SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “undergraduate”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 343 records · Page 19

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1991

Viewgraph description of Penn State's Propulsion Engineering Research Center: Activity highlights and future plans

Viewgraphs are presented that describe the progress and status of Penn State's Propulsion Engineering Research Center. The Center was established in Jul. 1988 by a grant from NASA's University Space Engineering Research Centers Program. After two and one-half years of operation, some 16 faculty are participating, and the Center is supporting 39 graduate students plus 18 undergraduates. In reviewing the Center's status, long-term plans and goals are reviewed and then the present status of the Center and the highlights and accomplishments of the past year are summarized. An overview of plans for the upcoming year are presented.

Merkle, Charles L.↗

NASA NTRS1990

MIT Space Engineering Research Center

The Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) at MIT, started in Jul. 1988, has completed two years of research. The Center is approaching the operational phase of its first testbed, is midway through the construction of a second testbed, and is in the design phase of a third. We presently have seven participating faculty, four participating staff members, ten graduate students, and numerous undergraduates. This report reviews the testbed programs, individual graduate research, other SERC activities not funded by the Center, interaction with non-MIT organizations, and SERC milestones. Published papers made possible by SERC funding are included at the end of the report.

Crawley, Edward F.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Propellant production and useful materials: Hardware data from components and the systems

During the past year significant progress included: a major breakthrough in oxygen production through discs (instead of tubes) that resulted in two orders-of-magnitude increase in the yield rates, proving that oxygen production from any iron-bearing silicate (avoiding costly beneficiation) in lunar in-situ resource utilization (ISRU); construction of a half-scale robotic soil processor; production of melt-spun fibers in a solar furnace; and the culmination of first-stage research in the construction (and delivery to NASA LaRC) of a self-contained portable oxygen plant that incorporates the first generation ISRU technologies developed at UA SERC. In addition, further reductions in mass and power needs were achieved in two smaller oxygen plants, which, however, have far greater production rates. SERC continued to attract bright students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and several area high school students through the Professional Internship Program (PIP) administered by the local school district. Invited lectures at elementary schools continue to draw enthusiastic response. Another important first was the creation of the Freshman Colloquium, 'Space in Our Future, and Our Future in Space,' geared toward women and minority students. This course proved to be a success, with more than one-half of the enrollment composed of women. In recognition of these important contributions, the author was appointed to the NRC Committee on Space Science Technologies.

Ramohalli, Kumar↗

NASA NTRS1993

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 28: The technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, two studies were conducted that investigated the technical communication practices of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies had the same five objectives: first, to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions; second, to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists; third, to seek their views about the appropriate content of the undergraduate course in technical communication; fourth, to determine aerospace engineers' and scientists' use of libraries, technical information centers, and on-line databases; and fifth, to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. A self administered questionnaire was distributed to Russian aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and to their U.S. counterparts at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center. The completion rates for the Russian and U.S. surveys were 64 and 61 percent, respectively. Responses of the Russian and U.S. participants to selected questions are presented in this paper.

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Project ARES 2: High-altitude battery-powered aircraft

A high-altitude, battery-powered, propeller-driven aircraft was designed and is being built by undergraduate students at California State University, Northridge. The aircraft will fly at an altitude of 104,000 ft at Mach 0.2 (190 ft/sec) and will be instrumented to record flight performance data, including low Reynolds number propeller and airfoil information. This project will demonstrate the feasibility of electric-powered flight in a low-density, low-temperature Earth environment that models the atmosphere of Mars. Data collected will be used to design a Mars aircraft to investigate the surface of Mars prior to manned missions. The instrumented payload and the mission profile for the high-altitude Earth flight were determined. Detailed aerodynamic and structural analyses were performed. Control, tracking, and data recording subsystems were developed. Materials were obtained and fabrication begun. The aircraft has a 32-ft wing span, a wing area of 105 sq ft, is 17.5 ft long, has a 12-in payload bay, and weighs 42 lb. It is composed primarily of lightweight materials, including Mylar, and composite materials, including graphite/epoxy and aramid core honeycomb sandwich. Low-altitude flight testing to check guidance and control systems and to calibrate data-gathering instruments will take place this summer, followed shortly by the 104,000-ft flight.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1991

