Thermal protection for space vehicles
Until Saturday, shuttle re-entry was considered a solved problem, but that view has definitely changed, says Graham Candler, a professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics at the University of Minnesota. "There's going to be a whole re-examination of the entire thermal protection system on whether it's more vulnerable than we thought it was," Candler says. Candler works on thermal protection for vehicles going to places such as Jupiter and Neptune, where the entry environments are much more challenging. His current research aims at better understanding high temperature re-entry flows and modeling those flows better, so others can design the next generation space shuttle or hypersonic cruise vehicles.
Impact on public stems from loss of heroes
The loss of Columbia differs from the World Trade Towers and Oklahoma City attacks in that the terrorist attacks engendered a real sense of violation, says University of Minnesota psychology professor Gloria Leon. There's no feeling of violation now, but the Columbia disaster does involve the deaths of people regarded as role models, and this leads to a tremendous sense of loss. "With Columbia, we've lost heroes who put their lives on the line for exploration and science," Leon says. "We're in the heroic age of space exploration, just as we were in the heroic age of polar exploration a century ago." Leon also predicts public anger over budget cuts at NASA.
A new spacesuit in the works
A spacesuit recently completed and tested by researchers in the U's Laboratory for Health and Human Performance in Extreme Environments may someday allow astronauts to conserve power in emergencies by heating only part of their spacesuits while keeping fingers warm to perform manipulations, or by cooling in case of overheating. The liquid cooling and warming garment (LCWG) fits under bulky outer spacesuits and directs heated or cooled water through coils that cover only key sections of the body. The LCWG has no gloves, but it could apply heat to just the shoulder area, which would allow warmed blood to circulate to the fingers without wasting energy heating the whole suit. The NASA-funded project is headed by principal investigator Victor Koscheyev, a senior fellow in kinesiology, and co-investigator Gloria Leon, a professor of psychology. NASA has called the LCWG "the first new development in a liquid cooling garment in 30 years," Leon says. The group has filed for a patent on the suit and is also working on a finger ring with sensors that will provide initial temperature data in an automatic thermal feedback system.
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