News Story

Clark School Leads NASA Project

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Aerospace Engineering Chair Darryll Pines

"It's a unique honor to be able to lead 20 outstanding universities and support NASA's research vision for the Constellation program."

-- Darryll Pines

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has renewed a research agreement worth $22.8 million over three to five years that involves 20 universities, including the University of Maryland as the lead institution.

The project will be led by the Clark School's Darryll Pines, professor and chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The renewal program follows the highly successful NASA University Research, Engineering and Technology Institutes program spearheaded by Professor Mark J. Lewis, who is now on leave of absence from the university serving as chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force.

Pines will serve as the principal investigator for the Constellation University Institute Project, which will develop technologies and analysis methods for future human space exploration.

The project supports NASA's long-term interest in space exploration, Pines said.

In addition to administering the project, the Clark School has several faculty members involved in the research, specifically in the areas of:

  • propulsion and combustion (Aerospace Engineering Associate Professors Kenneth Yu, Christopher Cadou, Andre Marshall [joint appointment with fire protection engineering] and Arnaud Trouve of fire protection engineering)

  • vehicle integrated structural health monitoring (Pines)

  • and vehicle design for re-entry (Aerospace Engineering Professor Mark Lewis and Visiting Professor Ryan Starkey (now at Univ. of Colorado).

In the first five years of the project, the Clark School's Arnaud Trouve (fire protection engineering), Ashwani S. Gupta (mechanical engineering), Norman Wereley and Robert Korkegi (aerospace engineering), and Carol Smidts (mechanical engineering) also participated.

Pines takes over administration of the project for Mark Lewis. In the renewal of the project, the Clark School competed against the University of Florida for the leadership role.

"It's a unique honor to be able to lead 20 outstanding universities and support NASA's research vision for the Constellation program," said Pines.

Published September 25, 2007