Design study to simulate the development of a commercial transportation system

Seven teams of senior-level Aerospace Engineering undergraduates were given a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a design concept of a remotely piloted vehicle (RPV). The RPV designs were intended to simulate commercial transport aircraft within the model of 'Aeroworld.' The Aeroworld model was developed so that the RPV designs would be subject to many of the engineering problems and tradeoffs that dominate real-world commercial air transport designs, such as profitability, fuel efficiency, range vs. payload capabilities, and ease of production and maintenance. As part of the proposal, each team was required to construct a prototype and validate its design with a flight demonstration.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1991

Mars habitat

The College of Engineering & Architecture at Prairie View A&M University has been participating in the NASA/USRA Advanced Design Program since 1986. The interdisciplinary nature of the program allowed the involvement of students and faculty throughout the College of Engineering & Architecture for the last five years. The research goal for the 1990-1991 year is to design a human habitat on Mars that can be used as a permanent base for 20 crew members. The research is being conducted by undergraduate students from the Department of Architecture.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1991

The 1990-1991 project summaries

The Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin participated in the NASA/USRA University Advanced Design Program on both an undergraduate and a graduate level during the 1990-91 academic year. The focus of study was on four design projects that fall into one of the following areas: (1) the establishment of a lunar base and (2) mission planet Earth. The design projects were incorporated into already existing design courses and students worked together in groups of three to five. A background of each area of study is provided, along with synopses, conclusions, and recommendations for further study for each design project.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1993

Materials education activities

Last year, at NEW: Update '91, a panel discussion was held to address the unique difficulties of attracting and retaining minorities and women in technical studies. Unfortunately, retention in technical majors is a problem of varying proportions for the entire student population, and must be improved in order to maintain the strength of the nation's industrial base. To investigate the cause of student attrition in technical majors, in-depth interviews of both current and former (non-graduating) engineering students at four colleges and universities in Colorado were conducted by Hewitt and Seymour. They found that there was no significant difference in the level of high school preparation and undergraduate academic performance in these two groups, despite the prevailing faculty perception that most students who switch from technical to nontechnical majors were underprepared. The majority of engineering students who changed majors reported that they were turned off by science, while one-third complained of poor teaching.

Ries, Heidi R.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Making space part of general education

General education reform is on-going at many universities to, in part, make undergraduate students more technically literate. The space program provides an area of study that is still exciting to students, provides technical content, and can incorporate the other goals. Additionally, human space activity contains international and interdisciplinary dimensions that can reach students outside of the technical disciplines. The development and contents of a space education course to become part of the university's general education program open to all students is presented. Included in the presentation is a listing of the course materials to be used by the students.

Horan, Stephen↗

NASA NTRS1993

Graduate level design - Courses and projects: An untapped resource

The authors describe their experiences at a major space engineering university (the University of Texas at Austin) in the use of graduate level design courses and projects to produce information and tools that are of use to undergraduate design classes, graduate students, and industry. The information produced to date includes a spacecraft subsystems information document, a mission design tool (a FORTRAN subroutine library), a series of space mission characterizations, and a set of spacecraft characterizations.

Dubrawsky, Ido↗

NASA NTRS1993

Mission design software development at the University of Texas at Austin

This paper describes the development process, the contents, the update process, and the various uses of a space mission planning FORTRAN subroutine library. This document is written by graduate (and undergraduate) students at the University of Texas at Austin and is used by students in several courses, primarily design courses. The library has been made available to faculty and students at several schools and was provided to students at the 1991 International Space University in Toulouse, France. This paper describes the mission library, its creation, its checking, its update procedure, and the teaching philosophy and procedures involved in its use.

Fowler, Wallace T.↗

NASA NTRS1993

The technical communication practices of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists

Pinelli, Thomas E.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Student contributions to the EUVE project

A program under which some 30 undergraduates participate in the EUVE project is briefly reviewed. The paper summarizes students' contributions to the project, the types of projects and tasks handled by the students, and skills developed as a result of the program.

