[meteorite-list] NASA Seeks Big Ideas from Students for Inflatable Heat Shield Technology

[Ron Baalke]

RELEASE 15-189

NASA Seeks Big Ideas from Students for Inflatable Heat Shield Technology 
September 18, 2015

NASA is giving university and college students an opportunity to be part of 
the agency's journey to Mars with the Breakthrough, Innovative, and 
Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge.

NASA's Game Changing Development Program (GCD), managed by the agency's 
Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington, and the National 
Institute of Aerospace (NIA) are seeking innovative ideas for generating lift 
using inflatable spacecraft heat shields or hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic 
decelerator (HIAD) technology.

"NASA is currently developing and flight testing HIADs -- a new class of 
relatively lightweight deployable aeroshells that could safely deliver more 
than 22 tons to the surface of Mars," said Steve Gaddis, GCD manager at 
NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "A crewed spacecraft 
landing on Mars would weigh between 15 and 30 tons."

The NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is the heaviest payload ever landed on the 
Red Planet -- weighing in at only one ton. To slow a vehicle carrying a 
significantly heavier payload through the thin Martian atmosphere and safely 
land it on the surface is a significant challenge. NASA is addressing this 
challenge through the development of large aeroshells that can provide enough 
aerodynamic drag to decelerate and deliver larger payloads. HIAD technology 
is a leading idea because these kinds of aeroshells can also generate lift, 
which would allow the agency to potentially do different kinds of missions.

Interested teams of three to five undergraduate and/or graduate students are 
asked to submit white papers describing their concepts by Nov. 15. Concepts 
may employ new approaches such as shape morphing and pneumatic actuation to 
dynamically alter the HIAD inflatable structure.

Selected teams will continue in the competition by submitting in the spring 
of 2016 full technical papers on the concept. Up to four teams will present 
their concepts to a panel of NASA judges at the BIG Idea Forum at Langley in 
April 2016.

Each finalist team will receive a $6,000 stipend to assist with full 
participation in the forum. BIG Idea Challenge winners will receive offers of 
paid internships with the GCD team at Langley, where they can potentially 
work toward a flight test of their concept.

For more information about the challenge, and details on how to apply, visit 
the BIG Idea website at:

http://bigidea.nianet.org

For more information about NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, go 
to:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

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