ESMD Summer Research

2005 ESMD Summer Research Opportunity at KSC

The Kennedy Space Center (KSC) seeks to increase access to the scientific knowledge of a diverse talented pool of faculty and students from U.S. colleges and Universities. FSGC teamed up with KSC to identify twelve faculty and students that will be assigned to four research teams for 10 weeks during the summer to work in KSC’s Applied Physics Laboratory, Material Science Laboratory, Electrostatic Physics Laboratory, Space Life Science Laboratory, and Cryogenics Test Bed. Participants will work in the development of technologies to lower the cost and increase the reliability of launch systems infrastructure and life support systems that will be required by the Crew Exploration Vehicle, robotics missions, and extended human space flight missions. The research tasks are directly related to the ESMD Science Technical Programs (ESR&T, HSR&T, PNS&T, and Constellation Systems).

The following research tasks and lead civil service personnel at KSC have been identified for this summer:

1. Solid Xenon Thermal Property Investigation for Nuclear Electric Propulsion Systems, Bill Notardonato.
2. Prediction of Stress/Strain, Compaction and Crushing Behavior of Granular Cryogenic Insulation, Bill Larson.
3. Development of a Regolith Extraction and Resource Separation and Characterization, Dale Lueck and Clyde Parrish.
4. Advanced Docking/Berthing System for Rendezvous Operations and In Space Assembly, Hardman