Purdue News
Purdue News
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October 16, 1998
GIS system maps shuttle exhaust cloudWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- On Oct. 29 the shuttle Discovery will head into space from Florida, but only after a computer-based geographic information system (GIS) assures launch managers that shuttle exhaust won't harm the local wildlife.Bernie Engel, a Purdue University agricultural engineer, helped develop the GIS system for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Right next to the launch area is Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is visited by more than a million people a year," Engel said. "NASA is very careful about not messing up, not letting harmful deposits accumulate there." A few hours after a shuttle goes up, spent fuel from the solid rocket boosters falls back down. Much of what falls is an acid cloud -- in concentrations low enough that it won't hurt spectators, but high enough that repeated launches could alter the local environment. NASA monitors the deposits and limits the number of launches from each pad to prevent environmental damage. For years NASA has used a computer model to figure out where deposits fall. But three years ago, during a six-month sabbatical at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Engel noticed that NASA engineers were using photocopied maps to plot their estimates. Engel, one of the pioneers in GIS technology, convinced them to move to a GIS computerized mapping system. With GIS, researchers can pull together data on weather, land use, topography, wildlife and more in one computer system. With all the data integrated, launch personnel can easily estimate how a change in such things as wind velocity or launch location affects where the acid cloud falls. Also, GIS computer maps of data are more accurate than the paper ones NASA had been using. "Distance estimates made using the paper system could easily be off by thousands of feet," Engel says. "GIS gives a better estimate of where the hydrochloric acid cloud will fall and removes some of the chance for human error." Burton Summerfield, Pollution Control Officer for Kennedy Space Center, pushed to make the change as soon as he saw the advantages of Engel's suggestions. Engel helped set up the new system, which NASA has used for the last year and a half. "Bernie has taken our existing model and integrated it to allow for better prediction of the environmental effects," says Ross Hinkle, chief scientists for Dynamac International Inc., a company that contracts with NASA for life science support. "We can get almost instant feedback on what the environmental effects might be." NASA still calls on Engel when it needs help tweaking the new system. In fact, engineers for the space agency called him back two weeks ago as they prepared to send Discovery into orbit. "Just when I was teaching my Purdue GIS class about GIS programming," Engel said, "they called and said they needed help with the same issues the class was studying."
Sources: Bernie Engel, (765) 494-1198; e-mail, engelb@ecn.purdue.edu Ross Hinkle, (407) 867-4188 Writer: Rebecca J. Goetz, (765) 494-0461; e-mail, rjg@aes.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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