Aerospace News

Aerospace student team aims for deep space

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 14:15:46 +0000

Aerospace student team aims for deep space Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/03/2016 - 08:15

A CU Boulder student team has been named a finalist in NASA’s CubeQuest Challenge small satellite design and launch competition. The team received the news in a conference call with NASA, according to Alec Forsman, an aerospace graduate student and the team’s project manager.

“I was nervous. We had a really strong entry, but we knew the other teams would, too,” Forsman says.

The competition is focused on finding innovative solutions to deep space communications using small spacecraft. It has had multiple stages, with teams presenting increasingly detailed satellite design plans to NASA at each level. It’s a lot of work, but comes with a big prize at the end for the top three teams: a slot for their satellites on NASA’s unmanned Orion Exploration Mission-1, which is set to fly in 2018.

The team’s CubeSat, named CU Earth Escape Explorer (CU-E3), is being designed and built in a graduate projects class taught by aerospace engineering sciences professor Scott Palo.

“It’s an honor to get this far, and [it] shows the quality of our students and work. We have the chance to be one of the first deep space CubeSats, which is really exciting,” Palo says.

If they’re successful, the mission would take CU-E3 more than 2.5-million miles into space, to an eventual orbit more than ten times the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Most CubeSats stay much closer to home – orbiting only a few hundred miles above the earth – and Palo says being so far away presents the team with unique technological challenges.

“We can’t use the same antennas or positioning tools, because they only work when you’re close to the Earth. We’re creating novel designs that haven’t been done before, and we want to show that a small, less expensive satellite can be useful in deep space,” Palo says.

The contest just wrapped up its third round with the CU-E3 team placing third. As one of the top-five ranking entries, the team is receiving $30,000 to continue development. This is not the project’s first award from NASA; CU Boulder placed fourth and earned $30,000 in the second round. If they make the final cut, they will be in the running for additional awards worth up to $1.5 million.

With the earlier design stages of the competition now complete, Forsman says they’re moving into actual construction. “Our plans are finalized and we will start ordering flight hardware almost immediately."

They will be working fast. The satellite is is set to be delivered to NASA in December 2017.

November 3, 2016 Original Article

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New partnership with Lockheed Martin forges research, career opportunities for students

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 00:40:22 +0000

New partnership with Lockheed Martin forges research, career opportunities for students Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/25/2016 - 18:40

Paige Anderson Arthur got hooked on science fiction and the prospect of space travel when she started watching Star Trek at age 13. Now, the Denver native is immersed in aerospace engineering at CU Boulder, which is why she joined in the celebration Thursday as a new $3 million partnership with global aerospace industry leader Lockheed Martin was announced.

The partnership -- one of many between Lockheed Martin and CU -- establishes new academic programs aimed at cultivating the next generation of space engineers.

The Lockheed Martin Radio Frequency (RF) Space Systems Research Center will boost engineering expertise at the college and create new curriculum to fill in-demand skills in the space sector. Spread over four years, the sponsorship will establish new academic programs focused on radio frequency (RF) systems. RF fields address commercial, civil and military needs for communications, radar and photonics. Engineers in this field will develop innovative approaches for tracking, navigation and spacecraft control as well as next-generation global navigation technologies.

For Anderson Arthur, a senior, it means more opportunities and connections. Already, she has worked at the Colorado Space Grant Consortium on a balloon payload project called HELIOS and on a small project called PropSat, a propulsion module for a cubesat. During her junior year, she worked at BioServe Space Technologies, an on-campus center that engineers biological experiments for the International Space Station. This past summer, Anderson Arthur worked at Lockheed Martin on a lunar cubesat called SkyFire, and this year she will be working on a Lockheed Martin-sponsored senior project at CU.

"This is an amazing opportunity," Anderson Arthur said. "I didn't expect to do this much hands-on stuff this early. It's really cool to apply what I learn before I even graduate."

Radio frequency everywhere
Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin’s chief technology officer, announced the partnership during a day of meetings, presentations and tours of campus research laboratories.

"Each person depends on RF technology in one way or another, from television and radio, to phone communications, to GPS navigation," Jackson said. "As the complexity of our satellite systems and national security solutions grows, so does our demand for world-class talent. This partnership ensures that University of Colorado graduates have the skills they need to build the systems of the future while also advancing Lockheed Martin’s ability to develop revolutionary and relevant innovation."

