The induction ceremony, which featured former Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy as keynote speaker, was held April 15 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Digital Fly-By-Wire – or DFBW – flight control technology is a computerized system used today on many civil and military aircraft that provides real-time analysis of control inputs made by pilots. Multiple flight control computers continuously evaluate aircraft speed, weight, atmospheric conditions and other variables to arrive at optimum flight control surface deflections that will achieve what the pilot has requested. Pilot inputs are filtered through a digital computer to the hydraulic actuators that actually move an aircraft's flight controls.

"Digital Fly-By-Wire had its origins in the Apollo program," said NASA Dryden center director David McBride, who received the award on behalf of NASA and the center. "Rugged and reliable flight avionics developed for our space mission to the moon was brought to an aviation application by Neil Armstrong while he served as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics after his lunar triumph.

"The validation work performed at Dryden enabled the technology to return to space as the space shuttle flight control system," McBride added. "The application of the technology at Dryden continues to impact the safe and efficient operation of nearly all modern aircraft."

Digital flight control systems improve flight safety through use of redundant systems. They also improve aircraft maneuverability because computers can command adjustments more quickly than human pilots. With DFBW technology, aircraft designers are no longer confined to designing features that make aircraft more stable but less maneuverable.

In airliners, computerized flight controls ensure a smoother ride than traditional hydro-mechanical systems alone can provide.

Digital flight control systems are also more efficient because they are lighter and require less volume aboard aircraft than hydraulic or mechanical controls. This serves to either reduce the amount of fuel required to fly with extra weight or accommodate a larger payload. Digital flight controls also generally require less maintenance than the systems they replace.

Now retired from NASA, the DFBW project’s chief research pilot, Gary Krier, remembers the significance of the work begun 38 years ago.

"We at the Flight Research Center knew that successful implementation of Digital Fly-By-Wire would turn imagination into reality," Krier said. "We could envision control-configured vehicles and aircraft with lightweight, reliable and expandable control systems being enabled by this technology. We were confident we could do it, and do it first.

"Everyone who worked on the program has to be pleased at the recognition of our efforts by the Space Foundation," he added.

NASA’s DFBW flight-test program encompassed 210 research flights over a 13-year period from May 1972 through April 1985. The heart of the system was an off-the-shelf backup digital flight-control computer and inertial sensing unit obtained from the Apollo space flight program that transmitted pilot inputs to control surface actuators. The now-retired test aircraft, a modified Vought F-8C Crusader jet fighter obtained from the Navy for the project, is on public display at NASA Dryden.

In cooperation with NASA, The Space Foundation created the Space Technology Hall of Fame® in 1988 to increase public awareness of the benefits resulting from space exploration programs and to encourage further innovation. To date, 61 technologies have been inducted into the foundation's Hall of Fame, honoring the organizations and individuals who transformed space technology into commercial products that improve the quality of life for all humanity.

Through an innovative program at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, local high school students have the opportunity to make these discoveries firsthand while learning practical math, science and engineering skills. Participants in the BalloonSAT Exploring Program launch a 6-foot diameter weather balloon, complete with experiments and cameras, into the space-like regions of Earth's upper atmosphere.

Exploring with Balloons

The Exploring Program is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America. This program is designed to give high school students opportunities to experience different potential careers. Throughout the country, students in the Exploring Program learn from various professionals -- like firemen, police officers and medical workers -- about the skills necessary for these jobs. At Glenn, students explore what it's like to be a scientist or engineer in one of four Exploring Posts: Aeronautics, Computer, Human Space Exploration and BalloonSAT. Stephanie Brown-Houston, from the Glenn Educational Program, is the program manager for the Exploring Program ? at Glenn.

The use of weather balloons as satellites (BalloonSAT) first began at Glenn a decade ago as a way of investigating solar cell calibration in space. A small payload which tracked the sun was suspended by a weather balloon and flown to gather data. The balloon served as an inexpensive high-altitude launch system.

The BalloonSAT Exploring Post 632 began in 2004. Dr. David Snyder, a physicist and electrical engineer in the Photovoltaic and Power Technologies branch of the Power & In-Space Propulsion division at Glenn, is the lead advisor for BalloonSAT Exploring Post.

"The overall goal is to give high school kids a chance to explore these professions," Snyder says. "It's about getting them interested in science and space and technology."

Learning by Doing

Each academic year, a group of 10 to 15 high school students join the BalloonSAT Exploring Post. These diverse students, from multiple high schools around the Cleveland area, work together to perform one or two launches every year. When the first launch occurs, it is more of a demonstration launch and takes place early in the program, in the fall. The second launch, which takes place in early spring, is coordinated and executed by the students and features the experiments they designed.

"BalloonSAT attempts to simulate a satellite mission," Snyder says. "We give students the chance to design experiments and fly them with a flight program, and get results."

The students work all year to research, develop, design and fabricate experiments that will be flown when they launch their balloon. In the seven missions that BalloonSAT has flown, dozens of student-designed experiments have been launched 100,000 feet in the air.

Previous experiments have included:

"The idea is to use the balloon as a launch vehicle, and then have a whole mission that's like a satellite mission. There is a lot of science, there is a lot of pre-flight testing and there is designing the flight plan," Snyder says. "There's a wide range of activities in addition to their experiments. It's a whole flight project."

Skills from many fields are developed in the BalloonSAT project, including:

On launch day, all of the students' and their mentors' hard work comes to fruition at the exciting launch. The latex balloon, initially 6-feet in diameter, is launched into the mid-to-upper stratosphere, about 100,000 feet above Earth's surface. The mid-to-upper stratosphere is above 99% of the atmosphere -- much higher than even commercial aircraft fly. The conditions here are similar to conditions on Mars.

