From the Frontiers

The aviation industry, more than any other, benefits from the R&D and innovations that come out of the space sector. Despite the aviation industry pathing the way for the space sector in terms of universal standards and commercial scaling, the greenfield innovations conducted by major space agencies like NASA are key to innovating within the aviation industry.

There are thousands of examples of NASA technologies and innovations that have gone on to benefit other sectors and are used in almost every facet of modern life. In fact they have an entire department dedicated to seek out applications in other sectors for their knowledge, skills and technology in other fields. This includes innovations that help find disaster survivors trapped under rubble, purify air and surfaces to stop the spread of germs, and test new materials for everything from airplanes to athletic shoes.

“NASA technologies dating as far back as the Apollo missions still are improving our quality of life,” says Daniel Lockney, NASA’s Technology Transfer Program executive. “Meanwhile, innovations made in support of upcoming missions, such as the Orion capsule and the James Webb Space Telescope, are already finding commercial applications. The benefits of the space program continue to accumulate every year.”

With a new space agency coming to Australia, the aviation industry can look forward to the long term benefits of shared innovations, as it does in other countries with a Space Agency. With this in mind, the next decade promises a wealth innovation and technology to the Australian aviation industry.

As the STEM talent crisis continues to cause issues within all technology fields, including space and aviation, the ability to demonstrate the social or human purpose, will become the driving factor for recruiting more young people with the skills we need, into the industry

Whilst indirect, the application of space technology in our everyday lives drives the STEM education mission. With space being at the forefront of inspiration hooks for STEM education, the awareness around how work with the space sector translates to the individual only drives millennial motivation to join the field.

“NASA’s work represents an investment in the future, not just for air and space travel, but for the nation,” said Stephen Jurczyk, associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “At the same time that NASA’s space exploration missions are inspiring young people to become scientists and engineers, the agency’s work in support of those missions is creating jobs for them across many industrial sectors. Commercial technology spun off from NASA research and technology programs, and missions creates new companies, grows the economy, saves money, keeps us safer, and even saves lives.”

‘NASA’s work represents an investment in the future.’
Stephen Jurczyk

National space agencies across the world target education directly as well. They regularly tie classroom lesson plans, students software licences and other educational materials to their new research and developments, and almost always for free.

There are some innovations that have been used directly in education. For instance, NASA funded a project, AeroPod, teaches students about Climate Change and Remote Sensing through aerial monitoring of ponds and streams, and students can learn the history of the Apollo era through a VR simulation that takes them from launch to landing on the moon of Apollo 11, for free in their classroom.

Is there a better way to inspire young people then allowing them to experience a space mission to the moon?

Innovative Design Propels Small Jet Faster, Farther with Less Fuel

Who doesn’t want to save on jet fuel?

Honda, the budget-friendly, fuel-efficient family cars manufacturer, is now making budget-friendly, fuel-efficient high-powered jets. The HondaJet has the fastest maximum cruising speed in its class and can fly at the highest altitude in its class. It is also less expensive to operate than other light jets because of its higher fuel efficiency.

The subsidiary Honda Aircraft collaborated with NASA and worked with their wind tunnel experts to test their designs of the plane body and its breakthrough over-the-wing engine mount at NASA’s National Transonic Facility, or NTF. The manufacturer couldn’t have made the design to reality without the collaboration.

Simplified Aircraft Modeling Packs Weeks of Analysis into Minutes

Every aerospace engineer has who has spent weeks waiting for their CFD simulation to complete, only to make a small change and do it again, will be envious of this NASA innovation.

In order to speed up the CFD analysis of aircraft flight conditions, NASA Langley Research Centre created a piece of software that simplifies the computer model of the aircraft (Reduced Order Model). This innovation turns week long CFD computations into a matter of waiting minutes, enabling faster and more agile design practices – something aerospace engineers dream of.

The software, called Reduced Order Model, is now available for license (so you can stop dreaming), and Huntsville, Alabama-based CFD Research Corporation is using it for current and planned future contracts.

This innovation looks to fast the rate in which we design and innovate within aviation.

Virtual Reality Platform Helps Pilots Land in the Sky

With autopilot making the vast amount of long flights ‘cruisey’, pilots can concentrate on their takeoff and landing. But these elements of flight take a more serious toll on the aircraft structure so finding a way to more effectively train pilots for these situations will benefit everyone.

With help from Armstrong Flight Research Center, an innovation developed in industry allows safer, more accurate, and cheaper training, and further assist plane manufacturers evaluate and design aircraft.

The technology uses virtual reality elements layered over a view of the real world during flight, to allow pilots to practice landing in air.

Design Software Transforms How Commercial Jetliners Are Built

Computational modelling and testing has being a major innovation to the aviation industry, making designing and testing fare quicker and cheaper than ever before.

In the early days, using these software packages was almost a profession in itself, but with Pegasus 5 (NASA funded), the work necessary to prepare a design for CFD analysis was greatly reduced, and the level of expertise and training required was also significantly lowered. Ames took over the program and refined it with Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which has used it to design a number of its airliners.

Now there are quite sophisticated CFD software packages, but it all started with Pegasis 5.

Drone Traffic Forecasts Show Commercial Skies of the Future

Drones are useful and have become very popular across a range of applications. What that means, is that we are going to have to get even better at managing airspace.

As NASA Ames worked with the government to craft regulations for future drone traffic, the team ran into a problem: it needed data on drone flights that wouldn’t exist until regulations were already in place. Under Ames SBIR contracts, a drone traffic forecast was created using planned drone operations from scores of companies and agencies.

The enormous dataset is now commercially available to anyone planning drone operations.

‘I can make an approach down to a virtual touchdown.’
David Landon

Outside of Aviation:

Space-Grade Insulation Keeps Beer Colder on Earth

The requirements of keeping your beer keg cold also requires space technology. You can now keep your keg cold all day by just adding ice to a cover made from the reflective insulation that NASA developed in the ‘60’s. It’s used in spacecraft and space suits, and now to keep your drink cold! (KegSheet)

Earth Images Enable Near-Perfect Crop Predictions

NASA has been enabling and producing constant imaging of Earth’s surface since the 1970s. They have worked with a startup out of Boston Uni to create a software product that combines Earth-imaging data with historical data, weather models, and other information to make predictions on crops.

They were able to predict soy yields in 2016 to 99% accuracy.

Planet-Navigating AI “Brain” Helps Drones and Cars Avoid Collisions

A US based AI company has worked with NASA to take advantage of the technology that we use on Mars rovers where relying on cloud based AI systems isn’t plausible with the delayed communications to Earth.

The technology is being used with drone companies, industrial robot manufacturers, and a major automaker looking toward self-driving cars.
The navigation and advanced collision avoidance are especially exciting future developments for this technology.