Purdue News

Space exploration experts

January 13, 2004

Below are Purdue University experts who can discuss a variety of issues related to space exploration. President Bush on Wednesday (1/14) is expected to lay out details of a plan that would establish a lunar outpost that would act as a base for longer missions, such as to Mars.

Technologies to support life in space will be beneficial on Earth

The Bush administration is expected on Wednesday (1/14) to announce plans to send a human mission to the moon to establish a permanent base that would act as a way station for later missions to Mars. An interdisciplinary team of Purdue University researchers working with partners at Alabama A& M and Howard universities is figuring out how future astronauts on such a mission will grow crops, recycle waste, air, and water, and avoid the deadly cosmic radiation deflected by Earth's atmosphere.

The technologies researchers develop will likely be useful on Earth as well as in space, says Cary Mitchell, professor of horticulture and director of Purdue's NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Advanced Life Support, or ALS-NSCORT, a research center established by NASA to develop tools to support extended human survival in space.

"Recycling of water, energy and biomass, and figuring out how to more efficiently sustain ourselves without resupply will be crucial to the success of any long-term human mission in space," Mitchell says. "The technologies we develop to tightly control energy and mass inputs and outputs could certainly be spun off into devices and processes that we can use on Earth as well as for a space-based mission."

Some of the projects Mitchell and the center are involved in include:

• Developing low-energy, targeted lighting systems to be used for crop production during a mission to Mars. Mitchell has recently partnered with Orbitec, a company in Madison, Wis., to design and produce efficient-lighting systems using LED technology.

• Using crop waste, such as stalks and leaves, to support a tilapia fish-farming system, which will provide astronauts on an extended mission with a source of fresh animal protein. One team of researchers is even studying the feasibility of growing mushrooms on crop waste. The mushrooms would provide a source of food for astronauts and also partially degrade the crop waste, making the waste more digestible by the fish.

• Developing efficient air and water filtration systems, possibly built from crop waste as well.

"Our goal within Purdue's NSCORT program is to develop a hybrid of biological, physical and chemical systems that mimic what goes on in nature, and by doing this, to keep the crew healthy and safe," Mitchell says. "Balancing the whole system for advanced life support in space is very complicated, but no more complicated than what the biosphere does naturally."

CONTACT: Mitchell, (765) 494-1347, mitchell@hort.purdue.edu

Related Links:
Purdue NSCORT
Orbitec

Cold War historian talks about a new kind of space race

As Americans await the president's challenge to return to the moon and beyond, a Purdue University space historian says there couldn't be a better time to rejuvenate the country's interest in space travel.

"John F. Kennedy's inspiring calls in the early 1960s for the United States to reach the moon during the space race with the Soviets were crucial in developing and financing the successful Apollo programs," says Michael Smith, professor of history. "President Bush's father, George H. Bush, similarly attempted to rally American public support for further colonization of the moon, Mars and space in 1989 at the end of the Cold War.

"Bush Sr.'s initiative failed. Times have changed, though, and our current President Bush may very well be able to mobilize public support for some bold space exploration initiatives in the context of the world's present challenging political and military realities, namely the global war on terrorism and projects to transform the technologies and strategies of the U.S. military. Assets in outer space and cyberspace are crucial to both."

The last trip to the moon was in 1972. Purdue is home to 22 astronaut alumni, including the first and last humans on the moon.

"Military necessities dictated by the nuclear arms race defined so many of Russia's and America's achievements in the first space age of the late 20th century," says Smith, who is writing a book about the space race between America and the former Soviet Union. "But that does not mean the coming space age of the 21st century will take on the same character and sequence. Recent partnerships between the USA and Russia on Mir and the International Space Station prove that peaceful collaboration can work."

The president's expected announcement for a return flight to the moon may stir feelings of nostalgia, but Smith says more will be needed to capture the attention of the younger generations.

"The Apollo missions have a historic and nostalgic allure only," Smith says. "We have the spectacular photographs and films and memories in popular culture. University students show little interest in returning to the moon again simply to return. Colonizing and mining the moon interest them somewhat. Reaching and exploring and colonizing Mars, perfectly achievable according to present and possible technologies, fascinates them most."

CONTACT: Smith, (765) 494-4148, mgsmith@purdue.edu

Former NASA engineer advocates Mars missions

James M. Longuski, a professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, worked for nine years at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was a maneuver analyst and a mission designer. He is a strong advocate for human missions to Mars and the development of new spacecraft. He also has worked with Buzz Aldrin on a human transportation system to Mars. Longuski is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has written more than 100 conference and journal papers in the general area of astrodynamics, including such topics as spacecraft dynamics and control, reentry theory, mission design, space trajectory optimization and a new test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

CONTACT: Longuski, (765) 494-5139, longuski@ecn.purdue.edu

Engineer is expert in design of 'hypersonic' aircraft

Steven Schneider is an aerospace engineer and an associate professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has been widely quoted about the space shuttle Columbia accident and is knowledgeable about the NASA culture and the U.S. space program. Schneider also has developed an unusual wind tunnel that is designed to run relatively quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, which will help researchers design advanced aircraft, spacecraft and missiles. Researchers from NASA and private industry are using the $1 million wind tunnel to help design aircraft that will travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach 5, which is about 4,000 mph at sea level.

CONTACT: Schneider: (765) 494-5254, (765) 494-3343 (lab), steves@purdue.edu