2017 and Earlier NIA Key Activities

NIA Senior Research Engineer and Associate Research Fellow Win American Society for Composites Best Paper Award

National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Sr. Research Engineer, Dr. Nelson De Carvalho, and Associate Research Fellow, Dr. Ronald Krueger, presented the paper entitled “Modeling Fatigue Damage Onset and Progression in Composites Using an Element-Based Virtual Crack Closure Technique Combined with the Floating Node Method” at the 31^st ASC Annual Technical Conference in September 2016. Their paper was selected to receive the Best Paper Award on July 24, 2017. Dr. De Carvalho and Dr. Krueger will receive their award at the 32^nd Annual Technical Conference Awards Banquet October 24, 2017.

Student Production Team Produce NASA Spotlite Videos

July 17 through 19, 2017, educators and staff from the National Institute of Aerospace’s Center for Integrative STEM Education (NIA-CISE), facilitated learning as local high school students used the engineering design process to produce Spotlite videos to debunk science misconceptions. Student production teams spent 3 days researching, storyboarding, writing scripts, filming and receiving feedback from the NASA 360 team, Elizabeth Joyner from SMD at NASA Langley MyNASAData; Alexis Tharpe, Jessica Schrage, and Betsy McAllister from Hampton City Schools, and Suzanne Zarmeski from NIA. Once the Spotlite videos are approved by NASA headquarters, they will become part of an interactive lesson plan and made available on the NASA eClips™ website.

Arlington Tech Digital Media Students Develop NASA Spotlites

Digital media students from Arlington Career and Technical Center participated in a culminating event at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to recognize their efforts in the production of NASA Spotlite videos, as part of the NASA eClips 4D program. Sharon Bowers, National Institute of Aerospace, collaborated with, Tom O’Day, digital media teacher at Arlington Tech, and Arlington Public School STEM Specialist Pam Nagurkato to support the Arlington Tech student teams as they developed Spotlite videos to address and dispel science misconceptions. The student teams traveled to NASA GSFC June 13, 2017, to present their work to the NASA GSFC SVS producers for authentic assessment and review. The students also participated in the hour-long Big Screen StoryLab and joined the SVS producers for lunch to discuss science communication as a STEM career opportunity. Their trip to NASA GSFC was documented in this short video, https://vimeo.com/221585729.

For more information about NASA eClips, visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov/

NIA Research Scientist and Research Fellow Co-Author Research Article in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Dr. Hyun-Deok Choi, Research Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), and Dr. Hongyu Liu, NIA Research Fellow, recently published the manuscript, “Global O₃–CO correlations in a chemistry and transport model during July–August: evaluation with TES satellite observations and sensitivity to input meteorological data and emissions,” in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics on July 11, 2017.

Co-authored by Jim Crawford (NASA LaRC), David Considine (NASA LaRC), Dale Allen (University of Maryland), Bryan Duncan (NASA Goddard), Larry Horowitz (NOAA), Jose Rodriguez (NASA Goddard), Susan Strahan (NASA Goddard/USRA), Lin Zhang (Harvard University), Xiong Liu (Harvard University), Megan Damon (NASA Goddard/SSAI), and Stephen Steenrod (NASA Goddard/USRA), the article highlights the capability of the NASA Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) chemistry and transport model to reproduce global mid-tropospheric (618 hPa) ozone–carbon monoxide (O₃–CO) correlations determined by the measurements from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard NASA’s Aura satellite during boreal summer (July–August). The study concludes that O₃–CO correlations may be used effectively to constrain the sources of regional tropospheric O₃ in global 3-D models, especially for those regions where convective transport of pollution plays an important role.

NIA Supports NASA RASC-AL Special Edition: Mars Ice Challenge

NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace System Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Special Edition: Mars Ice Challenge competition was held in the Hangar at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA from June 13^th – 15^th, 2017, where West Virginia University (team MIDAS) earned 1^st place overall. This flagship Centennial event offers a unique way for LaRC to recognize RASC-AL’s important place in its history while also linking the competition to its future.

The 2017 RASC-AL Special Edition: Mars Ice Challenge competition challenged teams to demonstrate revolutionary approaches for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) capabilities on Mars, designing and building hardware that could extract water from simulated Martian subsurface ice. The competition included 8 different university teams from around the country, and was supported by NIA representatives, Shelley Spears, Stacy Dees, Victoria O’Leary, and Ania Cotton, and 10 NASA/Industry judges.

