1 6 ,-/9Ê"Ê7- /" Aeronautics & Astronautics " ÊvÊÊ , Autumn 2009 Highflight On the Fast Track: UW A&A partners with Lamborghini to build lighter, faster cars with composite materials PAGE 4 In This Issue Message From the Chair Message from the Chair 2 Once again it designed Web site, which we think is a Alum on Hubble Mission 3 has been a busy, vast improvement. Lamborghini Partnership 4-5 eventful year since All these events and developments are New MAE-CMS Degree 5 our last publication. described in further detail in this issue of Student Built Rocket 6 We were much Highfl ight. New Faculty and Staff 7 in the news this Varanasi Fellowship 8 year as two of This academic year will be my last one as Remembering Prof. Ganzer 8 Adam Bruckner our alumni (Tony department chair, a role in which I have Alumni Updates 9-11 Antonelli, MS ’02, served since July 1, 1998. Some time ago 2009 Distinguished Alum 9 and Greg Johnson, BS ’77) soared into I agreed to serve two years beyond my In Memoriam 11 space. Here on Earth, eight Lamborghinis second term, so the time to pass the New Website 12 drove up to the front of Guggenheim Hall baton is approaching. The search for my in early October to help us celebrate the successor will begin offi cially in January, opening of Professor Feraboli’s Automobili and the selection will be announced in Lamborghini Advanced Composites spring. Because this search will be internal, Department News Structures Laboratory. Our students had whoever takes over the department’s great successes building and fl ying radio- reins next July will be no stranger to us. control planes and sounding rockets in After I step down, I will continue in my UW Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics is ranked 13th national collegiate competitions. In addition, role as a professor, resuming my full-time best in nation for undergraduate the department just launched a new teaching and research activities. My years aerospace education and 19th best composites-focused master’s degree, with at the helm of A&A have been more for graduate aerospace education Professor Kuen Lin at the helm, and it has interesting and exciting than I had ever by US News & World Report. already taken off, especially among Boeing expected when I fi rst accepted the job. It Professors Dana Dabiri and Kristi engineers. We have new faculty and staff has truly been an honor and a pleasure to Morgansen were promoted to who are already actively contributing to serve the department all these years and associate professors with tenure. our mission. You can now keep up-to-date work with such wonderful faculty, staff, Professor Keith Holsapple is with us on Facebook, and via our newly students and alumni. serving on the National Academies NRC review panel to define and Adam Bruckner assess the threat and mitigation strategies for asteroid impacts on the Earth. A report will be delivered to Congress this fall. Professor Holsapple also had an Class of asteroid named after him. Asteroid Holsapple (or 20360) is a main- 1946 belt asteroid discovered in 1998. Please help us identify Professor Mehran Mesbahi was a those in this historic featured speaker at the 2009 UW photo whose names Distinguished Teaching Awards Showcase, presenting a lecture we don’t know. Send titled, “Fly Me to the Moon: information to: Johannes Kepler and the Science of highfl ight@ Spacecraft Orbits.” aa.washington.edu Professors Uri Shumlak, Brian Nelson, and Research Scientist Raymond Golingo received a This picture was provided to us by John Zachary (BS ’46). Other alumni and faculty we were able to identify are, L-R: 1st Row: ??, Steve Douglas, Prof. Fred Eastman, ??, ??; 2nd patent for their “Plasma-Based Row: Donald Stream, David Douglas, Prof. Victor Martin, ??, L.K.W. Hope, ??;3rd Row: ??, EUV Light Source.” Harold Froelich, Albert Porter, John Zachary, Robert Smith; 4th Row: Harry Farmer, Raymond Sullivan, Richard Fitzsimmons (’96 Distinguished Alum), George Philips, Bud Naslund, Prof. James Dwinnel (’93 Distinguished Alum) 2 Highfl ight, Autumn 2009 A&A Alum Greg Johnson Pilots Hubble Repair Mission Omega Centauri from Hubble. A&A alum Greg Johnson (BS ’77) first shaking than in the heard about Hubble in 1998, on his simulator — 7.5 second day working at NASA. He could million pounds of hardly have imagined that his first space thrust and high-energy flight would be a seat on the last Hubble physics at its best.” An servicing mission, a highly coveted alarm sounding one assignment. second after launch and another 30 The results are stunning. One of the first seconds later diverted images taken by the rejuvenated Hubble his attention from Space Telescope blazes with 100,000 stars