UA And NASA: A Partnership Driving Space Exploration Forward
Watching the orange parachutes return the Artemus II moon mission to earth Friday evening brought tremendous pride to the nation but nowhere more so than the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa. A number of people on campus played a critical role in the mission's success.
UA has a strong, ongoing history of collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), particularly with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. The partnerships have included research in advanced in-space manufacturing, student robotics competitions, and developing software used in the Artemis moon missions.
Many of the calculations that made the Apollo Moon Program a success was lost of outdated once man quit traveling to earth's satellite. All of the flight trajectories and space mapping had to be redeveloped.
The development of the Astrodynamics Software and Science Enabling Toolkit (ASSET) by Dr. Rohan Sood's team at the Astrodynamics and Space Research Laboratory was crucial for spacecraft trajectory design It has been used for NASA Artemis missions and supports UASPACE satellite projects like BAMA-1 and BAMA-2, focusing on mission simulation and orbit modelling.
Spacecraft trajectory is the space journey from start to finish, mapping out positions at specific times. In other words, it is the planned path a spacecraft follows through space over time. Space travel cannot be done in a straight line, but rather a curve dictated by gravity, speed, and direction. That creates a need for highly accurate trajectories.
Dr. Rohan Sood is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at UA. He is an award-winning integral part of UA's relationship to NASA. His lab's development of ASSET was a key component to Artemus II's success.
According to a UA press release, ASSET arose out of a need for better communication of data between researchers at different institutions involved with aerospace projects.
“Every center has their own tools that work great,” Sood said. “But when multiple centers working on the same mission need to share data, they have to figure out how to make these tools talk to each other.” Thus, the genesis of ASSET. It is used by university researchers, federal institutes and private companies.
ASSET has benefitted researchers, labs and the space program but it also is playing a significant role in preparing students for future jobs. For instance, one company using ASSET has already hired three UA graduates.
Bottom line UA and various institutions across Alabama are playing a crucial role in the resurgence of the U.S. space program. Don't look for that to end.
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