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September/October 2011 Issue Volume 37, Issue 2 AIAA Houston Section www.aiaa-houston.org September / October 2011 HubbleCongressman Revisited on NASA’s Pete 50th Olson Anniversary AIAA Houston Section Dinner Meeting Speaker AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2011 Page 1 September / October 2011 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S From the Chair / AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium 3 HOUSTON From the Editor 4 Horizons is a bimonthly publication of the Houston Section GRAIL Takes a Roundabout Route to Lunar Orbit, by Dan Adamo 6 of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Congressman Pete Olson, Guest Speaker at our Section’s Dinner Meeting 10 Douglas Yazell Editor “High Altitude”, a Rocket Launch Competition for High School Students 12 Past Editors: Jon Berndt & Dr. Steven Everett Norman Augustine at Rice: The Greatest Obstacle to Human Space Travel 16 Editing team: Don Kulba, Ellen Gillespie, Robert Bere- mand The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport 17 Regular contributors: Dr. Steven Everett, Don Kulba, Philippe Mairet, Alan Simon, Shen Ge, Scott Lowther Project Leyel, by Jean-Luc Chanel of our French Sister Section 18 Contributors this issue: Daniel Adamo, Glenda Reyes, Dr. Benjamin Longmier, Carlos Salamanca, Jean-Luc 100 Year Starship Symposium, by Douglas Yazell 21 Chanel Shuttle-Derived Personnel Launch Vehicle, by Scott Lowther 22 AIAA Houston Section Executive Council Current Events 24 Staying Informed: Mike Moses (Virgin Galactic), James C. McLane III 25 Daniel Nobles Irene Chan Chair-Elect Secretary Section News (AIAA Houston Section) 26 Sarah Shull John Kostrzewski Page 28: Calendar, Page 29: Cranium Cruncher & NASA SLS Graphic 28 Past Chair Treasurer The Experimental Aircraft Association, EAA Chapter 12 (Houston) 30 Julie Read Vice-Chair, Operations Dr. Satya Pilla Aeronautics & Astronautics Artwork, by Don Kulba 31 Vice-Chair, Technical Operations List of Conference Papers by AIAA Houston Section Authors 32 Dr. Gary Turner Technical The Back Cover (NASA GRAIL Spacecraft Launch Vehicle Image) 36 Angela Beck Dr. Albert A. Jackson IV Shen Ge Bebe Kelly-Serrato Horizons and AIAA Houston Web Site Melissa Gordon Dr. Zafar Taqvi AIAA National Communications Award Winner Lisa Voiles Bill Atwell Rafael Munoz Sheikh Ahsan Svetlana Hanson William West Michael Frostad Paul Nielson Dr. Benjamin Longmier Dr. Steven E. Everett Matthew Easterly Gary Brown Douglas Yazell Dr. Kamlesh Lulla Gary Cowan Ludmila Dmitriev-Odier Joel Henry Alan Sisson 2005 2006 2007 This newsletter is created by members of the Houston section. Opinions expressed herein other than Sean Carter by elected Houston section officers belong solely to the authors and do not necessarily represent the Chair position of AIAA or the Houston section. Unless explicitly stated, in no way are the comments of Councilors individual contributors to Horizons to be construed as necessarily the opinion or position of AIAA, NASA, its contractors, or any other organization. All articles in Horizons, unless otherwise noted, Ellen Gillespie are the property of the individual contributors. Reproduction/republishing in any form except lim- Brian Banker ited excerpts with attribution to the source, will require the express approval of the individual au- Matt Johnson thors. Please address all newsletter correspondence to editor-in-chief “at” aiaa-houston.org. Clay Stangle Melissa Kronenberger Sarah Barr Cover: General Joe Engle, STS-2 Commander, and our dinner meeting guest Donald Barker speaker Congressman Pete Olson. Music by Grammy nominee Lydia Salnikova. Shirley Brandt Holly Feldman Pete remembers Joe as his football coach: “Head up, tail down!” AIAA Associ- Gabe Garrett ate Fellow Michael Kezirian is also shown. Image credits: Ellen Gillespie & www.aiaa-houston.org Josh Daniels (right column), Douglas Yazell (left column). AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2011 Page 2 Page 3 Early Warning Flyer for Our Section’s Annual From the Chair Technical Symposium SEAN CARTER, CHAIR, ELLEN GILLESPIE & DR. SATYA PILLA www.aiaa-houston.org Sean Carter is generously donating the space for his column this month. Once he starts writing his Chair’s col- umn, we will have trouble limiting him to one page per issue! AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2011 Page 3 Page 4 From the Editor New Technology, New Directions DOUGLAS YAZELL, EDITOR NASA human space flight is (ESA’s) Automated Transfer NASA recently released a aiming high with a mission Vehicle, in a modified form, Global Exploration Strategy sending astronauts to an as- for the Service Module (GES). This international teroid. The team starting planned for use with the Ori- team of space agencies had NEEMO 15 (NASA Extreme on Crew Exploration Vehicle two questions in mind, “Why Environment Mission Opera- (CEV), now