shaking to trouble- residing in the crowded core of Omega shooting, but he and Centauri, the biggest star cluster in the mission commander Milky Way. “It looks like lots of Christmas Scott Altman found no Photo courtesy of NASA lights with red giants, young yellow stars, major problems. Astronaut Greg Johnson in space with UW A&A banner. and cooling blue stars,” said Greg, pilot on the Atlantis crew that flew the last service Johnson explains the mission to Hubble. “I’m just ecstatic to see pilot’s role as the mission jack-of-all- more than 500 landings and 9,000 flight the new images. They are ten times better trades, schedule tracker for daunting 17- hours in 50 aircraft types. He then joined than previous ones. Astronomers are hour work days, and backup to the NASA as a test pilot for the KC-135 beside themselves, and the public is commander. “It’s co-pilot duty, but microgravity plane and high-altitude WB- excited too.” astronaut pilots don’t like that title,” 57. “There was only one other flying job in Johnson admitted with a laugh. He handled the universe I wanted,” he said. That job The new images are the reward for many of the thruster burns to position provided a spectacular view, dramatic accomplishing all goals on a difficult and Atlantis so Altman could fly it in close to sunrises and sunsets, and a role in keeping risky mission. The seven astronauts spent Hubble, and had a brief stint at the Hubble alive to expand our knowledge of 12 plus days orbiting 350 miles above the controls after reentering the Earth’s the universe. earth in a zone with more space debris atmosphere on the flight home. He’s still than at the 220-mile altitude of the amazed at “having my hands on a $2 International Space Station. billion space ship — big, complicated, and On November 4th, Greg Johnson partici- Five space walks enabled the astronauts 250,000 pounds, but very responsive.” pated in the College of Engineering’s Fall Lecture Series with a presenta- to equip Hubble with a powerful $132 It’s a long way from the seaplanes Johnson tion to more than 700 people titled, million camera, a new spectrograph, six flew for Kenmore Air to pay his way gyroscopes, batteries, and other through the UW, also helped along by a “Eye on the Universe: Final Mission to equipment. Hubble should be “good to Boeing scholarship. A&A chair Adam Hubble.” Johnson also gave a preview go” for at least another five years, peering Bruckner remembers him as a smart, seminar to A&A students and faculty. into the depths of the universe and attentive student who sat in the front row. He discussed his time at the UW, his beaming back images and data. experiences as a Navy and NASA test “My A&A studies taught me the value of pilot, and his selection as a NASA as- His thoughts when the auxiliary power critical thinking and making decisions units turned on a few minutes before based on data,” Johnson said. Even among tronaut, as well as the Hubble servicing liftoff on May 11? “This is not a simulation. NASA’s engineers and scientists he stands mission. At the end, Johnson, presented We’re going!” out as a “show me the data” guy. the department with the UW A&A banner he carried into space with him! No doubt about that when the engines lit After UW, Johnson entered the Navy, up and Johnson felt “a whole lot more becoming a top aircraft carrier pilot, with Reprinted from The Trend in Engineering, Autumn 2009 Highfl ight, Autumn 2009 3 UW and Lamborghini Partner to Build a Lighter, Faster Car With Composite Materials A partnership between the UW they are the present of structural and the Italian sports car company materials for anything that’s high- Automobili Lamborghini was formalized, performance, whether it’s aerospace or as the presidents of both organizations golf clubs or sports cars,” said lab director attended the naming ceremony of the Paolo Feraboli, A&A assistant professor. UW’s Automobili Lamborghini Advanced “Monolithic materials like aluminum just Composite Structures Laboratory on won’t cut it anymore.” October 6, 2009. Feraboli, a native of Italy, earned his The UW is the fi rst university in the undergraduate degree in Bologna and country to collaborate with Lamborghini. worked at Lamborghini on composite The company has committed to provide materials in 2001 and 2002. He continued substantial funding for lab equipment a relationship with Lamborghini while and support for UW undergraduate and establishing the Advanced Composite graduate students. Structures Laboratory in 2007. “This partnership is a win-win situation,” The lab’s equipment includes a lightning- said Matthew O’Donnell, dean of the strike generator for simulated lightning UW College of Engineering.