The overarching RASC-AL program is sponsored by NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate through Langley’s Space Missions Analysis Branch, although the Mars Ice Challenge also received significant funding from NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, Science Mission Directorate, and Langley Research Center.

One hundred and nine students and faculty participated in this year-long challenge, while 40 of them physically attended the onsite competition at LaRC. The competition received coverage from the Daily Press, WVEC-TV Channel 13, and over 250,000 views on NASA 360’s Facebook Live posts.

NIA Representatives Attend NASA RASC-AL Forum

NASA’s Revolutionary Aerospace System Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Forum was held in Cocoa Beach, FL from May 30^th – June 3^rd, 2016, where Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University claimed 1^st place overall and the University of Maryland received the distinction of 2^nd place overall. These two teams were awarded a travel stipend to present their concept at the 2017 AIAA Space Conference in Orlando, FL.

The 2017 RASC-AL competition challenged teams to demonstrate revolutionary approaches to help develop the capabilities and infrastructure required to live and work at destinations beyond low-Earth orbit. This year, 94 students, 14 faculty and 13 NASA/Industry representatives physically attended the 2017 RASC-AL Forum, along with NIA representatives Shelly Spears, Stacy Dees, Victoria O’Leary, and Ania Cotton. Fourteen university teams from around the country created innovative designs, budgets, and project schedules based on one of four themes:

1. 1. Lightweight Exercise Suite
  2. Logistics Delivery System
  3. Commercially Enabled LEO/Mars Habitable Module
  4. Airlock Design

NIA Research Fellow attends NAFEMS World Congress in Stockholm, Sweden

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), attended the NAFEMS World Congress held in Stockholm, Sweden, June 11-14. NAFEMS – located in the United Kingdom – is an international and independent not-for-profit body with the sole aim of promoting the effective use of engineering simulation methods such as finite element analysis, multi-body system dynamics and computational fluid dynamics. In 84 sessions and keynote lectures, 339 papers were presented on a variety of topics such as computational fluid dynamics, multidisciplinary analysis, additive manufacturing, simulation data management, optimization and composites. The conference was attended by more than participants from 34 countries. Dr. Krueger currently chairs the NAFEMS Composites Working Group and chaired one of four special sessions on composites during the conference. He also presented a paper Searching for Run-Time Efficient Approaches to Delamination Growth Predictions in Composites co-authored with Nelson de Carvalho (NIA) and Mike Sasdelli of Dassault Systèmes Government Solutions, USA.

NIA Research Fellow presents technical overview at Swerea SICOMP in Gothenburg, Sweden

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden, June 16 to visit Swerea SICOMP and present a technical overview on Delamination onset and growth analysis using linear elastic fracture mechanics. Swerea is the Swedish Research Institute for Industrial Renewal and Sustainable Growth. SICOMP is one Swerea’s research institutes leading in the field of polymer fiber composites. Researchers at SICOMP work on applied composite research, development, and training in an

international collaborative environment. In 2015 NASA entered into a collaborative agreement with Swerea SICOMP to develop a software tool for simulating damage in composites which is more efficient and user-friendly than currently available alternatives. The agreement expired in March 2017 and is being extended for another two years. Researchers at Swerea SICOMP indicated that they would also be interested in an Memorandum of Understanding with NIA to foster future collaboration.

NIA Research Fellow Presents Sandwich Research at Denmark Technical University (DTU) in Copenhagen, Denmark

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, June 20 to visit Denmark Technical University (DTU) and present a technical overview on Face Sheet/Core Disbonding in Sandwich Composite Components: A Road Map to Standardization co-authored with James Ratcliffe (NASA LaRC) and Zhi M. Chen (FAA, Tech Center, Atlantic City). Sandwich face sheet/core disbonding is a failure mode which is of particular interest to the FAA from their perspective of Continued Operational Safety (COS) since several in-service occurrences have been observed which can pose a threat to the structural integrity of an aircraft or spacecraft component.

