Faculty's Space Research


Ray Bellem, associate professor and chairman of electrical engineering/computer science at the Prescott Campus, is investigating the effects of space radiation on low power electronics used in satellites. He has published on ionizing radiation effects on metal oxide semiconductor devices and circuits. His research is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. During the summer he will be at the Boeing Radiation Effects Laboratory, working on technologies for the International Space Station.

Milton Cone, associate professor of electrical engineering, is conducting research in scheduling algorithms for sensor fusion systems, used in satellites with a large avionics suite with multiple sensor systems.

Yechiel ("Joel") Crispin, professor of aerospace engineering, and his graduate student Virginie Guerre have investigated cooperative and non-cooperative rendezvous maneuvers of power-limited, low-thrust spacecraft in orbit around a planet. The optimal rendezvous would minimize the total amount of propellant used by the spacecraft. The optimization method they used is known as the maximum principle of Pontryagin.

Eric Hill, professor of aerospace engineering, is developing techniques for predicting burst pressures in rocket motor cases made of filament wound composite materials. He believes the recent explosions of the Mars Observer and Delta 2 solid rocket boosters could have been averted if these techniques had been used during proof testing of the composite pressure vessels. He is advising the team investigating the Delta explosion.

Ronald Madler, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, is investigating the physical dimensions, mass, area, and shape of space debris by studying fragments from ground-based explosions and collisions. His findings will improve understanding of the orbital debris environment and the hazard it poses to spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.

John Olivero, professor of physical sciences, sent a microwave radiometer system that measured ozone and related species in the upper atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) aboard three Space Shuttle missions. He also conducted a three-year series of satellite experiments that measured ozone, aerosol, and polar stratospheric clouds and produced a unique set of observations of the Antarctic Ozone Hole.

He is proposing to mount instruments on Embry-Riddle aircraft to make environmental measurements for use in coastal oceanographic studies.

Gulamabas Sivjee, professor of physical sciences, regularly visits remote sites in Antarctica, Alaska, Norway, Canada's Northwest Territories, and Greenland, far from the distracting haloes of city light, to observe the physical, chemical, and molecular processes that occur in the near-Earth space environment.

Dr. Sivjee with Students at the South PoleSivjee and 12-15 undergraduate students measure infrared light coming from 55 to 500 miles above Earth in order to learn about the composition, density, temperature, winds, and disturbances propagating in that region.

Their studies help in guiding spacecraft through the atmosphere and increase knowledge about the global dispersion of environmentally sensitive constituents. They also investigate the effects of solar electrons and protons precipitating in the polar region to excite auroras.

His team was the first to study the impact of solar magnetic cloud disturbances in the near-Earth space environment where most spacecraft orbit.

Chris Vuille, associate professor of physical science, is conducting research on the nature of matter at the core of neutron stars - the dense, dead remnants of supernovas. These indirect observations of a star's mass or the speed at which it turns could reveal a great deal about the lives of stars, the nature of nuclear matter, even the age and ultimate fate of the universe.