called the Orion are we returning to the tions) training soon includes Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Moon?”, and “What are we planetary scientist Dr. Steven (MPCV). As for funding, planning to do when we get Squyers, a well-known mem- Robert F. Thompson remind- there?” This ongoing study ber of the team from the Mars ed us that the NASA budget now focuses on two paths for Exploration Rovers (MER) was never more than 1% of the next 25 years, “Asteroid program (using the famous the national budget except Next” and “Moon Next.” robot rovers Spirit & Oppor- during the early years tunity). That fits well with the (Apollo, etc.). As long as The Department of Defense’s flexible path recommended NASA funding is based on (DoD’s) Defense Advanced by the Augustine Committee, realistic plans, things should Research Projects Agency provided that it is fully fund- go as well as possible given (DARPA) led a 100-Year ed and uses international that we hold national elec- Starship Symposium in Or- E-mail: partners in the critical path. tions on a regular basis. The lando (September 30 - Octo- editor-in-chief “at” News reports now talk about current NASA budget is ber 2, 2011), related to a aiaa-houston.org NASA’s interest in using the probably about 0.5% of the study starting in the fall of European Space Agency’s national budget. 2010 and ending on 11/11/11. DARPA will award $500,000 to a winning team to plan Right: Upcoming NASA things for sending humans to events for the Global Explo- another solar system within ration Strategy. Image credit: the next century without any NASA, http://www.nasa.gov/ more government funding. exploration/about/isecg/ Until next issue, happy land- ings! Right: From the Wings Over Houston airshow this year (October 15, 2011), a souve- nir from James C. McLane, Jr., a former AIAA Houston Section Chair. Mr. McLane was a WW II P-51D fighter pilot in 1945. In that same Legends & Heroes tent, I visited Celeste Graves (author, A View from the Doghouse, about the WASP) and Captain A.J. High, au- thor of Meant to Fly, and a volunteer at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum. Image credit: Nick King (airplane silhouette). AIAA Houston Section Horizons September / October 2011 Page 4 Page 5 GRAIL Takes a Roundabout Route to Lunar Astrodynamics Orbit DANIEL R. ADAMO, ASTRODYNAMICS CONSULTANT The Gravity Recovery and hidden from Earth over the Moon in 3 or 4 days, but a Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Moon's farside, GRAIL is more leisurely route is desira- mission departed Earth from expected to improve ble for multiple reasons. Cape Canaveral Air Force knowledge there by a factor First, the uninterrupted sea- Station Space Launch Com- of 1000. Neither GRAIL-A son of 42 viable launch days plex 17B on 2011 September nor GRAIL-B will be tracked would not have been possible 10 at 13:08 UTC, carried by a from Earth while orbiting with short lunar transits from Delta II Heavy launch vehi- over most of the Moon's far- Earth. Second, extended cle. Liftoff occurred on the side, but the two spacecraft trans-lunar cruise permits third day of a launch season will circumvent this problem spacecraft systems to be thor- lasting 42 consecutive days. by tracking each other over oughly checked and calibrat- radio links between them. ed well in advance of LOI. Twin spacecraft, currently This interface will conduct Third, LOI propulsion re- known as GRAIL-A and Ka-band ranging, while tim- quirements are appreciably GRAIL-B, were launched ing data are exchanged via S- reduced using a weak stabil- aboard the Delta II Heavy. band. An onboard gravity ity boundary interaction ob- Each had a mass of 307 kg at recovery processor assembly tained by flying to the edge launch, 106 kg of which was produces radiometric data for of interplanetary space near helium and hydrazine for tra- downlink when the Moon is the first Sun-Earth libration jectory changes by a single not blocking transmissions to point (SEL1). 22-N main engine and for Earth. Above: NASA GRAIL Mission attitude control by eight 0.9-N Located 1.5 million km from patch. Image credit: NASA thrusters. Beginning 2012 Perhaps even more interest- Earth in the sunward direc- (thanks to collectSPACE.com March 8, the spacecraft will ing to astrodynamicists are tion, SEL1 is a quasi-stable for making this easy to find) conduct their 82-day science the routes GRAIL-A and "saddle" formed as Earth's mission (spanning 3 lunar GRAIL-B will take to reach relatively minute gravity field sidereal rotations) while fly- the Moon. These trajectories gives way to the Sun's. Un- ing in the same polar lunar are the focus of this article. stable motion, equivalent to orbit, initially at a circular Although their destination is moving on the saddle's con- height of 55 km, with but 400,000 km from Earth, vex contour from stirrup to GRAIL-B leading GRAIL-A.
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