To address this problem, test and analysis methods need to be developed. Recently, DTU was one of seven research laboratories in the US and Europe that participated in an international round robin activity to evaluate an ASTM Draft Standard for Interfacial Fracture Toughness of Peel Loaded Sandwich Constructions. NASA Langley also supported this standard development initiative through direct authorship of the draft standard and test protocol and participation in the round robin testing. NIA continues to support this activity through an FAA grant Study of Damage

Modes in Lightweight Sandwich Structures Using Analysis and Testing in collaboration with Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and Georgia Tech (GT). FAU has been a close partner with DTU on this topic for an extended period of time.

NIA Research Staff Members Chair Sessions and Present at AIAA Aviation 2017

Researchers of the National Institute of Aerospace’s (NIA) center for High-Performance Aerospace Computations (HiPAC) took an active part in the AIAA Aviation-2017 conference, held June 5-9, 2017 in Denver, CO. Five HiPAC researchers attended the conference and co-authored seven papers that address various aspects of development and application of computational fluid dynamics and adjoint-based optimization methods. NIA Associate Research Fellow, Hiroaki Nishikawa, chaired the CFD-08 session on “High-Order Methods for Advection-Diffusion Equations.”NIA Research Fellow, Boris Diskin, chaired the Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee Discussion Group on “Solver Technology for Turbulent Flows”. This discussion group includes leading international CFD experts and focuses on developing and dissemination of resources for evaluation and verification of emerging solver technologies such as high-order, mesh adaptation, and convergence acceleration methods. HiPAC researchers are actively contributing to the activities of this group. The group is organizing a special session “RANS solutions for 3D benchmark configurations” at the SciTech-2018 conference.

Xiaodong Liu, Jialin Lou, Lingquan Li, Hong Luo, Hiroaki Nishikawa, and Yuxin Ren, “A Compact High Order Finite Volume Method Based on Variational Reconstruction for Compressible Flows on Arbitrary Grids,” AIAA-2017-3097

Irian Ordaz, Sriram K. Rallabhandi, Eric J. Nielsen, and Boris Diskin, “Mitigation of Engine Inlet Distortion through Adjoint-Based Design,” AIAA-2017-3410.

Yi Liu and Hiroaki Nishikawa, “Third-Order Edge-Based Hyperbolic Navier-Stokes Scheme for Three-Dimensional Viscous Flows,” AIAA-2017-3443.

Jialin Lou, Lingquan Li, Xiaodong Liu, Hong Luo, Hiroaki Nishikawa, “Reconstructed Discontinuous Galerkin Methods Based on First-Order Hyperbolic System for Advection-Diffusion Equations,” AIAA-2017-3445.

Prahladh S. Iyer, George I. Park, Mujeeb R. Malik, “Wall–Modeled Large Eddy Simulation of Transonic Flow over an Axisymmetric Bump with Shock-Induced Separation,” AIAA-2017-3953.

Sin-Chung Chang, Chau-Lyan Chang, and Balaji S. Venkatachari, “Cause and Cure – Deterioration in Accuracy of CFD Simulations with Use of High-Aspect-Ratio Triangular/Tetrahedral Grids,” AIAA-2017-4293

Hiroaki Nishikawa, “Uses of Zero and Negative Volume Elements for Node-Centered Edge-Based Discretization,” AIAA-2017-4295.

NIA Research Scientist and Research Fellow Attend GEOS-Chem Science Meeting

Research Scientist, Dr. Bo Zhang, and Research Fellow, Dr. Hongyu Liu, at the National Institute of Aerospace attended the 8^th International GEOS-Chem Science meeting held at Harvard University May 1-4, 2017. Dr. Zhang gave a talk entitled “Constraints from Airborne Pb-210 Observations on Aerosol Scavenging and Lifetime in GEOS-Chem”, co-authored by Dr. Liu and Drs. Jim Crawford, Duncan Fairlie, Gao Chen from the NASA Langley Science Directorate.

Dr. Liu presented a poster entitled “Using Satellite Observations of Cloud Vertical Distribution to Improve Global Model Estimates of Cloud Radiative Effect on Key Tropospheric Oxidants”. The research was supported by grants from the NASA ACCDAM and ACMAP programs, respectively. As co-chair of the Transport Working Group of the GEOS-Chem Steering Committee, Dr. Liu led a breakout discussion, along with Dr. Andrea Molod (NASA GSFC), which defined the model development priority over the next two years.

