Newton knew that the force of gravity causes falling objects near the Earth’s surface (such as the famous apple) to accelerate toward the Earth at a rate of 9.8 m/s2. He also knew that the Moon accelerated toward the Earth at a rate of 0.00272 m/s2. If it was the same force that was acting …
Category Archives: Astronautics
National Air and Space Museum’s Journey Toward 2025
Appearing next month in the NASA Alumni Newsletter. Walking on the Washington, D.C. Mall is an inspiring experience for all citizens. One might be inspired by the many memories and great institutions of our American people. Nestled as one of the most visited museums of the world is the National Air and Space Museum, just …
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Reflection on Twenty Years Since the Loss of Columbia
Graduate Student Garrison S. Osborne and Steven A. E. MillerUniversity of Florida Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Well before the loss of Columbia, the NASA Office of Technology Assessment wrote, “Shuttle reliability is uncertain, but has been estimated to range between 97 and 99 percent. If the Shuttle reliability is 98 percent, there would …
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AIAA SciTech 2023
This year, some of my students and collaborators are going to the AIAA SciTech conference in the DC area in the National Harbor, MD. We are presenting two particular papers. The first involves hypersonic flow-fields and the second involves acoustics and aerodynamic experiments. The citations, papers, and presentations are:
History of the Florida Aerospace Department
Professors Richard L. Fearn and Wei Shyy wrote a short history of my department [link] – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Florida. Previously, it was a stand-alone aerospace department that merged. It is worth reading and sharing if you have a connection to UF Aerospace. [link]
The prediction of cross-spectra from first mode instability waves within high-speed flow over sharp and blunt cones with plasma actuation
Abstract: Leading edge geometries, such as cones, moving at high-speed undergo intense loading due to the growth of instability waves and turbulent transition. These instability waves are highly spatially coherent. Aerodynamic loading related to instability waves and transition cause large-amplitude vibrations within the underlying structure, which may lead to flight-vehicle failure. We examine the effect …
On the On-Set of Hypersonics
Almost everyone has their own definition of the term hypersonic. If we were to conduct something like a public opinion poll among those present, and asked everyone to name a Mach number above which the flow of a gas should properly be described as hypersonic there would be a majority of answers round about 5 …
Aerospace Verses Mechanical Engineers
[mathjax] Mechanical Engineers use \(y\) as a coordinate axis at the ground pointing towards the sky. Dissimilar, Aerospace Engineers use \(y\) as a coordinate fixed to a flight-vehicle pointing towards the Earth. This is why Mechanical Engineers have their feet on the ground, and Aerospace Engineers have their heads above the clouds.
Space Shuttle / O-Ring Cutaway
Cutaway explanation of the O-Ring disaster within reports of one Prof. R. Feynman.