Lipscomb students to aid NASA engineers develop prototype testing system for future space craft

 | 04/28/2006

Lipscomb engineers are playing a role in the future of the United States space program. Fort Gwinn, professor of engineering mechanics, and a group of senior engineering students are working with NASA engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to develop a prototype design for a self-centering air bellows suspension system that will help develop and test the next generation of space craft.

The initial phase of the project which is funded by a grant from Marshall Space Flight Center is being used as one of three capstone design projects by senior engineering students. The remainder of the work will continue throughout the summer and fall semesters. Gwinn’s team of engineering students has been on-site at Marshall during the semester to review the launch vehicle specifications and to talk with NASA engineers about the project.

“Most of the “phase one” design work is being done at Lipscomb, but the actual fabrication will be done in Huntsville, where NASA will build a prototype of our concept. Eventually, the components that are being designed today will be tested on a launch vehicle model that is one-eighth of the actual size. If that works, then the suspension system will be tested on larger scale models,” said Gwinn.

Gwinn said NASA is beginning the development of the next generation of launch vehicle that will replace the space shuttle fleet. As part of this phase, engineers will test how the launch vehicle responds to various flight conditions such as how it vibrates at launch and how it conforms during flight. The students are working on developing a prototype design for a self-centering air bellows suspension system proposed by Gwinn when he worked as a NASA Faculty Fellow during the summer of 2002. He said the proposed suspension system will be used during the experimental identification of the next generation of launch vehicle’s dynamic characteristics, such as natural frequencies and mode shapes. The way a vehicle vibrates is highly dependent upon its boundary conditions. This new suspension system will be used to simulate the unconstrained or “Free-Free” boundaries which are commonly used for testing aerospace structures, according to Gwinn.

“This project started with the idea to use magnetic bearings to help stabilize the vehicle. During my fellowship with NASA in 2002 I worked on a basic way and this project expands on that,” said Gwinn. “NASA is looking for our students to come up with a revolutionary approach and to take a fresh look at the situation to see if we can provide a better way to simulate this in a flight situation.”

Gwinn, who worked for over 20 years in the aerospace industry prior to joining the Lipscomb engineering faculty, has spent three summers as a NASA Faculty Fellow working with the Marshall Space Flight Center team on this and other projects.  During his career as a consulting engineer, Gwinn has worked with NASA teams from various parts of the country and in various capacities.

“I have been impressed with Fort’s expertise and background. I have worked with him for three summers as he has been a NASA Faculty Fellow here at Marshall. We really wanted to explore some of the concepts and ideas that he and I have collaborated on up to this point. It’s because of this interaction that I was led to the Lipscomb engineering program. The students didn’t have much initial information to go on and they have done a great job. I’ve been quite  pleased with their contributions on this project. I think this project gives the students a more rounded engineering approach,” said Kathy Kappus, team leader for the modal test team in the Structural Dynamics Test Laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center and engineering director.

Experiences such as these are valuable to the student engineers, said Gwinn.

“One of the things we strive to do in the Lipscomb engineering program is to provide our students real-life problems to work on. This brings a significant technical challenge to our students as well as an opportunity to learn to work as a team to solve a problem. This is great experience for them whether they are going on to graduate school or straight into a job situation,” said Gwinn.

Students agree that real-world experiences are valuable learning experiences.

“Working with NASA has been so much different than I expected. We have learned that, unlike cut and dry textbook problems, real world projects are not always rigidly defined at the outset. This modal testing project has evolved as our understanding of the governing science has grown.  In our case the engineering design process has required as much new learning as it has application of old knowledge,” said Caleb Rucker, a senior  engineering mechanics major.

In addition to Rucker other students on the project team are engineering mechanics majors Adam Barney, Heather Cochran and Robbie Crouch and Justin Gregory, a physics major.

The Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering at Lipscomb University offers majors in computer engineering, engineering mechanics, engineering science and physics. Lipscomb’s engineering mechanics and computer engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. To learn more about the Lipscomb University Engineering Program, call 279-5887 or 800.333.4358, ext. 5887.