Capt. Brett Cooper and Mr. William Karasz from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (ENY) at AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management were recently selected for Best Presentation Awards at the 4th Annual Dayton Engineering Sciences Symposium, held at Wright State University on October 27, 2008. Capt. Cooper won “Best Presentation in Design and Optimization” for his presentation entitled Inflatable/Rigidizable Space Structures and Mr. Karasz won “Best Presentation in Aerospace Vehicles and Flight Operations” for his presentation entitled Optimal Re-entry Trajectory Terminal State Due to Variations in Waypoint Locations.
Capt. Cooper’s research focuses on analyzing the post space flight test data of the Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment (RIGEX), an AFIT and Space Test Program Canister for All Payload Ejections experiment flown in March 2007 onboard the Endeavour (STS-123). RIGEX’s inflatable/rigidizable tubes enjoy high packaging efficiency and strength to weight ratios; the results from the successful deployment of all three tubes on orbit will lead to the lighter and larger space structures necessary to meet the next generation of warfighter requirements.
Mr. Karasz’s research focuses on finding the optimal control required to maneuver a re-entry vehicle through defined waypoints to a fixed endpoint (target) and analysis characterizing the change in terminal state due to an additional waypoint constraint. The trajectories are optimized using a numerical collocation technique (Gauss Pseudospectral Method), and the process is automated for multiple waypoint analysis. This research is designed to help meet the goals of two of the Air Force’s Concepts of Operations: Global Strike and Global Persistent Attack.
