Kimberly Henry
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
kimberly.m.henry@xxxxxxxx
Tannen VanZwieten, a native of Pompano Beach, Fla., is solving the equation on how to maneuver the Space Launch System (SLS) -- NASA's new heavy-lift launch vehicle -- during flight.
VanZwieten, 31, is part of team of young engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., who are developing innovative algorithms, or mathematical equations, for the flight control system on the SLS. That system is the "brain" of the vehicle, designed to steer it along the path to its destination in orbit. The team will test those algorithms on an F/A-18 jet, housed and operated at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
"This project has been fantastic," VanZwieten said. "It's exciting to push the envelope of what's used for human spaceflight by developing and incorporating what we believe is a better, safer algorithm."
As NASA develops a commercial supply line to and from the International Space Station, the agency also is embarking on SLS to ensure the ability to explore farther into the solar system. SLS is a rocket that can carry the Orion spacecraft’s crew, equipment and experiments to places we’ve never been before in our solar system. It will be the most powerful rocket ever launched into space.
In addition to opening new frontiers for explorers who will travel on Orion, the SLS also offers many benefits for science missions to places such as asteroids, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, including large payload fairings that reduce experiment design complexity and high performance that decrease travel time and, by extension, cost and risk.
The team has spent years developing an adaptive augmenting controller specifically for launch vehicles and rigorously testing it for the SLS vehicle. This new technology builds upon a long NASA heritage of successfully flying rockets, such as the space shuttle. The new, adaptive flight system can learn and respond to unexpected flight variations and anomalies -- like unpredictable winds, thrust variations, flexible body dynamics or fuel slosh -- to increase safety and ensure the vehicle stays on its trajectory.
VanZwieten and the team needed a way to test their concept before the actual first flight of SLS. That's where the F/A-18 fighter jet enters the story. Using an F/A-18 jet is an innovative and cost-effective way of getting actual flight test data early in the SLS program.
The algorithms will think they are flying the SLS but will actually be running on the F/A-18. The F/A-18 test series, called the Launch Vehicle Adaptive Control (LVAC) experiment, began Nov. 14. Five flights are planned, with more than a dozen tests to be conducted using SLS-like trajectories during each flight. While the jet is in the air for 60-90 minutes, the experimental adaptive flight control system is tested in different scenarios for up to 70 seconds at a time in order to match SLS’s dynamics for a majority of its flight from liftoff to solid rocket booster separation.
"A stumbling block for a lot of people is, 'You've got a rocket algorithm, but you want to test it on an airplane?'" VanZwieten said. "It's not immediately clear how the aircraft could match important dynamic features of SLS, but it does. We’re flying a similar trajectory on the airplane as we have with the rocket, and the aircrafts rotational dynamics are ‘slowed down’ to match the maneuvering characteristics of a heavy launch vehicle."
VanZwieten will be manning the control room for all the tests. She'll be looking at the data coming in real time, making decisions about the test scenarios and communicating with the pilot on flight days.
After the initial flight tests, the team will return to Marshall, go over the data and make any changes to the test plans for the remaining flights. "We aim to accomplish as many top-level objectives as possible in the first set of tests, and then go to more complex scenarios in our later test series," VanZwieten said.
VanZwieten has an extensive educational background, with bachelor's and master's degrees in ocean engineering from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton; a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Central Florida in Orlando; and a doctorate degree in electrical engineering, with an emphasis on controls, from the University of Wyoming in Laramie. While a student at the University of Wyoming, VanZwieten connected with NASA through the Graduate Student Researchers Program. She joined NASA in 2008.
The first flight test of the SLS is scheduled for 2017, which will feature a configuration for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. As the SLS evolves, it will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions deep into our solar system to places like Mars.
For more information about algorithm development and F/A-18 testing, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/research-jet-tests-sls.html
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/i-am-building-sls-vanzwieten.html
For more information about SLS, visit:
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