Aerospace New England - AIAA Info

Volume 46, Issue 4
Aerospace New England
Newsletter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics New England Section
Jul/Aug 2009
Section Chair
Vomit Comet Study Explains Dangers of Lunar Dust
By Christie Bielmeier, Assistant Editor
John Wilkes
jmwilkes@wpi.edu
Toxic lunar dust may be more harmful to Astronauts than previously thought. Human lung cells
exposed to toxic chemicals in altered gravity can
experience greater damage than on earth, according
to preliminary research conducted though NASA’s
Microgravity University Program. This month at
Johnson Flight Center, undergraduate students will
send a second round of toxicology experiments
aboard NASA’s zero-gravity aircraft--nicknamed
the Vomit Comet. If this year’s tests show increased
cellular breakdown, it may mean stricter chemical
regulations in manned space missions.
Vice-Chair
Vacant
Treasurer
Vacant
Secretary
Paul Klinkman
klinkman@cox.net
Newsletter Editor
“If you’re exposed to a toxic chemical--chromium,
mercury, arsenic--in altered gravity, it is 2-3 times
more harmful as on earth,” says John Wise, a senior
at University of Southern Maine (USM) and leader
for the Lung Count Team. Chromium is a heavy
metal and known carcinogen commonly found in
lunar dust. Last year, the team exposed chromium
to human lung cells aboard the Vomit Comet.
Gene Niemi
Eugene_Niemi@uml.edu
Assistant Editor
Christie Bielmeier
Student Branches
Faculty Advisors
Boston University
Flying experiments in zero gravity is the keystone of
Prof. Donald Wroblewski
dew11@enga.bu.edu
Continued on page 3
Daniel Webster College
Prof. David Guo
Adam Courtemanche (left) and John Wise, Jr. (right) working at rig. Photo courtesy of
NASA/Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program
guo_david@dwc.edu
Dartmouth College
Prof. Simon Shepherd
simon@thayer.dartmouth.edu
F r o m t h e Co c k p it
G e n e N i e m i , E d i to r
MIT
Call for Officers:
Prof. Raul Radovitzky
rapa@mit.edu
We are in need of volunteers to serve
in two of the open officer positions on
the AIAA Council: Vice-Chairman and
Treasurer.
UMASS Lowell
Prof. Eugene Niemi
eugene_niemi@uml.edu
www.dwcuml-aiaa.net
Student Chapter Webmaster:
Paul Bevillard
pbevillard@hotmail.com
At the last Council meeting, two officers
were appointed for our new fiscal year, effective immediately. They are John Wilkes,
Chairman, and Paul Klinkman, Secretary.
We still need to fill the positions of ViceChairman and Treasurer. The past officers
who held these posts will be glad to get you
started. This is a way to get involved in the local
aerospace community and have some fun times
participating in our council meetings and planning
our events. Please contact our Chairman, John
Wilkes at jmwilkes@wpi.edu for more information.
Next Council Meetings:
Weds., July 29 and Weds., August 26: These
meetings will be at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute in the Atwater Kent building- room
128 at 7:00 PM. The July meeting will be an
“open” meeting to the membership introducing Joe
Paolilli as the new policy coordinator of the chapter
Continued on page 3
Aerospace New England
Volume 46, Issue 4
Page 2
May Council Meeting and
Presentation of the Engineer of
the Year Award
MIT Commemorates Apollo 11 Landing with
“Giant Leaps” Program
On May 29, AIAA members and their guests took advantage of
the free Planetarium Show held at the Boston Museum of
Science, and the free dinner given around the corner at Dante’s
Restaurant in the Hotel Sonesta. At that time, the Branch’s
Engineer of the Year Award was presented to Ray Erikson.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing,
MIT and its Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics sponsored a series of presentations, culminating in the Giant Leaps
events held June 10 – 12.
Erikson has been a leader in his field for over 35 years. He is
the former chairman of the NE AIAA and editor of the
newsletter. He has contributed to the NASA Space Shuttle, Space
Station and countless other research projects. He is currently the
President of Boston Flight Sciences, Woburn, MA.
Photo of Ray Erikson below courtesy of Matt Jardin.
