ISI will be part of a new USC Viterbi School of Engineering
interdisciplinary research center that will focus on the
challenge of building new generations of inexpensive
spacecraft with commercial, civil and military applications
Directed by Professor Joseph Kunc, of the Viterbi School's
Astronautics and Space Technology Division, the new Space
Engineering Research Center (SERC) is a joint collaboration
with the USC Information Sciences Institute.
"We want to bring together the best of education and
research from campus with the proven 'build and fly'
capabilities of ISI, and tackle paradigm changing space
engineering challenges," said Kunc.
Kunc said SERC would be dedicated to "space engineering,
research, and the build and flight demonstration and test of
spacecraft and satellites."
According to SERC Associate Director, David Barnhart,
"microsatellites are creating assymetric advantages by filling
gaps and needs traditionally held only by large satellites.
One of SERC's goals is to enable ground breaking
capabilities through advanced engineering upon current
future space applications for US Industry and government
space missions."
Barnhart said component technologies and evaluating low-
cost manufacturing techniques for space are key focus
areas. "Our goal is to apply revolutionary development
philosophies to challenge traditional cost/schedule and
manufacturing processes for new satellite designs."
As an example of new capabilities applied to space
development is SPIDeR, or Spacecraft Portal for Integrated
Design in Realtime, a non-traditional approach to a
traditional design application using the Internet for
collaboration.
"The goal is to develop a tool for web-based spacecraft
design based on user-input mission requirements with
interchangeability of subsystem models across a variety of
design platforms," said Kunc.
Another example of non-traditional approach applied to
space is to use a set of existing projects embodying the
strategy developed by ISI researchers who pioneered
identical robotic modules that link together in different
patterns to accomplish different tasks.
SERC researchers believe that this software and behavioral
model-driven approach can be applied to independent
microsatellites allowing a new host of applications for on-
orbit interaction and mission operations.
A key SERC goal is maintaining and expanding a highly
educated engineering and scientific space workforce through
development of the next generation of key astronautics
engineers.
According to Kunc and Barnhart, both US Government and
industry will see in the next 5 years significant reductions in
existing space experienced personnel through retirement
and attrition.
To this end, the SERC directors believe today's engineers
need hands-on experience building working systems to be
effective and competitive in today's global workforce.
To do this SERC is developing exciting/highly motivating
projects that can be completed under university "cost and
schedule" constraints that deal directly with hands-on
activities relative to spacecraft and satellites.
LEAPFROG, (see photo and illustration) USC's
current Lunar Lander Prototype Vehicle, is the first example
of a hands-on flight project that focuses the USC researchers
interaction with students to concentrate on the integration
and buildup of a flight system, and exercise the flight system
as a team, working with ISI and the Viterbi School's
Astronautics and Space Technology Division
Said Barnhart, who has been deeply involved in LEAPFROG,
"'Hands-On' is not just a mantra, it is a true requirement
where each student is encouraged to get their hands dirty
and take on activities they have not done before, outside of
their comfort zone or experience." SERC is helping to
augment a robust Astronautics curriculum with the
importance of Systems Integration.'
Other hands-on ASTD student space projects that are being
integrated into SERC activities include Rocket Laboratory and
Microsatellite Projects, in which students have built and
launched rockets and very small data and telemetry
packages.
These projects are already well established and popular with
students, benefiting from extensive participation by Kunc
and fellow ASTD faculty members Dan Erwin and Mike
Gruntman. Kunc also pointed to "a strong and continuing
support of the founder of the Division Provost Max Nikias and
Associate Provost Gene Bickers."
The researchers involved in SERC activities include, in
addition to Kunc, Barnhart, Gruntman and Erwin, Sergey
Gimelshein, Gerald Hintz, (former mission manager from of
Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Darrell Judge (the Department of
Physics, and Director of LAS Space Science Center), Andrew
Ketsdever (Air Force Rocket Laboratory Special Projects
Director), Donald Rapp (former Chief Technologist of Jet
Propulsion Laboratory), and Peter Will (Fellow of the
Information Sciences Institute).
SERC members represent a broad spectrum of research
interests, from theoretical studies of molecular dynamics and
supersonic and hypersonic flows, to NASA mission
management design and instrumentation, to robotics, to new
ideas for Air Force applications, to spacecraft and satellite
science and engineering.
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