UF To Lead New Research Insititute At Kennedy Space Center

March 17, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida will lead a group of more than 20 universities in a new research institute whose aim will be to improve the safety and lower the costs of launching spacecraft.

The Spaceport Research and Technology Institute is being created as part of a broader NASA effort to develop advanced spaceport technologies and systems. The space agency awarded a $220 million contract to Maryland-based ASRC Aerospace Corp. to develop the systems for manned and unmanned spacecraft in conjunction with UF and its academic partners. The venture was selected from seven applicants to the NASA research program, which was in the works before the Columbia tragedy.

The institute’s research activities will be based at Kennedy Space Center, where it will join a previously established UF center devoted to developing next-generation onboard life-support systems.

“This institute cements UF’s permanent presence at Kennedy,” said Win Phillips, UF vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School. “Our work there will help NASA address some of its most critical challenges, while providing exciting and important applied research opportunities for university scientists, engineers and graduate students.”

The institute’s research will focus on developing more efficient, more economical and safer launch technologies, said Peggy Evanich, UF’s director of space research programs. Evanich will serve as interim director while a search for a permanent director is conducted. For the immediate future, scientists will emphasize improving shuttle and unmanned rocket launch operations at Kennedy and may work with other U.S. spaceports.

“This covers all the areas related to operating a spaceport – whether on Earth or the moon or even Mars,” Evanich said. “For example, for a base on Mars, we’d like to know how to use the Martian environment to generate oxygen for the trip back to Earth.”

The research will focus broadly on improving components such as rocket fuel systems, creating better structures and materials, and better command and control systems. It also will seek to improve the safety and efficiency of launches.

The institute, which is anticipated to include at least 24 universities nationwide, is expected to receive funding annually from NASA’s contract with ASRC Aerospace. The other institutions involved include Florida State University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Miami, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University. NASA’s contract with the company extends though 2008 and may be renewed annually for an additional five years, for a total of $600 million possible toward the effort.

Mike O’Neal, manager of university research and development at Kennedy’s Strategic Technology Formulation Office, said NASA hopes to find ways to improve numerous methods and techniques currently used during vehicle processing, launch and landing.

Prior to each space shuttle launch, for example, the space agency pumps liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel into the shuttle through vacuum-insulated ground pipes to minimize propellant boil-off, he said. These “vacuum jackets” are expensive to build and maintain, and NASA would like to find a cheaper but equally effective alternative insulation, he said

Also, O’Neal said, the shuttle and the fleet of expendable rockets create a tremendous amount of vibration and acoustic shock at launch. To avoid any possibility of resulting structural failure, engineers have added extra reinforcement to their designs. If researchers could accurately measure and model the vibration and acoustic shock forces, they might be able to engineer lighter and less expensive vehicle designs to launch, he said.

“The amount of weight you have to put into orbit is really key to the cost,” he said. “So modeling of that environment is critical.”

O’Neal said he expects the universities participating in the project to focus on applying ideas and technologies from their own labs as well as from their national counterparts. U.S. national laboratories include, for example, the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.

“We’d like assistance with how we can leverage that research for good technologies that we can use in the spaceport,” he said.

The other UF research program at Kennedy is the Center for Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education, launched last year. Directed by Robert Ferl, a professor of horticultural sciences, the program seeks to develop plant-based techniques to create regenerative life-support systems in space.