NASA eClips™ Teaches “Solar Images” at Hampton Roads Mini Maker Faire

On Saturday, May 6, 2017, the National Institute of Aerospace’s NASA eClips™ team exhibited at the Hampton Roads Mini Maker Faire, a flagship event for the NASA Langley Centennial. The booth promoted three activities as part of a newly developed “NASA eClips™ Guidelite” lesson on solar images, the Sun’s corona, and the 2017 total solar eclipse.

Over 3,000 people attended the Hampton Roads Mini Maker Faire, while roughly 500 parents and children participated in creating solar images and UV-detecting bracelets, and in demonstrating the use of a lollipop coronagraph. Sixteen high school students volunteered in shifts at the booth to help facilitate the activity.

To learn more about NASA eClips, please visit http://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov

2017 NASA OPSPARC Winners Announced

On Friday, May 5^th, 2017, student winners of the 2017 NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC) were announced. The challenge called for students in three grades spans (3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) to conceptually repurpose and commercialize NASA developed technologies into “spinoff” inventions to help solve problems in everyday life. All competitors described their spinoff ideas within digital poster boards, called “Glogs.” The high school team further developed their ideas within NIAUniverse, a 3D multi-user virtual world platform managed by the National Institute of Aerospace.

Winning teams span the US from:

- - Fidalgo Elementary School in Anacortes, WA
  - The Hamlin School in San Francisco, CA
  - The Baylor School in Chattanooga, TN

The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) manages the competition for the high school students.

For more information about NASA OPSPARC, visit https://nasaopsparc.com/

NIA Research Scholar and Research Scientist Paper Accepted for Presentation

A paper entitled “Automatic Estimation of Verified Floating-Point Round-Off Errors via Static Analysis” with authors from the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Mariano Moscato (Research Scientist), Laura Titolo (Research Scholar), Aaron Dutle (NASA Langley), Cesar Muñoz (NASA Langley) has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference of Computer Safety, Reliability, and Security (SAFECOMP 2017) that will be held in Trento (Italy) from the 13th to the 15th of September 2017.

NASA eClips Student Producers Visit Hampton University

On Thursday, April 20, 2017, over 40 high school digital media students from Phoebus High School in Hampton, VA and the Newport News Telecommunications Center in Newport News, VA were recognized for their effort in creating NASA eClips Spotlite and Subject Matter Experts as Educators (SME²) videos to increase science understanding and promote STEM careers. An awards ceremony was held at Hampton University by Shelley Spears and Joan Harper-Neely of the National Institute of Aerospace, after which Ania Cotton and Brittani Bailey, interns from Hampton University, organized tours of the Scripps-Howard School of Journalism and Communications and speakers who highlighted careers and communicated science and STEM in journalism and broadcasting.

NIA Supports Hampton University Center for Atmospheric Research and Education (HU-CARE) Seminar Series

In partnership with the Hampton University Center for Atmospheric Research and Education (HU-CARE) the Media Communications Group at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) provided weekly Livestream coverage of the Atmospheric and Planetary Science Seminar (APS) Series which welcomed speakers from NASA and industry. CARE is a collaborative effort between NASA Langley and Hampton University, along with partnerships with University of Wisconsin and University of Maryland, Baltimore County intended to broaden Hampton University’s program of research opportunities.

For an archive of APS Seminars visit: www.livestream.com/viewnow/HU-CARE

NIA Participates in Family STEM Night

On Thursday, April 27, Communications Manager, Becky Jaramillo, represented the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) at the Poquoson Primary School Family STEM Night. Approximately 400 people attended the event. Jaramillo facilitated an interactive activity about light from the NASA eClips™ suite with students and their parents. She also shared information about NIA programs, NASA education resources, and the upcoming Hampton Roads Mini-Maker Faire.

For more information about NASA eClips, visit: https://nasaeclips.arc.nasa.gov

NIA Research Engineer Recognized in AIAA HRS Young Professionals Paper Competition

Ross Burns, Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), was awarded 3^rd place in the AIAA Hampton Roads Section Laurence Bement Young Professionals Paper Competition for his paper titled “Femtosecond Laser Electronic Excitation Tagging Velocimetry in a Transonic, Cryogenic Wind Tunnel”. The competition recognizes outstanding on-the-job technical accomplishments of young members and is judged by an independent reviewing committee. The awards were presented at the Annual Awards Banquet on May 9, 2017.

