NASA adviser encourages innovation in space

In his talk, titled “The Columbia Investigation and Termination of the Shuttle Program,” Heimerdinger said that the space shuttles, the first of which made its maiden flight in 1981, are not significantly safer than they were when first launched.

“We lost the first shuttle, the Challenger, and [then] the Columbia,” he said. “There is a cumulative probability that we will lose another shuttle if we continue to fly the same model, without change.” In 1986, Challenger exploded less than two minutes after liftoff due to the failure of an O-ring seal in one of its solid rocket boosters. Columbia was lost in 2003 as it reentered the atmosphere, when superheated gases penetrated the spacecraft because of the damage to its thermal tiles caused by falling foam during liftoff.

In 2004, President Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration policy, which would retire the space shuttle by 2010 and called for the development of alternative space vehicles.

Heimerdinger, who is president of Exostrategies, Inc., an aerospace business consulting firm, worked as an independent adviser to NASA’s Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Board aimed to collect facts, to uncover potential causes of the accident “and to recommend preventative and other appropriate actions to preclude the recurrence of similar mishaps.” He also currently serves on the NASA Advisory Council Task Force on the International Space Station Operational Readiness and Safety.

The talk mainly focused on the importance of simulation and models in learning from the Columbia tragedy to develop safer alternatives capable of launching human space exploration beyond the moon.

Explaining that engineers were able to translate photographs of debris striking the Columbia shuttle’s left wing into simulations, Hermerdinger said that “simulation is the key to understanding and communicating the results of the investigation to policymakers.”

Models of the Columbia accident allowed legislators without aerospace and engineering backgrounds to understand the fundamental causes of the explosion.

Heimerdinger criticized NASA’s funding priorities and public relations, explaining that NASA had spent too many resources on shuttle operation and the human space program. “NASA has lost the ability to communicate with the public,” he said.

“It’s difficult for NASA to say ‘We want to go to Mars’ when we’re not even going to the moon,” he said.

Heimerdinger appealed to the students in attendance to propel change in the aerospace industry, noting that students are ideally positioned to research alternatives to the shuttle by capitalizing and expanding on simulation and models.

Heimerdinger envisions the development of a SimCity-based application for Mars, hoping to develop new strategies for space exploration. He said that while his generation never had the ability to use gaming strategies, college students now have the technical savvy to simulate space exploration.

Heimerdinger closed with an offer to fund undergraduate or graduate research to further advance space simulation models.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The lecture was sponsored by the Princeton chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and was held in the mechanical and aerospace engineering faculty lounge.