Key Milestones: Planned SOAREX Flights (2008, 2010)
Major milestones for the proposed work will
be the planned 2008 and 2010 SOAREX flights. (See [4, page 39, HYP.2.04.400]). More precisely,
the PI intends to work closely with NASA ARC Advanced Control Method researchers
in order to directly contribute to the 2008 SOAREX flight. During this “wind tunnel in the
sky” sub-orbital re-entry experiment, one of the main goals will be to gather relevant aerodynamic
data which can be examined on the ground in order to estimate uncertainty, improve
modeling (via empirical system identification [128]-[134] and first principle methods),
enhance control design, and prepare for the subsequent 2010 SOAREX flight.
It is hoped that acquired measurements will shed light on how important
each of the aero-thermo-elastic effects are.
It should be noted that very complex
aero-thermo-elastic-propulsion effects (requiring very complex models) are beyond the scope
of the proposed work, the limited time period, and the NASA budget parameters.
Collaboration with
other NASA Advanced Control Methods researchers, however, can impact this significantly.
The following is a link to NASA's SOAREX page:
SOAREX (Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry EXperiments)
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