NIA Associate Research Fellows, Associate Principal Scientist and Senior Research Scientist Selected for NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals

Associate Research Fellows at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) Drs. Sang-Hyon Chu, Yi Lin, NIA Associate Principal Scientist, Dr. Jae-Woo Kim and NIA Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Godfrey Sauti, were selected to receive the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal. One of the highest forms of recognition the Agency bestows, the medal is given to those who have significantly contributed to the NASA mission through early technology development, exhibited exemplary collaborative effort in technology transfer, and has exceptional utilization of NASA-developed technology resulting in a commercial application. Drs. Chu, Lin, Sauti and Kim will receive their medals at Langley’s Honor Awards Ceremony September 27, 2017.

Final Down-Select for 2017 RASC-AL Competition Announced

On March 30, the NASA Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition Steering Committee made the final down-select in the 2017 RASC-AL competition, inviting 14 of the 21 semi-finalists to move to the next phase of the competition. During the final stage of the competition, teams submit 15-page technical reports which propose innovative solutions to one of 4 themes relevant to current work in the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate and present their concepts to a panel of judges at the 2017 RASC-AL Forum in May. For more details on the 14 finalists, please visit the RASC-AL Website: http://rascal.nianet.org/.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Presents Paper at A-Train Symposium

Amber J. Soja, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), attended the A-Train Symposium held in Pasadena, California April 19-21, 2017 and presented “Biomass burning smoke plume injection height: CALIOP-based estimates and comparisons to CMAQ” with colleagues Hyun-Deok Choi, George Pouliot, T. Duncan Fairlie, David M. Winker, Mark Vaughan, Thomas E. Pierce, Charles Trepte, and James Szykman. The Symposium emphasized science capabilities and advancements realized from 10+ years’ worth of data gathered by the A-Train’s multi-sensor system.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Attends KORUS-Ocean Color Science Team Meeting

Dr. Carolyn Jordan, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), attended the KORUS-Ocean Color (KORUS-OC) Science Team Meeting April 17 – 21, 2017. While there, Dr. Jordan presented a talk titled “New in Situ Aerosol Spectral Optical Measurements: Offering New Avenues to Study Air-Sea Exchange”. The KORUS-OC focuses on the links between satellite and ship-based measurement of ocean color, biology and biogeochemistry, as well as atmospheric composition in coastal waters adjacent to the Republic of Korea.724

National Institute of Aerospace and Hampton City Schools Partner Through NASA Science Grant

The National Institute of Aerospace, NIA, was one of 27 organizations nationwide to receive funding through a K-12 cooperative agreement award from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA eClips 4D Multi-Dimensional Strategies to Promote Understanding of Science: Design, Develop, Disseminate, and Discover, will focus on national student misconceptions in science and use student-produced videos to increase understanding of science content to students, lifelong learners, informal audiences and the general public.

NIA Associate Principal Scientist Publishes Paper in Computational Materials Science

Vesselin Yamakov, Associate Principal Scientist at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), along with Cheol Park (NASA), Jin Ho Kang (NIA), Xiaoming Chen (SUNYB), Changhong Ke (SUNYB), and Catharine Fay (NASA) recently published “Piezoelectric and Elastic Properties of Multiwall Boron-Nitride Nanotubes and Their Fibers: A Molecular Dynamics Study.”

Piezoelectric and elastic properties of multiwall boron-nitride nanotubes are studied using a classical molecular dynamics model with an incorporated strain-dependent dipole potential energy term. The results are applied to predict the piezoelectric and elastic properties of a boron-nitride nanotubes fiber with experimentally obtained diameter and wall number distribution of the nanotubes synthesized by high-temperature pressure methods. Computational Materials Science, vol. 135 (2017) pp. 29-42.

NIA Research Engineer Visits Boeing for ProjectLink!

John Cooper, Research Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) visited Boeing in St. Charles, Missouri April 11, 2017, along with NASA Co-PI’s, Jesse Quinlan and Paul Rothhaar, to discuss collaboration on Project Link!. Project Link! is a proposal to NASA’s Convergent Aeronautic Solutions (CAS) project studying the feasibility of physically linking aircraft together during flights to take advantage of vehicle benefits such as increasing wingspan thereby improving lift to drag ratio, increasing vertical lift capacity for VTOL aircraft, and increasing reliability.

