RELEASE
NASA ‘Gearhead’ Bruce Wiegmann Developing Revolutionary Propulsion Technology
 Marshall engineer Bruce Wiegmann, principal investigator for the HERTS E-Sail, holds an example of the long, thin tethers that will construct the large, circular E-Sail. The momentum exchange produced as the tethers repel fast moving protons in the solar winds will propel the spacecraft. Credits: NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given |
Growing up in the Ohio River Valley region of West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle in the 1960s, Bruce Wiegmann, an engineer in the Engineering Directorate’s Advanced Concepts Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, could never have imagined a life that didn’t revolve around the area’s booming steel mills. Steel was one of the first steps in the production line that embodied the American spirit of his youth -- the automotive industry.
“In a steel mill town, the zenith was to be part of the automotive industry,” said Wiegmann. “Building and developing technologies to drive the next great American cars was an exciting idea for me as a kid.”
During his childhood, the country was also enthralled by the space race. The automotive industry even took inspiration from space technology -- aerodynamic fins were the rage, while headliners with crater-like texture were tabbed as “moon crater” headliners and instrumental panels were “aviation inspired.”
Wiegmann was equally as enthralled. “One of my earliest memories is sitting around a RCA black and white television set in 1965 and watching Ed White’s space walk on Gemini 4,” he said. “And then years later, watching the moon landing. I even carried my model Saturn V to school as a kid and made a presentation to the local PTA meeting. The entire nation was captivated.”
Today, Wiegmann is working to develop a transportation system that makes automobiles, and even rockets, look old school. In Marshall’s Advanced Concepts Office, he is developing the Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System, a revolutionary propellant-less propulsion system, which will harness the solar wind to travel to interstellar space.
“I’m a gearhead at heart,” he said. “But my efforts are applied to a different field of dreams, a much more exciting avenue. Instead of a drag strip or tri-oval, I’m developing technologies to send spacecraft racing to the edge of our solar system faster than ever before.”
“I’m not sure you can revolutionize the V-8 engine, but with the technologies we are developing at Marshall, we can profoundly enhance space travel. The HERTS E-Sail has the potential to reduce trip time to the edge of our solar system by 60-70 percent over the chemically-propelled rockets that inspired me as a kid.”
The HERTS E-Sail development and testing is funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, which encourages visionary ideas that could transform future missions with the creation of radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts.
Selected for a NIAC Phase II award earlier this year, the HERTS team qualified for additional funding to further develop the E-Sail, which will use an array very long, very thin, positively charged aluminum wires to harness protons in the solar wind to propel a spacecraft to the edge of the solar system in less than 10 years.
In 2012, NASA’s Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft ever to cross the heliopause, the edge of our solar system. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 took almost 35 years to make its journey. Doing so in less than one-third that time the HERTS E-Sail could revolutionize the scientific returns of such a spacecraft.
Wiegmann credits his education for allowing him to work on such revolutionary technology. The son of a Weirton Steel mill worker and a fifth-grade public school teacher in Weirton, WV, education was lauded in Wiegmann’s childhood as the opportunity to reach his dreams. He attended the West Virginia Institute of Technology in Montgomery, West Virginia, where he earned his degree in mechanical engineering while working at a local steel mill.
For years, the tri-state region of the Upper Ohio River Valley served as a destination for immigrants in search of the American dream. Work could be found in the steel mills and coal mines for those willing to work hard and earn a better life. The blue-collar values were evident in Wiegmann’s childhood and education.
“West Virginia Tech wasn’t an Ivy League atmosphere,” he said. “I spent time in the steel mills and many of my classmates worked nights in the coal mines. Some would even come to class still partially covered in coal dust. The desire to better yourself while working hard -- both at school and work -- to earn what you desire is something I still value about my experience at Tech.”
After graduation, Wiegmann found himself in a different West Virginia than where he had grown up -- the steel mills and coalmines were quickly downsizing or disappearing. He had to find a new path, but he was given an opportunity that many people years earlier could only have dreamed about -- an education.
It was through his education that he found his way to NASA, where for the last 33 years he has worked in nearly every area of aerospace engineering at Marshall and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
“My education in engineering has allowed me to live my dream of creating and innovating,” said Wiegmann. “When I look back at where I grew up, and how jobs in the steel and coal industries in the United States -- things people thought would last forever -- are greatly reduced, it really drives home the fact that the only thing that is forever is your education.”
For more information on the Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/heliopause-electrostatic-rapid-transit-system-herts
For more information about NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall
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