By Gene Niemi
On Wednesday, June 10 a celebration of the life of the late
Robert C. Seamans, Jr. was held. As NASA’s associate administrator, Bob Seamans was one of the principle architects of the
Apollo program. Following his stint at NASA, Seamans served
as MIT Dean of Engineering, Secretary of the Air Force, and
President of the National Academy of Engineering. In the evening, a welcome reception was held. On campus were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first two men to step foot on the
moon.
On Thursday, June 11, the main day of the event, an all day
Giant Leaps Symposium was held. During the morning sessions, participants in a panel discussed their experiences in the
space program. These people included Mr. James Shields,
President and CEO of Draper Laboratory (session sponsor); Dr.
Jeffrey Hoffman, former Space Shuttle astronaut (panel moderator); Dr. Richard Battin, Director of the Apollo guidance,
navigation and control system; Dr. Aaron Cohen, Manager of
the Apollo Command and Service module; Mr. Joseph Gavin,
Jr., Director of the Lunar Module Program; Dr. Christopher
Kraft, Jr., Director of Flight Operations for Apollo; the Honorable Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut; and Theodore Sorensen, Esq., President Kennedy’s Special Counsel and
Adviser, and primary speechwriter.
After a lunch break, afternoon panels reflected on lessons of
the space program that might be applied to the future of Air
Transportation with a special focus on energy and environmental issues (Moderator: Dr. Ian Waitz, Professor and Department Head, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, with
a keynote address by the Honorable John P. Holdren, President
Continued on page 4 (Photo below courtesy of Justin Knight)
From left to right: Hoffman, Sorensen, Battin, Cohen, Gavin, Schmitt, and Kraft
Aerospace New England
Volume 46, Issue 4
Page 3
Student Branch News:
Elections were held at both UMASS Lowell and Daniel Webster College for Student Branch officers to take effect
as of June 2009 for the next academic year. The results were as follows:
UMASS Lowell:
Daniel Webster College:
Chairman:
Bradford Olson
Chairman:
Eric Strom
Vice-Chairman:
Matthew Rzemyk
Vice-Chairman:
Daniel Dionne
Secretary:
Timothy Marinone
Secretary/Treasurer:
Kerra Johnson
Treasurer:
Charles Kinnett
We wish these officers well in having active student programs during the next academic year!
Vomit Comet Study… Cont from page 1
completed, the ground experiments are compared with flight
experiments.
the Micro U program, designed to inspire undergrads to
study space exploration. The program challenges students to
propose, design and conduct experiments. Selected teams
receive two-weeks of flight training at Johnson Space Center
and two days of flights on the Vomit Comet, which is a windowless C-9B capable of flying zero gravity trajectories.
Last year’s results were successful, but were limited in number.
This year’s experiments will reconfirm the findings and give
students more data to work with. Wise is hopeful this year’s
tests will provide more information to keep astronauts safe. If
last year’s results are upheld, it may suggest that NASA needs to
reevaluate chemical exposure levels for astronauts. Chemical
levels determined to be safe for humans on earth may need to
be drastically reduced for altered-gravity environments.
“Last year, we had no idea what to expect. We had 400 different experiments,” says Wise, a chemistry major. “It’s not a
very long time [in zero gravity]. We didn’t know if we’d find
anything.”
The Lung Count experiment focused on three aspects of cellular damage: how much damage occurred, how much chromium was inside the cells and how much DNA repair occurred.
Wise’s interest in cellular damage is part of the NASA’s return to moon mission slated for 2020. Returning to the
moon’s surface requires astronauts to interact with the ultrafine lunar dust, which snags and deposits on everything—
including human lungs. The dust’s heavy metals react
chemically with human cells. Wise hopes the Lung Count
Project will collect more answers.
This year, the experienced Lung Count Team has a larger
team: a ground crew of ten and a flight crew of three. Both
crews conduct experiments and then compare results.
One hour before flight, the ground crew gathers hundreds of
chamber slides and organizes them into cells for flight or
ground. Each slide contains human lung cells that were immortalized, or frozen for longer lifespan and repeatability.
The thawed cells are treated sodium chromate, a wellstudied carcinogen that breaks down cell DNA. Liquid sodium chromate was used in order to maintain concentration
levels--even in zero-gravity.
After takeoff, the flight crew and slides experience two hours
of 32 high-flying parabolas over the Gulf of Mexico. Each
parabola begins with a 45-degree climb that creates hypergravity, or two times earth gravity. After 30 seconds, the
plane reaches 30,000 ft and nose-dives into zero-gravity.