Project Link! will investigate the mission-level benefits of reconfigurability to perform a wider range of missions than a single, purpose-built aircraft would be capable of. Boeing’s role will be to aid in vehicle design including conceptual design and aerodynamic analysis.

NIA Langley Professor at Virginia Tech to Present Rayleigh Lecture at 2017 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Expo

Dr. Christopher Fuller, Virginia Tech Langley Professor at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), was recently recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Noise Control and Acoustics Division (NCAD) committee to present this year’s Rayleigh Lecture at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Expo (IMECE). The Rayleigh Lecture recognizes individuals who have made pioneering contributions in the fields of noise control and acoustics. Dr. Fuller will give his lecture November 6, 2017, in Tampa, Forida.

NIA Associate Fellow Attends and Presents at NASA-Sponsored Workshop

Amber Soja, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), attended the NASA–sponsored “Opportunities to Apply Remote Sensing in Boreal/Arctic Wildfire Management and Science” workshop, held April 4-6, 2017 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Soja attended in her capacity as an Applied Science Associate Program Manager of Wildland Fire, the LaRC Disasters Coordinator, and as a scientist presenting “Decades of Change in the Former Soviet Union: Current Assessment and New Possibilities.”

The goals of this combined training and workshop were to advance co-developed investigations into new management and scientific uses of remote sensing data; increase the scientific foundation and operational efficiency of northern fire management; improve understanding of climate-induced changes in northern fire regimes and ecosystem components and potential feedbacks to the global climate system; and lead to expanded application and use of remotely sensed data for fire management and fire science in high latitudes.

https://www.frames.gov/partner-sites/afsc/events/previous-events/workshops/2017-rs-workshop/

NASA 360 Team Wins Silver and Bronze at 38th Annual Telly Awards

The NASA 360 team at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), including Scott Bednar, Caleb Stern, Jim Lucas, Tom Shortridge, Becky Jaramillo, and Harla Sherwood were recipients of two Telly Awards in March 2017. NASA 360 Talks: “The Exploration of Pluto” and NASA 360: “NASA’s Vascular Tissue Challenge – Improving Life in Space and Earth” earned the silver and bronze awards, respectively.

NIA Releases NASA 360 Talks: “Nano Icy Moon Harvester”

A new concept envisions sending a nano spacecraft to the surface of Europa, harvesting water and returning samples to Earth. NASA 360 joins Michael VanWoerkom, President, ExoTerra Resource, LLC., as he discusses his NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) for a nano icy moon propellant harvester.

This video was developed from a live recording at the 2016 NIAC Symposium in August 2016. To watch the full original talk please visit: http://bit.ly/2jEQLaP

To view NASA 360 Talks: “Nano Icy Moon Harvester,” visit: http://bit.ly/2nLpPV8

NIA ASSOCIATE FELLOW ORGANIZES SANDWICH DISBOND GROWTH TEAM MEETING

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Associate Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), organized a meeting of the Sandwich Disbond Growth Team immediately preceding the Composite Materials Handbook (CMH-17) meetings in Salt Lake City, UT, March 20, 2017. The team was established as a group of experts within the CMH-17 Disbond and Delamination Task Group in 2011 to identify, describe and address the phenomenon of sandwich face sheet/core disbonding. During the meeting, the team reviewed the status of current U.S. and European research and developed a path for standardizing the Single Cantilever Beam (SCB) test.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Co-Authors “Wildland Fire Annual Summary”

The 2016 NASA Earth Science Applied Sciences report “Wildland Fire Annual Summary” has been published and is available online. Co-authors include Lawrence Friedl (NASA), Vince Ambrosia (NASA), and Amber Soja (NIA). This report summarizes the project portfolios and the pertinent Wildland Fire team activities, which endeavor to promote, discover and demonstrate innovative, practical, and beneficial uses of Earth observations to deliver near-term applications to apply Earth science data.

https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/system/files/docs/Wildland%20Fires_Annual_Summary_2016.pdf

NIA Associate Research Fellow Co-Hosts 2017 NASA Wildland Fire Applications Team Meeting

In her Associate Program Manager role, Amber Soja, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace, co-hosted the 2017 NASA Wildland Fire Applications Team Meeting from Feb 28 through March 2nd in Boulder Colorado. The main objectives of this meeting were to review the status of funded projects, encourage collaborations among projects and the stakeholder communities and to discuss the applied use of NASA data, technology and models in the broader fire community.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Publishes Manuscript in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

The manuscript titled “Development of the crop residue and rangeland burning in the 2014 National Emissions Inventory using information from multiple sources” was published by George Pouliot, Venkatesh Rao, Jessica L. McCarty & Amber Soja in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, DOI:10.1080/10962247.2016.1268982. This manuscript uses NASA’s Earth Observations to enhance fire emissions at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Abstract: Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. One component of the biomass burning inventory, crop residue burning, has been poorly characterized in the National Emissions Inventory (NEI). In the 2011 NEI, wildland fires, prescribed fires, and crop residue burning collectively were the largest source of PM2.5.