Moriarta, Jennifer↗

NASA NTRS1988

Aircraft integrated design and analysis: A classroom experience

AAE 451 is the capstone course required of all senior undergraduates in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. During the past year the first steps of a long evolutionary process were taken to change the content and expectations of this course. These changes are the result of the availability of advanced computational capabilities and sophisticated electronic media availability at Purdue. This presentation will describe both the long range objectives and this year's experience using the High Speed Commercial Transport (HSCT) design, the AIAA Long Duration Aircraft design and a Remotely Piloted Vehicle (RPV) design proposal as project objectives. The central goal of these efforts was to provide a user-friendly, computer-software-based, environment to supplement traditional design course methodology. The Purdue University Computer Center (PUCC), the Engineering Computer Network (ECN), and stand-alone PC's were used for this development. This year's accomplishments centered primarily on aerodynamics software obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center and its integration into the classroom. Word processor capability for oral and written work and computer graphics were also blended into the course. A total of 10 HSCT designs were generated, ranging from twin-fuselage and forward-swept wing aircraft, to the more traditional delta and double-delta wing aircraft. Four Long Duration Aircraft designs were submitted, together with one RPV design tailored for photographic surveillance. Supporting these activities were three video satellite lectures beamed from NASA/Langley to Purdue. These lectures covered diverse areas such as an overview of HSCT design, supersonic-aircraft stability and control, and optimization of aircraft performance. Plans for next year's effort will be reviewed, including dedicated computer workstation utilization, remote satellite lectures, and university/industrial cooperative efforts.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS1989

Overview of the Center for Space Construction

The purpose of this overview is to outline the position of the Center for Space Construction within the context of space-related programs at the University of Colorado. the University's historically strong research and graduate programs in space science and its strong undergraduate aerospace engineering program were the starting point in 1984 for a major expansion of space-related education and research programs at the Boulder campus. This initiative has resulted in a tripling of space-related research as well as a large increase in the enrollment of high quality engineering students, particularly at the graduate level. The Center for Space Construction is a major element of this initiative, since it represents a mechanism for interdisciplinary and system level research and education within the Engineering College, thus filling a major need. Seventeen faculty members and 37 students from 7 academic units are associated with the Center and are interacting with each other and with the CSC Associates (a group of industrial organizations and government laboratories). The first Ph.D. has been awarded to a student working in the Center; the second Ph.D. is expected later this year. Several new courses have been introduced in the College. Finally, excellent research is being conducted and Center participants are publishing in the open literature.

Hearth, Donald P.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Computer aided system engineering for space construction

This viewgraph presentation covers the following topics. Construction activities envisioned for the assembly of large platforms in space (as well as interplanetary spacecraft and bases on extraterrestrial surfaces) require computational tools that exceed the capability of conventional construction management programs. The Center for Space Construction is investigating the requirements for new computational tools and, at the same time, suggesting the expansion of graduate and undergraduate curricula to include proficiency in Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) though design courses and individual or team projects in advanced space systems design. In the center's research, special emphasis is placed on problems of constructability and of the interruptability of planned activity sequences to be carried out by crews operating under hostile environmental conditions. The departure point for the planned work is the acquisition of the MCAE I-DEAS software, developed by the Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC), and its expansion to the level of capability denoted by the acronym IDEAS**2 currently used for configuration maintenance on Space Station Freedom. In addition to improving proficiency in the use of I-DEAS and IDEAS**2, it is contemplated that new software modules will be developed to expand the architecture of IDEAS**2. Such modules will deal with those analyses that require the integration of a space platform's configuration with a breakdown of planned construction activities and with a failure modes analysis to support computer aided system engineering (CASE) applied to space construction.

Racheli, Ugo↗

NASA NTRS1989

High altitude reconnaissance aircraft design

A Universities Space Research Association (USRA) sponsored (undergraduate) study is presented on the feasibility and design of a high altitude reconnaissance/research aircraft. The aircraft mission was to carry 1,000-3,000 lb of atmospheric pollutant monitoring equipment for 1-5 hr at an altitude of 100,000-130,000 ft. Three configurations subject to the same mission requirements were studied in detail. The three designs analyzed were the tandem-wing-twin-boom, joined wing, and conventional twin-boom configurations. The performance of the three proposed configurations is presented and shows that high altitude flight is possible with current technology. Different possible propulsion systems were investigated and suggestions are made for further investigation and better optimization of the designs.

Poladian, D.↗