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MY SUMMER TO REMEMBER: THE NASA ACADEMY EXPERIENCE
by Joseph B. Mueller, AEM Senior,
1997 NASA Academy Participant
Joseph, second from left, with other NASA Academy Participants
"To separate the real from the imagined..." These are the famous words
of Hugh L. Dryden, a great pioneer in the science of aerospace. Years ago,
he spoke to them with the excitement of a scientist inspiring his peers toward
a new way of thinking. Today, those words carry a special meaning in the
hearts and minds of five very fortunate college students, as they now reflect
on a summer encounter with the NASA Academy in Aeronautics at the Dryden
Flight Research Center. As one of those fortunate five, I was extremely proud
and humbled to represent the University of Minnesota in such a classy program.
Seemingly unreal, and at times unimaginable, my experiences with the NASA
Academy were incredibly rewarding, on both the professional and the personal
levels.
Simply put, the NASA Academy is intended to be "something more" than
the usual student internship at NASA. First established in 1993 at the Goddard
Space Flight Center by Dr. Gerald Soffen, the Academy was based on the "principal
of education through opportunity." Dr. Soffen wanted to provide promising
students with an atmosphere of unlimited potential and then just "see what
happens." The NASA Academy is unique in another respect in that it serves
two distinct purposes: to provide its students with the technical rigor to
expand their engineering know-how, as well as the social opportunities to
develop leadership skills. This second aspect of leadership development adds
a dimension to the summer experience which undoubtedly remains with the students
for the rest of their lives.
Since its first year at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the NASA Academy
has spread to three more centers: Marshall, Ames, and the center which I
attended, Dryden. This was the first year for an intensive, ten week long,
summer program to be held at Dryden. In this pioneering effort, Dominick
Andrisani, a professor from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at
Purdue University, led our group of five Research Associates as the Dean
of our Academy. The Dryden Academy is slightly unusual, in that it consisted
of only five members, as compared with Goddard's twenty-three. But then again,
Dryden is a little unusual itself.
Found within Edwards Air Force Base, in the dry heat of the Mojave
Desert out in central California, Dryden abounds with uniqueness. Claiming
cloudless skies and natural runways, the desert environment which surrounds
Dryden renders near perfect conditions for flying. And that's what Dryden
is all about: flying! In 1947, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at Dryden.
Today, the center is home to astronauts and test-pilots Gordon Fullerton
and Bill Dana, as well as Marta Bohn-Meyer, national aerobatics champion
and the only woman to ever fly the SR-71 Blackbird. In short, working at
Dryden was both a learning experience and a lesson in history each and every
day.
Not only did I learn quite a bit about Dryden and the NASA Academy,
but I also soaked my brain for ten weeks in the subject of dynamics and controls.
Working in the Controls branch with Joseph W. Pahle, my Principal Investigator,
I spent ten interesting weeks on my project: Validating Linear Models of
the F-18 HARV. The HARV, which stands for High Angle Research Vehicle, was
an important recent undertaking within NASA that examined the flight control
effects associated with thrust vectoring. With the ability to alter the direction
of the thrust force produced by the F-18's two powerful engines, this aircraft
could sustain flight at extremely high angles of attack, making it much more
maneuverable than a conventional F-18. Unfortunately, these high angles of
attack added complexity to the aerodynamics, causing the system to behave
with strong non-linear characteristics.
Creating a linear model from a non-linear system is sort of like comparing
a Volkswagen Bug with a Ferrari—they're both cars, but they behave quite
differently. As an added challenge, my specific task was to apply linear
models that were modeled at conditions other than actual flight conditions.
I was to test the range over which these linear models were valid, and attempt
to qualitatively discern the causes of their eventual inaccuracy. Given the
nature of my project and its emphasis on research, about half of my time
was spent navigating through the Dryden Flight Data Archives and learning
all that I could about the flight control features of the HARV. At the end
of the summer, I prepared a written report as well as a thirty minute
presentation detailing the research that I had done and the conclusions that
I had made.
Performing this research project exposed me thoroughly to the technical
side of NASA. The NASA Academy experience is not complete, though, with mere
research alone. For ten rapid weeks, I found myself jumping consecutively
from one opportunity of a lifetime to another. We traveled to the Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and to the Ames Research Center
in Palo Alto, California to build ties within and among the other Academies.
We visited NASA Headquarters, meeting the Administrator Dan Goldin and several
Associate Administrators. We volunteered four days of work at Planetfest,
a festival in Pasadena celebrating the success of the Mars Pathfinder mission.
We also toured the National Test Pilot School, Scaled Composites, and
Aerovironment facilities.
At each of these incredibly interesting places we met with awe-inspiring
people who shared their own visions of NASA and the aerospace industry; always
adding some of their own advice for us as the emerging leaders of tomorrow.
Some names to mention include: Story Muskgrave, Buzz Aldrin, Robert Zubrin,
the "Mars-Rock" scientists Gibson and McCabe, Burt Rutan, and Peter Diamandis.
In addition to meeting many leaders outside of Dryden, we got to know quite
personally many of the leaders within Dryden. At least once a week, we invited
someone new to have dinner with us. Usually, the list included people such
as the Director, or the Deputy Director, but we were also able to meet with
some very interesting pilots and engineers. The contacts that we made and
the connections that we established throughout the summer have overwhelmed
me.
And now, as an alumnus of the NASA Academy, even more opportunity
awaits
me. The NASA Academy Alumni Association (NAAA) is now over eighty members
strong. Recently achieving a non-for-profit corporation status, the NAAA
is succeeding in providing a central network of communication between all
of its members. Someday, perhaps it will actually fund the Academy with donations
from successful alumni. I plan to get involved with the NAAA soon through
its first executive council which will be voted in before the end of the
year. Whatever the case may be, I feel the need to stay in contact with the
Academy.
NASA is such a unique and valuable institution. From what I have learned
this summer, I firmly believe that this organization has a certain responsibility
towards the future of this nation's education. Working each day to bring
those mysteries of our world into the light of discovery, it is an institution
which has the power to inspire. The ability to enthrall and enliven a curious
mind, and to set that mind down a path of discovery, is perhaps the most
powerful gift in existence. The NASA Academy uses that gift. It is my sincere
hope that the NASA Academy continues to provide young minds with the same
opportunity to learn and grow as it has provided me.
As a final note, I would like to thank William Garrard and Randi Quanbeck
from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics and the Minnesota
Space Grant Consortium for helping to get me involved with this program.
And if I may pass on some valuable advice that I picked up from one of the
many encounters this summer: When you're not sure what to do with your life,
just do what you love to do. You'll be great at it!
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