By Josh Rhoten

Principal investigator
Iain Boyd

Funding
NASA

Collaboration + support
NASA; Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences; Hypersonic Vehicles Interdisciplinary Research Theme; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Minnesota Twin Cities; University of Kentucky in Lexington; University of New Mexico in Albuquerque; international collaborators from England, Italy and Portugal.

ŷڱƵ Boulder leads $15M NASA institute making hypersonic entry safer

Researchers at ŷڱƵ Boulder areleading a new $15 million, multipartnerinstitute with NASA over the next fiveyears to improve entry, descent and landing technologies for exploringother planets.

The Advanced Computational Centerfor Entry System Simulation (ACCESS)institute was announced in March.It will focus on thermal protectionsystems, which shield spacecraft fromthe aerodynamic heating experiencedduring hypersonic entry into theatmosphere, in which spacecraftreach speeds up to 17,000 milesper hour. The work is critical toexploration of nearby planets likeMars and beyond, which will requiresafe placement of large payloads ontheir surfaces.

The overall project is led by ProfessorIain Boyd of the Ann and H.J. SmeadDepartment of Aerospace EngineeringSciences. Boyd is also director of thehypersonic vehicles research areawithin the College of Engineering andApplied Science and the director ofthe new Center for National SecurityInitiatives on campus.

“We are thrilled to have thisopportunity to work in partnershipwith colleagues across the countryon the incredibly challenging andimportant problem of hypersonic entrysystem analysis for NASA,” Boyd said.

Boyd said the goal of the center is tosignificantly advance our ability to usecomputer simulations to design andensure the safety of the entry systemsrequired for NASA space explorationmissions. These systems protecta payload—whether astronauts,equipment or scientific instruments—during the harsh flight of a spacecapsule into the atmosphere of adistant planet or on its return to Earth.

To ensure safety, NASA has incrediblydemanding entry system reliabilityrequirements that cannot be fullymet with today’s approaches, Boydsaid. Meeting those goals will requireinterdisciplinary work in the fields ofaerospace engineering, chemistry,radiation, materials, structures andreliability, Boyd said, all within asingle, comprehensive computationalframework.

The Space Technology ResearchInstitute program started in 2017and aims to advance technologiesfor exploring the moon, Mars andbeyond in a variety of fields andapproaches. At the same time, theprogram expands the U.S. talent basein research and development.

The new ACCESS institute is one oftwo center-scale research projectsin hypersonics announced by NASAin 2021. The other project is relatedto high power electric propulsionsystems and includes ŷڱƵ Boulder andBoyd as a partner as well.