Embry-Riddle Student Team Wins Aerospace Design Competition
 Daytona
Beach, Fla., Dec. 16, 2002 -- An Engineering Physics
senior design project team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University has been named one of the three winners of the
first RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic
Linkage) Competition. The other winning teams are from Princeton
University and the University of California at Berkeley.
The winners were chosen by a panel of judges based on
a written report and an oral presentation made at the
first RASC-AL meeting, held in Cocoa Beach in November.
RASC-AL is a program of the Lunar and Planetary Institute
in collaboration with the Universities Space Research
Association through the NASA Langley Research Center.
The main RASC-AL objective is to encourage universities
to develop innovative aerospace systems concepts and technologies
that will help NASA plan missions to accomplish strategic
goals for science, exploration, and commercialization.
The Embry-Riddle team's project, titled Plasma Accelerated
Reusable Transport System (PARTS), is an unmanned cargo
shuttle intended to ferry large payloads to and from Martian
orbit using a highly efficient Variable Specific Impulse
Magnetoplasma Rocket. The design of PARTS focuses on balancing
cost and minimizing transit time for a payload of vehicles,
satellites, and other components.
The Embry-Riddle team consists of team leader Michael
Aherne, Phil Davis, Matt England, Jake Gustavsson, Steve
Pankow, Chere Sampaio, and Phil Savella. The team's faculty
adviser is Dr. Mahmut Reyhanoglu, associate professor
of Engineering Physics in the Physical Sciences Dept.
"The students are drawing on four years of accumulated
science and engineering knowledge as well as their own
creativity," Reyhanoglu said. "Being recognized and named
a finalist in this national competition is quite an accomplishment
for the student team. They have shown their dedication
to making significant contributions in the aerospace field."
Also competing were teams from Colorado School of Mines,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Howard University, Pennsylvania
State University, University of Maryland, and University
of Washington.
Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university
specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs
of students and industry through its educational, training,
research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates
more than 25,000 students annually through the master's
level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla.,
and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers
in the United States and Europe, and through distance
learning.
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