Embry-Riddle Scientist to Study Rocket Shock Wave
Daytona Beach, Fla., June 29, 1998 -- Peter Erdman, associate professor of physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has received funding for a research project to study the shock wave in front of a rocket traveling faster than the speed of sound. Findings from his research will be used to improve the payload efficiency of future space vehicles.
The $920,000 project is funded by the U.S. Army Research Office.
 A space vehicle traveling at hypervelocity is slowed when it enters a planet's atmosphere, a phenomenon called aerobraking. The resulting shock wave that forms in front of the vehicle can reach temperatures hot enough to destroy the spacecraft.
In his research effort, Erdman hopes to determine the rate at which heat is transferred to the vehicle and to learn more about the viability of aerobraking for putting a satellite in orbit around a planet. He will do this by measuring light emitted in the shock wave in front of a rocket that will be launched by NASA next year from Wallops Island, Va.
The rocket will reach a speed of 7,800 mph, and the shock created ahead of it will heat the air to more than 8,540 degrees Fahrenheit. Instruments will measure emitted radiation through quartz windows behind a removable protective nose cone.
Plans for probes to Neptune and Mars have involved the problem of how to slow a spacecraft for its entry into a planet's atmosphere. Retrorockets have been used in the past, but are too heavy and inefficient. NASA sees aerobraking as the solution, but more must be learned about the radiation created in front of a space vehicle if engineers are to design lighter heat shields that free up more weight for instruments, yet still are able to protect the payload.
Embry-Riddle, the world's largest fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of these and related industries through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Degree programs through the master's level are offered in Daytona Beach, Fla., Prescott, Ariz., and more than 100 teaching sites in the U.S. and Europe.
|
