Future Innovators: Young Researchers Team Up with NASA to Tackle Aviation Breakthroughs

NASA’s aeronautical pioneers are receiving assistance in addressing the research hurdles they encounter daily by engaging the most talented college students of today.

The chance for pre-professional researchers to make substantive contributions is facilitated by the Multidisciplinary Aeronautics Team Research Initiative (MARTI), a rigorous applied research program provided by NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

“We’re providing a problem-based experience rooted in the realities of the applied aeronautics research efforts in progress at NASA,” stated Liz Ward, MARTI coordinator at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.

In the summer of 2015, MARTI researchers hailing from various disciplines and institutions nationwide assembled at Langley to focus on a specific task associated with Integrated Aviation Systems Research.

The mission: to conceive, construct, and evaluate an aerial package pickup and delivery system.

“The vehicle needed to autonomously fly, scan numerous package labels, select the appropriate package, retrieve it, transport it to its destination while fulfilling certain maneuverability criteria, deliver it in a controlled fashion, and return to a designated home position,” explained Henry Kwan, a senior from the University at Buffalo who was part of the mechanical team.

Simultaneously, the drone—standing 52 inches tall, 66 inches wide, and designed to bear up to two pounds of cargo—also had to integrate situational awareness for avoiding collisions with ground obstructions and other aerial vehicles.

“Essentially, a more advanced version of Amazon Prime Air,” Kwan noted.

Commencing with a blank slate, utilizing their skills and the valuable cooperation of NASA engineers, the 2015 MARTI team successfully accomplished their goal. In fact, they were so successful that many details of their findings cannot be disclosed at this moment.

Patent applications are in progress.

This is significant since some of NASA’s principal strategic research areas in aeronautics involve comprehending the requirements for designing more efficient vertical lift aircraft while also facilitating seamless unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations within the national air traffic control framework.

NASA’s dedication to aeronautics research and its importance in students’ lives was a crucial motivating factor for the MARTI participants to engage directly in the work.

“Although there is tremendous public focus on NASA’s endeavors in space and its Mars initiative, NASA is also significantly involved in shaping the future of aviation and how UAS will transform our daily lives,” commented Zack Bassett, a student from the University of Texas at Austin who served as a project co-leader.

Apart from contributing to NASA’s real-world research, participants gained from their practical experiences.

“It’s pretty remarkable that a group of strangers collaborated over a summer and achieved so much in just 12 weeks,” Bassett expressed.

The advantages of the program extend far beyond the satisfaction of successfully flying a system basically constructed from scratch with commercially available components. Participants also acquire a deeper understanding of the intricacy of integrated research prior to entering the workforce.

“Everything taught in school is theoretical, which makes it challenging to fully grasp the concepts. By engaging in MARTI, I was able to finally comprehend my studies by observing them in practice,” Kwan stated.

The significance of teamwork in achieving ambitious objectives was another critical lesson learned by the MARTI team in 2015.

“By communicating clearly and actively considering each other’s suggestions and feedback, we were able to successfully finish the project,” mentioned Melinda Darrow, a graduate student from Southern Methodist University who acted as a systems engineer.

“It was incredible to work in such a renowned place as NASA Langley, where I witnessed both men and women united towards a common objective,” she added.

Besides Langley, MARTI programs are generally available at three other NASA centers that conduct aeronautics research: NASA’s Armstrong Research Center and Ames Research Center, both in California, and the Glenn Research Center in Ohio.