New designs and technologies shaping the future of aviation and space exploration
By Lisa Saam|December 2024
The Design Engineering Technical Committee promotes the development and dissemination of technologies that assist design engineers in defining practical aerospace products.
Many new aerospace designs and technologies continued to be developed at an exhilarating pace. From lunar exploration to supersonic flights, these developments will shape the future of aviation and space exploration.
In February, the Odysseus robotic lander from Texas-based Intuitive Machines landed at the lunar south pole. Although Odysseus tipped over shortly after landing, this was the first time a private U.S. spacecraft had touched down softly on the moon. The lander carried 12 payloads, six from NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program and six from commercial entities.
One payload of particular interest was the Navigation Doppler Lidar sensor developed by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. NDL addresses the need of future robotic and crewed planetary missions for precise ground-relative velocity vector and altitude data, which is required to execute complex descent maneuvers toward a safe, soft and pinpoint landing at a predesignated site. NDL operated flawlessly during the descent, measuring velocity and range along each of its three laser beams. The precision was better than 0.8 centimeters per second for velocity measurements and 0.8 meters for range measurements.
In February, Astroscale’s Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan spacecraft was launched on an Electron rocket from New Zealand. ADRAS-J performed a controlled fly-around of a discarded rocket upper stage while capturing images from various angles and lighting conditions, essential information for a future planned mission to capture and remove the debris. This marked the first time a private spacecraft had rendezvoused with an unprepared object.
In March, Stratolaunch of California announced that it completed the first powered flight with a Talon-A test vehicle, TA-1, a major milestone in the development of the first privately funded, reusable hypersonic test vehicle in the U.S. TA-1 accomplished a safe air launch, engine ignition, acceleration to supersonic speeds approaching Mach 5, a sustained climb to altitude and a controlled water landing.
In March, Colorado-based Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 demonstrator took off for the first time from Mojave Air & Space Port in California, completing a 12-minute subsonic flight. During the second test flight, in August, the landing gear was retracted and extended and a new roll damper was assessed. The environmental control system was evaluated during a third test flight in September, along with additional tests of the landing gear actuation at higher speeds. With these flights, Boom is testing some of the technology for Overture, its planned Mach 1.7 airliners.
In April, BETA Technologies of Vermont achieved its first piloted transition with a prototype of its ALIA A250, an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. After a vertical takeoff in New York, the A250 transitioned to forward flight and then back for a vertical landing. This was a first step toward BETA’s “lift and cruise” approach to runway independence.
This year, a wave of generative artificial intelligence took over the design and simulation world. In April, Ansys, a leading finite element simulation software company based in Pennsylvania, announced the release of its AI-powered virtual assistant. AnsysGPT is to provide a secure, easy-to-use interface with real-time responses in numerous common languages. In July, Altair of Michigan released Altair Hyperworks 2024, a design and simulation platform that embeds AI to accelerate design exploration and iteration via generative design capabilities. Also in July, Texas-based Siemens Digital Industries Software announced additional AI-enabled design capabilities in its NX CAD software to improve efficiency in optimizing and validating designs.
Contributors: Kyle Benson, Anna-Maria McGowan and Manasi Palwankar
