NASA selects OSU again for student challenge

Friday, August 19, 2011

For the second year in a row, NASA has chosen Oklahoma State University among only four schools in the nation to participate in a design program where the focus is a habitat module to provide a home for astronauts when they explore near Earth asteroids, the moon and Mars.

“I’m excited that our students have been selected again for this hands-on experience so they can build on efforts from this past year,” said Jamey Jacob, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who serves as adviser to the OSU team. “The focus in the year ahead is to make the habitat module inexpensive and easily transportable for future manned-missions.”

Cory Sudduth, a graduate student from Allen, Texas, is working toward a master’s degree in the new unmanned aerial systems option at OSU. He served as lead engineer for the “Space Cowboys,” during the 2011 competition and will also assist the OSU team this year. “I'm really proud of the work we did for NASA during the 2011 X-Hab competition, and I am very confident that we will be much more prepared for this year's competition. I think our experience and research will give us the edge and help us succeed,” said Sudduth.

In the meantime, the OSU team will travel to the Arizona desert in September to observe NASA’s tests of the inflatable habitat module that emerged from the first phase of the X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge. The Space Cowboys expect to see some of their own design ideas incorporated in the habitat module. The team will also meet with NASA astronauts and members of the media to discuss their design.

“NASA was very impressed with OSU's design as being the only habitat concept that met the requirements and could deploy and support itself using inflation alone. As such, the researchers there told us that they want to incorporate this design philosophy in future habitat constructions,” said Jacob.

OSU’s design team for this year’s competition will include senior interior design students from the College of Human Sciences under adviser Rick Bartholomew, clinical assistant professor, in Design, Housing and Merchandising. They will work together with a team of students in aerospace engineering and students from the School of Architecture and Architectural Engineering, according to Jacob. The architecture students and aerospace engineering students are from the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU.

In addition to OSU, the schools in this year’s design competition include the University of Maryland, Ohio State University, and University of Bridgeport, Conn.

For online photos of OSU’s inflatable habitat, go to http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/osu_xhab2011.html