Thesis Defense by Nanette Valentour on November 21st
Space Studies M.S. candidate, Nanette Valentour, will defend her thesis as follows. All Space Studies students and faculty are encouraged to show your support by attending.
When: Thursday, November 21st at 3:30 pm (Central)
Where: Ryan Hall, Room 111
Title: “Design of a Controlled Descent Lifting Body Glider for High Altitude Payload Recovery”
About the topic: The purpose of this research is to demonstrate if a lifting body scaled model can be used as a recovery method for high altitude ballooning payloads. Current recovery techniques consist of monitoring and chasing the payload signal until it can be recovered. It is expected that a lifting body glider can reduce the distance for payload recovery and in some cases effectively return the payload back to the Ground Station. A computational aerodynamic model of the vehicle was designed using MATLAB and the Vortex Lattice Method. Fabrication of a solid foam model was performed at the Kennedy Space Center foam prototype shop, which became the mold for the composite vehicle. The glider was then integrated with a separately developed navigation system and underwent initial flight testing. The vehicle is be designed to be reusable, allowing for multi-launch use with the ability for the operator to modify the payload to permit for various high altitude experimentation.
Advisor: Dr. Pablo de León
About the Presenter: Nanette Valentour is a third year graduate student with a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from the University of Cincinnati. She currently works as a Systems Engineer for Vantage Partners at NASA Glenn Research Center. While this research is on a small-scale, she hopes to gain an understanding of the flight conditions and dynamics of the reentry and descent aspects of the vehicles that will soon be used to fly astronauts to and from Earth.
******Those unable to attend in person may view the live webcast******
1) A live webcast which includes PowerPoint slides will be available here.
2) Via Zoom Video Conferencing. Sign in as a guest, or use your Zoom log-in.