Terri Fiez, vice chancellor for research, and Robert Davis, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, also made remarks.

"We're really kindred spirits in being about innovation and having innovation in our DNA," Fiez said. "CU Boulder is really doubling down on innovation and entrpreneurship...This partnership is really going to reinforce that."

The partnership creates:

A new master's of science in electrical engineering with an RF focus.
A new established path for bachelor’s degree students in Aerospace Engineering Sciences to obtain a master’s degree in electrical engineering. Similarly, those pursuing an electrical engineering bachelor’s degree will have a path to obtain a master’s degree in aerospace engineering sciences.
A Lockheed Martin Chair of RF Engineering, a faculty position dedicated to RF teaching and research.
A Lockheed Martin Faculty Fellow, a professor supporting research and academic activities of a key faculty member in the new educational programs.
Lockheed Martin Graduate Fellowships, consisting of graduate students working at Lockheed Martin or on projects relevant to the company.
Students and graduates will be able to take advantage of the RF Payload Center of Excellence at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Canyon site, which is the company’s hub for RF space technology development. The program has created the opportunity for six students thus far to learn the intricacies of satellite radio development.

Real-world experience
Andrew Wylde, a concurrent bachelor’s/master’s student specializing in RF and analog design as part of the RF Academy Co-Op program developed in partnership with Lockheed Martin, said the new agreement equals even more opportunity.

"There's a lot you can get your hands on and involved with in terms of hardware," said Wylde, whose interest in radio and how things work may have started when he dismantled and -- at his mother's urging -- reassembled a VCR as a kid.

Lockheed Martin employees will also benefit from the new relationship. For example, the new RF-focused degree programs will offer unique skills training for employees who want to take advantage of opportunities in the RF Payload Center of Excellence, which has added over 60 jobs in the past six months.

The CU research center continues a strong partnership between the university and Lockheed Martin, a relationship that funds joint research programs, supports student design projects and facilitated a cubesat mission. Lockheed Martin has sponsored nearly $7 million in research at CU and is working to start new projects totaling $650,000 by the end of the year. In 2015 Lockheed Martin hired graduates from 15 CU majors. The corporation employs more than 500 alumni working in its Space Systems division alone.

August 25, 2016 Original Article

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Grand Challenge expanded and enhanced by new projects

Anonymous — Wed, 04 May 2016 15:07:18 +0000

Grand Challenge expanded and enhanced by new projects Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/04/2016 - 09:07

CU-Boulder’s Grand Challenge, launched in September 2014, is the university’s response to President Obama’s nationwide call for companies, research universities, foundations and philanthropists to pursue the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century, “ambitious but achievable goals that harness science, technology, and innovation to solve important national or global problems and that have the potential to capture the public’s imagination.”

“Our Space, Our Future” fuses CU-Boulder’s unique strengths in earth, space and social sciences with new technologies and partners to address the pace and pattern of changes for our environment, our resources and our planet.

The grants, awarded by the Offices of the Provost and the Vice Chancellor for Research, introduce new and promising research into the already vibrant mix of Grand Challenge projects, enhancing directions already underway and expanding into new and exciting areas of opportunity.

FieldView: Using Mobile Devices to Blend Data Collection and Analysis for Field Research. (PI: Danielle Szafir, CMCI)
Multi-Scale Modeling and Measurement of Ecosystem Sensitivity to Water and Energy Availability. (PIs: Lauren Tomkinson and Noah Molotch, INSTAAR)
Grand Challenge Seed Grant: Bringing Innovative Data Science Down to Earth. (PI: Lisa Dilling, ENVS)
Wonder, Space, and the Arts. (PI: Valerio Ferme, French and Italian)
Aligning Incentives - Promoting Values and Innovation in UAS Research. (PI: Jill Dupre, ATLAS)
Earth Lab’s Human Dimension: Integrating Fine-Grained Data on Human Activity for Advanced Understanding of Environmental Change. (PI: Stefan Leyk, Geography)

The Grand Challenge grants were awarded as part of the Innovative Seed Grant Program, which for the first time this year provided a new and unique opportunity for faculty to become part of the campus Grand Challenge.

For more information on this program and other funding opportunities, visit the website of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

May 4, 2016 Original Article

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