October 10, 2022
For the third year running, a team of aerospace engineering seniors at UT Austin has continued a winning tradition, taking second place in the annual Undergraduate Space Systems design competition sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation. These competitions allow students to gain experience solving a simulated real-world design challenge while receiving feedback from AIAA technical experts. Students entered the competition in the senior capstone course series which includes Space Systems Design and Spacecraft/Mission Design, both taught by Adam Nokes, a lecturer in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (ASE/EM).
The 2021-22 space mission challenge required students to design an exploration excursion vehicle (EEV) that has the capability of sending a crew to and from the two moons of Mars – Phobos and Deimos. Though there has been interest in sending humans to Mars for decades, current space technology is unable to support a mission like this due to a number of issues such as a safe, autonomous landing, communication delays and deep space habitation. But by starting with a mission to Martian moons, it is hoped that these challenges will be addressed, paving the way for getting humans on the surface of Mars.
The award-winning group of students, who dubbed themselves the Space Pirates, approached the challenge with a “space tech HAMMER” – a mission that would allow for a technical demonstration of getting humans to the moons of Mars. HAMMER, which stands for Human Assisted Martian Moons Explore and Return, involves three goals: to collect samples of both Mars moons for scientific investigation; to demonstrate safe, autonomous landing and take-off capabilities for a crewed spacecraft on the moons; and to provide a baseline for deep space transport communication relay to the moons.
The Space Pirates, made up of aerospace engineering seniors Reece Appel, Nick Delurgio, Teja Gorantla, Christian Hinton, Jhereg Jones, Pete Lealiiee Jr., Shea Popov, Shannon Scott, Nils Schlautmann and Rye Seekins, took second place for the HAMMER mission at this year’s competition. The team is one of three UT Austin teams that has placed in the top two in the AIAA design competition over the past three years.
Nokes said the competition judges were impressed with the UT Hammer report, which is clearly evident in an excerpt from one of their comments:
“This report offered a remarkable amount of detail in nearly every subsystem domain, along with comprehensive trade studies. The discussion of logistics trades and time allocation between the moons was particularly good and demonstrated clear, critical thinking. Similarly, the level of fidelity presented for the RCS system sizing was quite impressive. This was an excellent report!”
Since graduating, members of the Space Pirates have gone on to do a variety of space tech related work like Gorantla who is working as a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin, and Hinton who took a job at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a flight controller. Others have continued on to pursue graduate studies like Delurgio, who is working towards a master’s degree at Stanford specializing in advanced guidance, navigation and control algorithms for spacecraft.
When asked what advice the students might give for the next group of UT mission design teams participating in the competition, answers varied:
Gorantla: “The report initially seems like a daunting task – especially when looking at previous winning reports. Just take it piece by piece and slowly increase the level of fidelity you go into. If everyone does a little bit every week the report will write itself.”
Delurgio: “Start CAD early! The more time to iterate on and improve your models, the better.
Hinton: “Definitely use heritage tech as much as you can. If you try to build from the ground up on something it will be way too hard. And don’t be afraid to get very technical.”
Previous winning teams include the Space Cowboys who took first place for their Glacies Nova: The Mars Expedition project and the Fighting Mongooses, who took second for their Omond House Lunar Base Camp project.
Nokes said that the students who participate in the AIAA space design competition stand to reap many career benefits and he is excited that this year’s team finally has the opportunity to present in-person at the AIAA ASCEND conference this fall.
“Capstone projects like these have the potential to be a very high impact activity for the students and the UT ASE/EM community as a whole,” said Nokes. “I've heard from several colleagues that attend AIAA conferences – a large percentage of the faculty here at UT – that these early successes are influential and have many beneficial follow-on effects for these students as they pursue careers in both industry and academia.”
Winning teams received cash awards and their papers are hosted on the AIAA website:
The Space Pirates, HAMMER (Human Assisted Martian Moons Explore and Return), 2022
