by Kim Curry, Air Force Institute of Technology Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Air Force Institute of Technology students from the graduate school of engineering and management's department of aeronautics and astronautics recently completed testing of their flight hardware experiment in preparation for an upcoming space shuttle mission, STS-123.
Rigidizable Inflatable Get-Away-Special Experiment, or RIGEX, is a space shuttle experiment that will study the behavior of structures built using rigidizable/inflatable technology.
The structural characteristics of three test specimens when deployed in a zero-gravity space environment will be investigated.
The overall goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of using rigidizable/inflatable materials to create lightweight space structures, which can then be used for a variety of Defense Department remote sensing applications. Current payloads are often limited in size due to limited launch vehicle dimensions. Success of this technology would help alleviate size limitations for future missions.
The RIGEX program is being accomplished by combining the efforts of student research theses completed as part of their Master of Science programs at AFIT. Participants included students from a variety of programs offered, including astronautics, space systems, aeronautics, systems engineering, and electrical engineering.
The project began in 2001 with a single student and a handful of experiment objectives, and it slowly developed into a set of preliminary designs and test plans.
With each year, the students involved refined the designs, built and tested prototypes, and settled on a final design. A unique aspect of the experiment, according to primary research advisor Dr. Richard Cobb, is that each student was fully responsible for his or her contribution to the overall design, including all phases of the design, build, test and qualification process. The students led the design reviews and presented to the DOD Space Experiment Review Board to get manifested for launch, and presented to the NASA Flight Safety Review Board to qualify the design.
As a result, the effects of every engineering decision, both good and some not so good, became apparent as the build and testing proceeded. For a space-qualified design suitable for manned spaceflight, every last detail needed to be worked out, documented, and then presented to the NASA engineering team during flight safety reviews.
This process provided the students with invaluable hands-on engineering experience they will undoubtedly put to good use in their future jobs.
Testing RIGEX at the Johnson Space Center represents the transition from the design/prototype/test phase of RIGEX to the flight qualify and launch readiness phase.
To date, 13 AFIT students, plus the work of several summer intern students and laboratory support technicians including members from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Wright State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the Ohio State University, were involved in the project.
RIGEX represents the first-ever designed, built and qualified space flight experiment for AFIT. Along the way, AFIT has developed in-house expertise and implemented facility upgrades for development and flight qualification testing for future AFIT space payloads, enhancing both space research and space curriculum development.
The testing at the Johnson Space Center involved random vibration and electromagnetic testing designed to verify that the flight hardware will survive the trip to and from orbit and that it will function properly in the space environment. According to Capt. Jeremy Owens, a current AFIT student in the astronautical engineering program, all scheduled testing at Johnson was successfully completed. Final testing of the RIGEX payload has now been completed at AFIT, and the hardware will now be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center for a launch on the shuttle in February.