This paper summarizes our 2014 NEI method to estimate crop residue burning emissions and grass/pasture burning emissions using remote sensing data and field information and literature-based, crop-specific emission factors. We focus on both the postharvest and pre-harvest burning that takes place with bluegrass, corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, sugarcane and wheat.

Estimates for 2014 indicate that over the continental United States (CONUS), crop residue burning excluding all areas identified as Pasture/Grass, Grassland Herbaceous, and Pasture/Hay occurred over approximately 1.5 million acres of land and produced 19,600 short tons of PM2.5. For areas identified as Pasture/Grass, Grassland Herbaceous, and Pasture/Hay, biomass burning emissions occurred over approximately 1.6 million acres of land and produced 30,000 short tons of PM2.5.

This estimate compares with the 2011 NEI and 2008 NEI as follows: 2008: 49,650 short tons and 2011: 141,180 short tons. Note that in the previous two NEIs rangeland burning was not well defined and so the comparison is not exact. The remote sensing data also provided verification of our existing diurnal profile for crop residue burning emissions used in chemical transport modeling. In addition, the entire database used to estimate this sector of emissions is available on EPA’s Clearinghouse for Inventories and Emission Factors (CHIEF, https://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/index.html.

Implications: Estimates of crop residue burning and rangeland burning emissions can be improved by using satellite detections. Local information is helpful in distinguishing crop residue and rangeland burning from all other types of fires.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Revises and Submits Paper to Earth Environment Research Letters

The paper, “Long-term radiation budget variability in Northern Eurasia: Potential for assessing current and future fire season variability” revised by Dr. Paul Stackhouse and Dr. Amber Soja was submitted to the Earth Environmental Research Letters on January 20, 2017. This paper composes a long-term (30-year) surface radiation fluxes by scaling and normalization of two different satellite-based data sets. The normalization is then assessed using extended measurements from surface solar flux measurements distributed throughout the Russian area of the NEESPI region. Decadal averaged long-term shifts of the radiative fluxes using these data compared favorably to changes in fire-related meteorological indexes using a reanalysis and actual fire occurrences. Stackhouse and Soja added a case study to this paper to better show the correspondence on the short-time scale as well. This paper is intended to be included in the NEESPI special issues that are being built out through ERL. Additional co-authors included J. Colleen Mikovitz, Dr. Taiping Zhang, and David Westberg of SSAI/NASA LaRC and Dr. Anatoly Tsvetkov of Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory (MGO) in St. Petersburg, Russia.

NIA Research Scientist and Associate Research Fellow Present Papers at 2016 Fall AGU Meeting

NASA scientists presented several papers that demonstrated the transport and deposition of biomass burning to the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting. Hyun-Deok Choi (NIA) A. Soja (NIA), D. Fairlie (NASA LaRC), D. Winker (NASA LaRC) and C. Trepte (NASA LaRC) with several others presented a paper that highlighted the major pathways from Canadian fires to the GIS using CALIOP data and the LaTM. Soja, Choi, Fairlie, Winker Trepte and others used a suite of remotely sensed and modeling assets to demonstrate smoke-aerosol transport to the GIS requires a combination of large fires, rapid transport and a deposition event (snow). Soja and Choi were co-authors on two additional GIS posters.

NIA Associate Research Fellow Presents Hyperwall Talks at 2016 Fall AGU Meetings

Amber Soja, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace, presented two hyperwall talks at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting, one flash talk “Wildland Fire: Hot and Getting Hotter” and “NASA’s Applied Sciences Program Wildland Fire A Satellite View of Wildfire for Fire Management.”

