Paul D' Ronney

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• Space travel and
• space research

• Paul D. Ronney
• Dept. of Aerospace Mechanical Engineering
• University of Southern California
• Los Angeles, CA 90089-1453 USA
• Presented at Jhong-Li High
• School, 3 October 2005
• http//ronney.usc.edu

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University of Southern California

• Established 125 years ago this week!
• jointly by a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew -
  USC has always been a multi-ethnic,
  multi-cultural, coeducational university
• Today 32,000 students, 3000 faculty
• 2 main campuses University Park and Health
  Sciences
• USC Trojans football team ranked 1 in USA last 2
  years

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USC Viterbi School of Engineering

• Naming gift by Andrew Erma Viterbi
• Andrew Viterbi co-founder of Qualcomm,
  co-inventor of CDMA
• 1900 undergraduates, 3300 graduate students, 165
  faculty, 30 degree options
• 135 million external research funding
• Distance Education Network (DEN) 900 students in
  28 M.S. degree programs 171 MS degrees awarded
  in 2005
• More info http//viterbi.usc.edu

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Paul Ronney

• B.S. Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley
• M.S. Aeronautics, Caltech
• Ph.D. in Aeronautics Astronautics, MIT
• Postdocs NASA Glenn, Cleveland US Naval
  Research Lab, Washington DC
• Assistant Professor, Princeton University
• Associate/Full Professor, USC
• Research interests
• Microscale combustion and power generation
• (10/4, INER 10/5 NCKU)
• Microgravity combustion and fluid mechanics
  (10/4, NCU)
• Turbulent combustion (10/7, NTHU)
• Internal combustion engines
• Ignition, flammability, extinction limits of
  flames (10/3, NCU)
• Flame spread over solid fuel beds
• Biophysics and biofilms (10/6, NCKU)

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Paul Ronney
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What is gravity?

• 4 forces of nature
• Gravity force
• Electromagnetic force
• Strong nuclear force
• Weak nuclear force
• Gravity is the attractive force between any two
  objects
• Gravity is the most constant feature of our lives
• Aristotle's "laws" of nature heavier objects
  fall faster than lighter objects
• Galileo Galilei proved this wrong!

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Gravity on the planets and the moon
Earth 1 g Moon 1/6 g
Mars 1/3 g
Jupiter 2.5 g Saturn 1.1 g
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What happens when there is no gravity?

• Microgravity (µg)
• Simple example - candle flame
• Hot gases dont rise - flame shape and burning
  rate are different

1g µg
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Why study microgravity? Material science
Earth-grown crystal defects in structure
Space-grown crystal nearly perfect structure
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Biotechnology
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Fundamental physics

• Einstein predicted that space-time is warped by
  gravity

Satellite experiment to test Einsteins
prediction more accurately than is possible on
earth
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How do we remove gravity? - free-fall

• Japan Microgravity Center - Kamisunagawa,
  Hokkaido
• Largest microgravity facility on earth

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JAMIC drop shaft
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Aircraft flying special paths
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Orbiting spacecraft
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International Space Station
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Example of microgravity research - FLAME BALLS

• Predicted by Russian physicist Yakov B. Zeldovich
  in 1944, but no experimental evidence until .

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Flame balls - history

• Ronney (1990) flame balls accidentally
  discovered in very weak hydrogen-air mixtures in
  drop-tower experiment

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Flame balls - history

• Results confirmed in aircraft flights, but
  aircraft vibrations problematic

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Implementation of space experiment

• Need space experiment - long duration, high
  quality µg
• Structure Of Flame Balls At Low Lewis-number
  (SOFBALL)
• 2 NASA Space Shuttle missions (April 4 - 8, 1997,
  July 1 - 16, 1997)

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Implementation of space experiment

• Combustion Module-1 (CM-1) facility
• 15 different mixtures burned

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Experimental apparatus

• Combustion vessel
• Spark ignition system
• Video cameras
• Temperature, pressure, heat transfer

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Flame balls - practical importance

• Fire safety in manned spacecraft - space shuttle
  and International Space Station
• Flame ball - simplest possible flame - test
  combustion models
• Improved understanding of combustion of weak
  mixtures - can provide better fuel efficiency
  lower pollutant emission, but better scientific
  understanding needed

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Practical importance
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Flame balls in space

• Stable for more than 500 seconds (!)
• Weakest flames ever burned (1 2 Watts/ball)
  (birthday candle 50 Watts)

4.0 H2-air, 223 sec elapsed time
4.9 H2- 9.8 O2 - 85.3 CO2, 500 sec
6.6 H2- 13.2 O2 - 79.2 SF6, 500 sec
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Astronaut Janice Voss with Zeldovichs watch
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Re-flight on STS-107 / Columbia mission

• SOFBALL mission re-flown on STS-107 / Columbias
  last flight to obtain additional scientific
  results
• Much of experimental data obtained despite loss
  of Columbia and crew by downlinking data to the
  ground during the mission

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Crew operations
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Thanks Dave, Ilan, KC and Mike!
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and the rest!
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Space flight training

• 2 types of training
• Orbiter-related
• Launch entry
• Living in space
• Photography, videography
• Payload related
• Science background
• Procedures and schedules
• Performing experiments
• On-orbit repair
• Not like The Right Stuff now - STRAIGHTFORWARD
• Toughest part - TRAVEL
• Best parts
• Doing experiments when no one can predict what
  will happen
• Looking out the window

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Space flight training

• 3 types of astronauts
• Pilots
• Responsible for launch, landing and on-orbit
  operation of Space Shuttle
• Chosen by NASA Astronaut selection board
• Almost all are military pilots
• Mission specialists
• Responsible for payload operations - science
  experiments, spacewalks, etc.
• Chosen by NASA Astronaut selection board
• Payload specialists
• Chosen because of need for a particular
  scientific / engineering / political expertise
  not available in regular astronaut corps
• Chosen by scientists with experiments on flight,
  or by political will
• Not present on most flights
• Examples PDR, John Glenn, Ilan Ramon (1st
  Israeli astronaut)

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Space flight training

• Classroom training - Shuttle equipment
  operations, communications, emergency
  procedures, photography,

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Space flight training

• Living in space

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Space flight training

• Space walk (EVA)

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Space flight training

• Flight training

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Perspective on space flight training
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Earth Observations

• Tifernine Sand Dunes, Algeria

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Earth Observations

• Lake Chad, Africa (South Basin)

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Earth Observations

• Guadalupe Island, Mexico

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Earth Observations

• Canary Islands, Africa

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Earth Observations

• Deforestation in Brazil

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Earth Observations

• Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula

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Earth Observations

• Dead Sea - Israel

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Earth Observations

• Hurricane Elena, September 1985

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Earth Observations

• Tibet - Himalayas

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Earth Observations

• Yellow River delta

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Earth Observations

• Taiwan

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Thanks to

• Jhong-Li High School
• Combustion Institute (Bernard Lewis Lectureship
  travel award)
• NASA