Students participate in astronautical engineering design competition
Students participate in astronautical engineering design competition
Several Arizona State University students participated recently in an astronautical engineering design competition sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Forum, held June 1 to 3 Cocoa Beach, Fla., provided students with an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned in classes to a real-life engineering challenge.
Mentored by Kip Hodges, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE), the team included SESE sophomore Kaylan Meinecke and engineering sophomores Evan Olson, Jessica Kaminski, Ashley House, Aaron Nelson, and Vishal Doshi.
"I am very proud of how well this team, made up of rising juniors, acquitted itself in competition against senior engineering teams from many other universities," says Hodges. "This competition was a wonderful example of how the fusion of science and engineering - a hallmark of the School of Earth and Space Exploration - can result in exciting new perspectives on planetary exploration."
The team’s project, titled ARTEMIS: Our Return to the Moon, involved outlining the mission architecture – what equipment is taken and how it is utilized – for a return to the Moon in 2020. Teams were selected for the competition based on the RASC-AL Steering Committee’s evaluation of mission plans. Each team selected to compete was required to submit a written report, prepare a poster, and give an oral presentation.
Compared to the other teams, the mission architecture of team ARTEMIS was unique in that it embraced the entire project, from science definition to engineering design. The other teams’ designs focused exclusively on the engineering challenges of lunar exploration.
"Classes for the B.S. in Earth and Space Exploration, such as Introduction to Exploration (SES 100) and Engineering Systems and Experimental Design (SES 210) have allowed me to gain an understanding of how engineers think, and from that understanding better explain science objectives and techniques,” says team member Meinecke. “RASC-AL was a wonderful opportunity for us to put those skills to work to design a well thought out lunar mission."
The mentor of the winning undergraduate team – Professor David Akin of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland – was so impressed with the Artemis team's efforts that he is working with faculty in SESE to design a joint senior design project on lunar exploration that would serve as next year's senior capstone subject for the University of Maryland Aerospace Engineering program. This project will also serve as next year's senior capstone project for the Earth and Space Exploration B.S. degree at ASU.