This 45-degree descent lasts only 25 seconds and is the onlyway to achieve zero-gravity in the earth’s atmosphere.
Since the flight experiments experience earth-gravity, hypergravity, and zero-gravity, the flight specimens are said to
have experienced altered gravity. The altered gravity exposed slides will be returned to the hanger and treatments
will continue for another hour. When all experiments are
Mining the Moon for Tomorrow’s energy
By John Wilkes, Council Chairman Cont. from last issue
This opportunity places the Moon in a position of economic
significance that has not been reflected in recent space policy
debate favoring the exploration of Mars. Although Mars has
been the recent focus of attention, and with good reason as
there is much important science to be done on Mars and its
climate offers better prospects for human settlement, there is
little besides information that the Earth needs from Mars. In
brief, an economic case can be made for developing the Moon,
but not Mars, and it puts the Moon back in the center of the
space policy debate. We need a space program that can pay for
itself, though the payback time may be too long to interest a
traditional venture capitalist.
The economic case is simply the prospect that selling back to
our planet the energy obtained by gas mining facilities on the
moon will provide money to further sustain the lunar settlement, and eventually payback the initial costs, and support the
development of space exploration. This presentation covers the
self-financing scenario; exploring the forces that would drive
the development of a moon base to a full functioning community; expanding on the lunar energy promise; and displaying
the future lunar settlement as an economically self-sustaining
entity. It also covers the nature of the fall back plan that would
cover potential losses if fusion reactor technology is not mastered by the human race in this century.
Next Council Meetings: Continued from page 1
as we go into the A4A “ August for Aerospace” period. We will
also discuss meeting plans for Sept. and Oct. The Aug. council
meeting will continue discussion of the Sept, Oct meeting
events, including the outcome of the Lunar regolith competition. For driving directions or more information, please contact
our Chairman, John Wilkes at jmwilkes@wpi.edu.
AIAA New England
Section
Aerospace New England, Vol 46, Issue 4
c/o M echanical Engineering Dept
UM ass Lowell
One University Ave.
Lowell, M A 01854
Tel: 978-337-4415
E-mail: Eugene_Niemi@uml.edu
MIT “Giant Leaps” Program… Cont. from
page 2
Obama’s Science Advisor and a panel of current industry and government leaders); and then looked at
the next Giant Leaps in Space Exploration
(Moderator: Dr. Edward Crawley, Ford Professor of
Engineering, MIT, with a keynote address by MIT
Professor Maria Zuber, and panel of current luminaries).
Following an evening reception, the Boston Pops
performed selections from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” in Symphony Hall, narrated by Buzz Aldrin.
Page 4
Suspicious Airspeed Measurement in Recent Air
France Crash and What to Do about It
By Albert Moussa, Blazetech
Preliminary investigations into the Air France 447 accident
have suggested that the Pitot tubes used to measure air speed
on the A330 may have iced up, giving incorrect information to
the plane's computers, contributing to its crash.
When a plane flies through a cloud, the air contains water
droplets or ice particles which can affect the accuracy of the air
speed measurement by the Pitot tube. Accordingly, standard
Pitot tubes (such as those built by Thales for the Airbus) are
heated to prevent ice formation and contain ports to drain water. Under normal cloud conditions, such a design works well.
Yet under severe storm conditions, where both the size and
number of the particles increase, such Pitot tubes have two major shortcomings. First, the error in the air speed measurement
can be significant yet not apparent. Second, if particles accumulate and freeze in the Pitot tube, the air speed measurement is
completely degraded and difficult to interpret. Both of these
problems could possibly have been the case in Air France 447.
BlazeTech Corp. in Woburn, MA has developed an air speed
gage (http://www.blazetech.com/airspeedgage.html) that overcomes the above problems. It measures the concentration of
water/ice particles in the air stream and corrects for its effect on
the air speed. In addition, if the water/ice particle concentration exceeds a critical limit, this would warn the pilot of a potential ice up. If the pitot tube was the problem, then use of this
gage on Air France 447 might have prevented the recent disaster.
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Buzz Aldrin narrating during Boston Pops
Photo courtesy of Justin Knight
concert
On the morning of Friday, June 12, “Behind-theScenes” Tours were conducted at the MIT Museum
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Sponsors for the programs were the Charles Stark
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