Structural Health Monitoring and Self Healing of Aerospace Structures
Principal Investigator - Patricia C. Hynes, Director of the New Mexico NASA EPSCoR Program and Director of New Mexico Space Grant Consortium.
Co-Investigator, Thomas Burton, ME Head and Professor, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Sayavur Bakhtiarov, ME Chair, New Mexico Tech
Co-Investigator, Eric Butcher, Assoc. Prof. of ME, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Igor Sevostianov, Assoc. Prof. of ME, NMSU
Co-Investigator, Andrei Zagrai, Asst. Prof. of ME, New Mexico Tech
This project proposes a multi-disciplinary effort by leveraging the engineering and scientific talent within New Mexico to develop new methods and technologies needed to conduct proximity operations at Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs). Both robotic and human (or combined) exploration missions are targeted in the proposed research. Recently there has been much interest in sending robotic precursor missions to NEAs for scientific study and to prepare for a possible manned mission. Increased understanding of these small irregularly-shaped bodies is essential to any NEA deflection strategy implemented for planetary protection. In the future, NEAs could serve as fueling stations, mining sites, or remote observatories. Interest in asteroid exploration is demonstrated by recent, current, and proposed missions such as NEAR Shoemaker, Hayabusa, DAWN, OSIRIS REx, and BASiX. Other objectives of this proposal are to build the infrastructure needed for New Mexico to become nationally competitive for funding in the fields of astrodynamics, Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC), telemetry and space communications, orbital mechanics and orbit determination, spacecraft attitude dynamics and estimation, and asteroid observation and modeling; to develop partnerships with NASA research assets, federal laboratories, and industry; to contribute to the state's research infrastructure, science and technology capabilities, and economic development; and to improve the environment for STEM education in New Mexico. The project goals are tied to NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) and Science Mission Directorate (SMD) along with recent efforts to develop new technologies and capabilities for future missions to NEAs. Our NASA center partner is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This investigation will be supported with numerical modeling, including the use of JPL software using models of asteroids which are likely mission destinations, as well as astronomical observations of select asteroids to obtain data for use in the modeling and simulations.
