erik@NASA: June 2006


Wednesday, June 14, 2006 Lucky My office, 1220 Langley Boulevard: The hypersonic wind tunnel across the street: posted by Erik @ 6:12 PM 0 comments Saturday, June 10, 2006 LaRC I work at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, VA. LaRC is the nation's oldest civilian aeronautical laboratory, established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1917. When NASA was enacted in 1958, NACA was folded into the new organization and my research center was the springboard by which NASA's other centers around the country were formed. As a matter of fact, LaRC is known informally as NASA's "mother center." Approxmiately two-thirds of Langley's research budget is dedicated to important aeronautical research, and one-third is going toward space-related research (such as the up-and-coming CEV). However, there is also research occuring that breaks the boundaries of both areas such as that of hypersonics and the ARES project (see last post). It is truly an exciting place to work with state-of-the-art facilities, including wind tunnels that are nationally and internationally unique. The following is a picture of the 14x22ft. Subsonic Wind Tunnel that I took a couple of Thursdays ago on Route 172. I feel fortunate to have the chance to work in such a stimulating environment with such talented people. NASA engineers are some of the best in the world, and I look forward to collaboration with these people for this summer and in the future. posted by Erik @ 5:55 PM 0 comments Wednesday, June 07, 2006 ARES Today I had the pleasure of attending a meeting headed by Dr. Joel Levine, Principal Investigator of a current proposal to NASA HQ by the Langley Research Center for the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) of Mars vehicle. At 10:00AM EST me and thirteen other people were briefed on the project, including it's objectives and technical details, by Dr. Levine. While some of the specific details of the project were presented to us as "competition sensetive" (i.e. confidential information that I may not post here or anywhere), I can tell you that this is one sophisticated, fascinating aircraft. It is one of four finalists for the next survey mission to Mars, but it is the only aircraft on the list and I'm very confident that NASA HQ will choose this vehicle as the winner both because of its demonstrated succcess in a high-altitude atmospheric test flight as well as the potential of this mission to re-write the textbooks on Mars (as stated by third party scientists) once it executes its flyover of Red Planet. Thus far Mars has only been surveyed by either satellites or rovers. The intermediate regime (one that an aircraft would occupy) has yet to be utilized, which is where ARES steps—or flies—in. If funded, its historic flight will open up new avenues for aeronautics and scientific study of the other planets in our solar system. I wish the ARES team the best of fortune in its proposal. posted by Erik @ 4:33 PM 3 comments	Erik Axdahl LARSS Intern Advanced Engineering Environments Branch Systems Engineering Directorate NASA Langley Research Center Previous Posts Flight Suit Flight Simulator Lucky LaRC ARES Archives June 2006 July 2006 Current Posts

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Lucky

My office, 1220 Langley Boulevard:

The hypersonic wind tunnel across the street:

Saturday, June 10, 2006

LaRC

I work at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC), located in Hampton, VA. LaRC is the nation's oldest civilian aeronautical laboratory, established by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1917. When NASA was enacted in 1958, NACA was folded into the new organization and my research center was the springboard by which NASA's other centers around the country were formed. As a matter of fact, LaRC is known informally as NASA's "mother center."

Approxmiately two-thirds of Langley's research budget is dedicated to important aeronautical research, and one-third is going toward space-related research (such as the up-and-coming CEV). However, there is also research occuring that breaks the boundaries of both areas such as that of hypersonics and the ARES project (see last post). It is truly an exciting place to work with state-of-the-art facilities, including wind tunnels that are nationally and internationally unique. The following is a picture of the 14x22ft. Subsonic Wind Tunnel that I took a couple of Thursdays ago on Route 172.

I feel fortunate to have the chance to work in such a stimulating environment with such talented people. NASA engineers are some of the best in the world, and I look forward to collaboration with these people for this summer and in the future.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

ARES

Today I had the pleasure of attending a meeting headed by Dr. Joel Levine, Principal Investigator of a current proposal to NASA HQ by the Langley Research Center for the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) of Mars vehicle. At 10:00AM EST me and thirteen other people were briefed on the project, including it's objectives and technical details, by Dr. Levine. While some of the specific details of the project were presented to us as "competition sensetive" (i.e. confidential information that I may not post here or anywhere), I can tell you that this is one sophisticated, fascinating aircraft. It is one of four finalists for the next survey mission to Mars, but it is the only aircraft on the list and I'm very confident that NASA HQ will choose this vehicle as the winner both because of its demonstrated succcess in a high-altitude atmospheric test flight as well as the potential of this mission to re-write the textbooks on Mars (as stated by third party scientists) once it executes its flyover of Red Planet.

Thus far Mars has only been surveyed by either satellites or rovers. The intermediate regime (one that an aircraft would occupy) has yet to be utilized, which is where ARES steps—or flies—in. If funded, its historic flight will open up new avenues for aeronautics and scientific study of the other planets in our solar system. I wish the ARES team the best of fortune in its proposal.

Erik Axdahl
LARSS Intern
Advanced Engineering Environments Branch
Systems Engineering Directorate
NASA Langley Research Center