The balloon rises at a rate of 1,000 feet a minute, so it takes about 2 hours for the balloon to reach its apex. It then bursts, and returns to Earth in about an hour. The balloon, which expands to about 18-feet in diameter as it passes through different temperatures during its ascent, is typically visible to the naked eye throughout its entire journey.

"It's kind of amazing," Snyder says.

The BalloonSAT team tracks the balloon visually and via GPS and Ham Radio, and collects the deflated balloon after it lands. Then the team starts investigating the results of their carefully-planned experiments, and reviews the footage the cameras on the balloon produced.

The digital cameras installed on the balloon take a picture every 30 seconds. The sideways shots display the atmosphere and some of the ground, while the straight down shots display details of Earth. The photographs are taken by inexpensive, point-and-shoot digital cameras that have been modified to have an external switch rather than the factory-installed button. The resulting images are informational and visually intriguing.

"It's impressive to see the images," Snyder says.

Mentoring Young Scientists

NASA funds the Exploring Program at Glenn, including the BalloonSAT post. A minimum of $1,000 provides supplies for the activities, including the cameras, equipment to build and construct payloads, balloons and helium.

The BalloonSAT Exploring Post has proven so successful that a nation-wide competition for high school students will be hosted by Glenn this May. Winning entries were submitted by schools in Utah, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the students will converge at Glenn to launch their experiments aloft in a balloon.

The pairing of high school STEM students and experienced NASA scientists has proven effective -- many of the students who have participated in the program have gone on to study engineering and related fields in college. This experiential learning, as one of Snyder's Exploring Program students told him, brings science to life.

"She said that this is not just learning in a book. It is a chance to actually do things and have the experience. The hands-on aspect, to her, was very important," Snyder says.

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Last month, eight altitude chamber tests were performed using an Aerojet workhorse engine to gather design data for future lander and in-space engines. Using the altitude chamber, which simulates the space-type vacuum environment, engineers were able to attach a larger nozzle and vary the propellant mixture ratios to test the engine's overall operating capability. This technology could be selected for future use with vehicles designed for transport, descent, or ascent to another planetary body or asteroid.

The nozzle, or large bell-shaped hardware, directs the flow of the combustion products from the liquid methane fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer mixture and accelerates the exhaust gasses to generate thrust. The nozzle material is made of columbium and heats up during the test causing the color change. The nozzle is radiatively cooled and once the engine shuts down, the nozzle returns to its previous color.

Another test objective was to look at the specific impulse, or gas mileage, this engine could provide to a space vehicle. Specific impulse is simply a measurement of the amount of thrust that can be attained per mass of rocket propellant consumed. The higher specific impulse attained improves the overall rocket performance and reduces the weight of propellants that need to be carried on the vehicle.

Overall, the test series was successful and valuable performance data was obtained. Data received from the tests is currently being reviewed to ensure the engine performed as expected on a continual basis with each individual test.

Engineers will continue to vary and refine the engine test parameters to evaluate the technology further. Developing technology is a test-rich process to ensure as many unknowns are worked out on the ground before this technology is put into application in a space environment.

The cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid methane effort is part of the Propulsion and Cryogenics Advanced Development (PCAD) project at Glenn, which is developing cryogenic propulsion technologies for future space exploration missions. The PCAD project is funded by the Exploration Technology Development Program in NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

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The video series, "Where Words Touch the Earth," documents environmental changes observed by Native Americans. Each 12-15-minute episode is fully developed and produced by Native American students representing different ecosystems across the United States. NASA selected the schools and provided the funding, but it was the students who retained complete creative control of the production and its content.

"I wanted them to tell their stories -- that's the only way you're going to get a jewel," said David Adamec, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who had the vision for the project.

Adamec conceived of the project while visiting the Crazy Horse monument in South Dakota for a summer vacation in 2007. "Why not take advantage of the information contained in oral history and combine it with the climate resources we have at NASA?"

Now, students and elders from Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., have produced a segment that explores the dramatic changes observed in the plains ecosystem. Producers from Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, Wash., portray how climate change has impacted salmon populations in the coastal ecosystem.

Tribal colleges in New Mexico, North Dakota and Wisconsin representing a desert, prairie and woodland environment, are now beginning to film. The final product aims to weave together all the perspectives and achieve a cohesive story of the Native American perspective on climate change.

Already, the student films are reaching and educating students across the United States. In fall 2008, public television production house WGBH Boston started working closely with the Bureau of Indian Education providing digital content and working with students and their teachers. "We started learning more about the intersection between traditional tribal communities and science education, and specifically around climate change," said Howard Lurie, Associate Director of Educational Productions for WGBH Boston.

On March 31, WGBH's Teachers' Domain launched the "Where Words Touch the Earth" collection, an online collection that disseminates repurposed versions of the documentaries so that they can be integrated into sixth- to 12th-grade classrooms. Teachers can download short clips, essays and discussion questions -- all linked to state standards.

"We think that it’s a unique way for elementary, middle and high school students to get deeper into the science," Lurie said.

The exchange goes both ways. "We might have assumed a disconnect between the traditional tribal community and hard science, but there's not," Lurie said. "Being connected to tradition doesn't mean you can't be a scientist."

Today, the educational dialogue continues, as students and instructors from Navaho Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M., visit Goddard to meet with Adamec and video specialists at Goddard, tour the center, and lay the groundwork for a new oral history.

Related Links:

> The complete Where Words Touch the Earth collection

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