Purdue’s footprint on space exploration, research

Top row, left to right: Prof. Jay Melosh; Prof. George Chiu and Rebecca Kramer with postdoctoral research associate J. William Boley; Purdue alumnus Jerry Ross; Middle row, left to right: Footprint on the moon (image courtesy of NASA); Prof. Jeff Volenec (right) and former graduate assistant Shane Howard; graduate student Samantha Alberts and Prof. Steven Collicott; Prof. Barrett Caldwell; Bottom row, left to right: Profs. Mark Lundstrom and Supriyo Datta; Prof. Lisa Mauer; image from graduate student Loic Chappaz showing the orbits of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos; doctoral students Zach Hallum, Michael Bedard and Eric Meier

06/01/2015 |

Purdue’s storied connection to NASA and U.S. space exploration fills our nation’s history books, but leading research also has been a key component of our link to the space agency over the years.

In fact, less than 10 years after NASA began, funding received from NASA marked the organization of the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing at Purdue (1966). And since 1978, records indicate that Purdue faculty members have conducted nearly $500 million worth of research for NASA, with projects ranging from colonizing Mars to growing plants in space. Their accomplishments are drawn into focus as NASA, and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), mark their 100th anniversary this year.

“Purdue and NASA have been strong partners in space exploration and discovery,” says Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering. “From the first and most recent men on the moon to the research-driven engineering and scientific achievements that have changed the face of space travel and aviation, Purdue has been with NASA every step of the way.”

Nearly 100 projects of $1 million or more
Two faculty members have led NASA-related research projects valued at more than $10 million each. Another 15 Purdue faculty members have been awarded at least $8 million each over their careers for NASA research. In all, nearly 100 Purdue faculty members have received $1 million or more for sponsored research from NASA since the late 1970s. Here’s just a sampling of some projects:

Cary Mitchell has led a $15 million multi-institutional effort called the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) for Advanced Life Support. Its mission: Design a self-sustaining environment for residents of future space colonies, where residents could grow their own crops and live inside fully enclosed habitats in which all wastes are constantly being recycled and purified. “It will cost $140,000 per pound to launch anything from Earth to Mars,” says Mitchell, a horticulture professor. “NASA wants to make sure that equipment and cargo needed for any system is minimized.”

As an NSCORT partner, Lisa Mauer has focused on food quality and shelf life for extended space missions. “What-if questions have the potential to bring together diverse groups of scientists to solve problems, big and small, and to imagine new ways of supporting life, travel and perhaps the pursuit of happiness,” says Mauer, a professor of food science.

Through a $13.2 million NASA grant, George Chiu, a professor of mechanical engineering, has studied how to grow plants in space using LED lights, which are more robust than light bulbs. Chiu, a mechanical engineering professor, has identified a lighting system that will allow 100 percent of the leaves of a plant to receive light, instead of the typical crop growth in which only the top canopy receives light.

Agronomy Professor Jeff Volenec has discovered ways to turn human waste into purified drinking water as part of a $7.3 million NASA grant in connection with the Purdue-led NSCORT project. Waste passes through plant roots to the leaves; the plant’s pores then release water vapor, which condenses upon contact with cold pipes, producing clean, recycled water. Remaining solids can fertilize certain plants.

Mark Lundstrom and Supriyo Datta each have received more than $8 million in funding to direct the NASA Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing. The work of these electrical and computer engineering professors has resulted in a new generation of compact, high-performance computers for NASA, reducing the need for human interference and mission control.

Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, has received $3.07 million in NASA funding to research spacecraft trajectory design and maneuver strategies for transfers and on-orbit operations.

Through a $1.84 million grant, Marshall Porterfield, director of Space Life and Physical Sciences at NASA, has played a key role in a Purdue “SporeSat” experiment to test how plant cells sense and respond to different levels of gravity. Porterfield, on leave as a Purdue professor of agricultural and biological engineering and horticulture and landscape architecture, developed lab-on-a-chip technology that was used to study ferns aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in May.

Steven Collicott, aeronautics and astronautics professor, has received $1.4 million from NASA to design experiments operated in weightlessness on the space station and by using suborbital rockets and drop towers.

John Sullivan, longtime aeronautics and astronautics professor, has used $4.8 million in NASA funding to advance experimental aerodynamics/fluid mechanics. He also served on the prestigious NASA Advisory Council from 2006-08.

Barrett Caldwell has served on a NASA research team as part of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), which is addressing scientific questions about the moon, near-Earth asteroids and the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. Through $8.9 million in NASA funding, he has conducted research on voice communications for mission control during the earliest period of development of protocols and processes for communicating between the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.

“Purdue is one of the very few universities that is universally recognized and held in the highest regard — whether at Ames, Dryden (now Armstrong), Goddard, Johnson or Kennedy space center,” says Caldwell, a professor of industrial engineering (and aeronautics and astronautics) who also directs the Indiana Space Grant Consortium. “I have met a large number of Purdue alumni at the centers and contractors who were eager to speak with me because I was Purdue faculty.”

– Phillip Fiorini
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