber,” as well as a John Langford AIAA PRESIDENT general aviation pilot. Daniel L. Dumbacher PUBLISHER PAGE 36 Rodger S. Williams DEPUTY PUBLISHER ADVERTISING [email protected] Debra Werner ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN A frequent contributor to Aerospace America, Debra is also a West Coast THOR Design Studio | thor.design correspondent for Space News. PAGES 28, 64 MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION Association Vision | associationvision.com LETTERS AND CORRESPONDENCE Ben Iannotta, [email protected] DEPARTMENTS 4 Editor’s Notebook 5 8 7 Flight Path Letter to editor AeroPuzzler Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly Consider Murphy’s law Flying inverted worked in that except in August by the American Institute of Aeronautics when planning for one Denzel Washington movie, and Astronautics, Inc., at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 49 AIAA Bulletin urban air mobility but what about real life? 200 Reston, VA 20191-5807 [703-264-7500]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S., $200; 61 Career Opportunities foreign, $220. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send 9 35, 62 address changes and subscription orders to Aerospace America, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Trending Looking Back at 12700 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA, 20191-5807, New software predicts an Moon-landing coverage from Attn: A.I.A.A. Customer Service. Periodical postage aircraft’s electrical power 1969 and aviation milestones paid at Reston, Virginia, and at additional mailing demand during fl ight during World War II offi ces. Copyright 2019 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offi ce. 64 Trajectories A movie inspired a small-town Virginia boy to become a NASA engineer aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org | JULY/AUGUST 2019 | 3 EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT Apollo 11 and what’s ahead or this issue, we did not deliberate long over whether to make our Apollo 11 anniversary section An artist’s impression the cover story. As important as it is to look back at the moon landing 50 years ago in July [see of the European Space pages 20-35], we decided that the cover should air a possible solution to the greatest obstacle to Agency’s Heracles spacecraft arriving at the humans living and working in deep space. proposed lunar Gateway. Human biology cannot survive for very long outside of Earth’s protective magnetosphere. European Space Agency FHumans would be pummeled by deadly radiation if we tried to set up shop permanently on Mars or elsewhere in the solar system. Today, humanity doesn’t actually have the choice outlined by Jeff Bezos when he accepted the 2016 Collier Trophy on behalf of his company Blue Origin. “Either we stay here on Earth and have this civiliza- tion of stasis, or we expand into the solar system and have a dynamic, exciting civilization of exploration and pioneering,” Bezos said. Toying with our genes sounds like an outlandish way to expand into the solar system. But colonization sounds outlandish too, so maybe the answer needs to match. Of course, there could be other answers. If Earth can create a magnetosphere, perhaps humans can too. Or maybe the solution lies in materials and structures or in taking shelter in natural structures such as volcanic caverns. Whatever the answer, advocates of space colonization should make sure that humans can survive in deep space, less their ex- uberance draws more money than warranted to the fun stuff like deep space rovers, transports, mining tools and habitats.
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