2017 BIG Idea Challenge Forum – Winning Teams Announced

The 2017 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Forum was hosted at NASA Langley Research Center from February 15 – 16^th, 2017. Five collegiate teams with students from six universities were selected to present their innovative ideas for in-space assembly of spacecraft – particularly tugs, propelled by solar electric propulsion (SEP), that transfer payload for low earth orbit (LEO) to a lunar distant retrograde orbit (LDRO).

Tulane University was awarded the first place prize for their design, “The Sunflower, A Modular and Hexagonally Symmetric SEP Cargo Transport Spacecraft,” while the University of Maryland team placed second for their concept titled, “200 kW / 500 kW Solar-electric Modular Flexible Kinetic Escort (SMo-FlaKE).” As their prize, participants from both teams were offered NASA summer internships at LaRC to continue developing their concepts.

Their Forum competitors included:

- - Georgia Institute of Technology with the University of Texas at Austin and New York University, “An Elegant and Innovative Design for In-Space Assembly: Optimizing Modularity through an Umbrella Mechanism”
  - University of Colorado, “Odysseus”
  - University of Maryland, “A Reusable Modular Solar Electric Propulsion Space Tug (SEP) to Transfer Payloads from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Lunar Distant Retrograde Orbit (LDRO

Presentations were evaluated by the following BIG Idea Challenge Judges :

- - Keith Belvin (LaRC)
  - Anthony Calomino (LaRC)
  - Robert Hodson (LaRC)
  - Erik Komendera (LaRC)
  - David McGowan (LaRC)
  - LaNetra Tate (HQ)
  - Mary Wusk (LaRC)

The BIG Idea Challenge is sponsored by NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and managed by Shelley Spears and Stacy Dees of the National Institute of Aerospace.

NASA Feature Story for the 2017 BIG Idea Forum Winning Team: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/game_changing_development/feature/2017_big_idea_challenge

BIG Idea Website: http://bigidea.nianet.org

NIA Associate Principal Engineer Presents Paper at ISSS and Visits JAXA-IKAROS

Dr. Jin Ho Kang, Associate Principal Engineer at the National Institute of Aerospace, presented a paper entitled “Simulated Space Environment Effects on a Candidate Solar Sail Material” at the Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing (ISSS) held in Kyoto, Japan, January 17-20^th. The paper was co-authored with Dr. Robert Bryant, Dr. W. Keats Wilkie (NASA LaRC), Ms. Heather Wadsworth (Virginia Tech), Dr. Paul Craven, Ms. Mary Nehls and Mr. Jason Vaughn (NASA MSFC). After the conference, the Langley Solar Sail Team (Drs. Keats, Bryant, Fernandez and Kang) were invited to visit JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)-IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun) team at JAXA ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science) facility to discuss the future potential collaboration.

NIA Associate Research Fellow, NCSU Langley Professor Host Researchers as Part of SIP-SM4I Program

Dr. Ronald Krueger, Associate Research Fellow at the National Institute of Aerospace and Dr. Fuh-Gwo Yuan, Samuel P. Langley Professor at North Carolina State University, hosted a group of seven researchers from the University of Tokyo, JAXA (Japan Space Exploration Agency) and Mitsubishi Research Institute. The researchers are participants in a Japanese national project on Innovative Aircraft Polymer Matrix Composites, which focusses on the development of high production rate Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer products for aircraft including the associated quality assurance technology. This project is part of the SIP-SM⁴I Program set up by the Japanese Government and includes academia as well as major industry partners. The visitors gave presentations on their work related to this project:

Shu Minakuchi, Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, “Next-Generation Aircraft Polymer Composites by Japan SIP Project and Advanced Internal-Strain-Based Process Simulation Scheme for Their Development”.

Yuichiro Aoki, JAXA, “Current Status & Future Directions of JAXA’s Composite Research Activity”.

Shoma Niwa, Research Associate at the University of Tokyo, “Evaluating material property development of CFRP during cure based on in-situ measurement of internal strain”.

Shinsaku Hisada, Research Associate at the University of Tokyo, “Process improvement for out-of-autoclave prepreg curing supported by in-situ strain monitoring.”

Tyler Hudson, a Ph.D. Candidate at NIA/North Carolina State University, also presented a talk on “Real-Time Cure Monitoring of Composites Using a Guided Wave-Based System with Piezoelectric Transducers” and “Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors” which directly complemented the research performed at the University of Tokyo.