• This mission is a utility logistics support mission and will deliver 14 tons of important spare parts, science experiments and other items in its middeck and payload bay. Among the spare parts is a Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU). Within the PCU is a Glenn designed and fabricated Hollow Cathode Assembly.
• The next segment of the Materials International Space Station Experiment, called MISSE-7, will also be aboard this shuttle mission. In addition to several Glenn experiments and sensors, MISSE-7 includes Glenn’s Communications Interface Box that provides a bridge between the active experiments and the space station for telemetry and command data. MISSE-7, developed by the Naval Research Laboratory, also includes the Forward Technology Solar Cell Experiment-II for which the Navy and Glenn are co-investigators.
• Included in the cargo of STS-129 are special glass test tubes that space station crew members will use in a Glenn-designed heat transfer experiment. The constrained vapor bubble experiment is expected to provide data that may increase the efficiency of heat pipes.

Read the full NASA Glenn press release, “Mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis Has Ohio Connections,” at the NASA Glenn website.

The Polymer Erosion and Contamination Experiment (PEACE) team student’s paper summarizes research, overseen by engineers at NASA Glenn, which they conducted to determine whether or not solar radiation exposure increases the atomic oxygen erosion yield of aluminized Teflon fluorinated ethylene propylene (Al-FEP), a commonly used spacecraft thermal control material.

These results have implications to spacecraft design for environmental durability. The Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology is the nation’s most prestigious high school science and mathematics research competition. A total of 2,151 students entered 1,348 projects from across the country (14 percent more students and 12 percent more projects than 2008). Only eight students from the State of Ohio were awarded Siemens semifinalists, and one was awarded finalist this year.

Guo, Stambler, and Inoshita’s paper was the only team research paper from Ohio given this honor. Their research  was . The students will each receive an award package, along with national recognition for their science research. Lists of the regional semi-finalists and finalists can be found at the Siemens Foundation web site.

Over the past 6 years there have been 13 PEACE team Siemens Competition honorees: seven semifinalists (two in 2006, two in 2008, and three in 2009), three regional finalists (2003), and three national winners (6th place nationally, 2007). This work is supported by the ISS Research Project.

His term starts June 1, 2010 and will run for four years. Dr. Ponchak has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters over the past four years, and his term as editor of that journal ends on January 1, 2010. Dr. Ponchak will be only the third person to have served as editor of both journals.

Dr. Ponchak was also nominated and elected to serve a three term on the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Administrative Committee. The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society is one of the largest IEEE societies with approximately 13,000 members.

It sponsors over 200 technical conferences per year, including the largest and most important conference related to the field of circuits and systems in the frequency range of few mega-hertz to terra-hertz, throughout the world, publishes two technical journals and one magazine, and awards grants to students. As one of the 21 elected members on the Administrative Committee, Dr. Ponchak will responsible for these technical activities.

“The 30-foot-long TBCC rig is under construction for runs at Mach 2 to 4 in a supersonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Ohio, starting next year. The Williams WJ38 turbojet is adapted to run at Mach 3-plus and is a predecessor of more advanced high-speed turbine designs being developed separately under the Air Force Research Laboratory/Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Mach 4-plus turbine Histed (high-speed turbine engine demonstration) program.

“Although not a Histed engine, the WJ38 was acquired by NASA as part of that program, and will be integrated into the TBCC rig next year.”

However, integration has taken longer than expected, and first flight was later slipped to December, with captive carriage flights on the B-52H set to begin by the end of this month. Maintenance issues on the B-52H have added to the delay, test officials say. In addition, other Air Force mission priorities have been allocated to the test bed and “we have to get in line,” says one scientist attending the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics/DLR-organized space planes and hypersonics conference here this week, where an update on the program was given.

“We are waiting for test assets to be in position,” says Tom Jackson, AFRL Propulsion Directorate aerospace propulsion chief. “If that slips then first flight will slide further,” he adds. The X-51 is a Mach 6 plus waverider vehicle powered by a hydrocarbon (JP-7) fuel-cooled scramjet, and if successful could perform the longest duration air-breathing hypersonic flight in history. Four flights are planned, with the last currently set for April 2010.

The rig is being built at the Glenn Research Center for testing in its supersonic wind tunnel. “The TBCC is designed to integrate a turbine and ramjet/scramjet into a unified propulsion system that could be used to power the first-stage of a two-stage launch vehicle from a standing start on a runway to speeds in excess of Mach 7.” Testing of the rig “will be divided into four main phases, beginning with inlet performance work in 2010, followed by unsteady inlet system work.”

The article discusses how testing in the facilities by Bruce Banks and Sharon Miller has helped the commercial remote sensing industry and also how their testing also resulted in more than a $15 billion savings to NASA by enabling full mission durability of the International Space Station (ISS) solar array blankets. The research for ISS, published in over 70 papers, and the magnitude of the cost savings, resulted in GRC’s largest Space Act Award.

The article also described how other uses of the atomic oxygen facilities have resulted in technology applications for durability of mirrors and composite materials, atomic oxygen art restoration, improved cell adhesion, and removal of endotoxins from surgical implants. This work is supported by the NASA GRC Technology Transfer and Partnership Office.