Congratulations to the winners of the Spring 2016 Orbital ATK S.P.A.C.E. Awards. One team of students from each section of AAE 251- Introduction to Aerospace Design was recognized for its work. The teams were assigned to either an aircraft project or spacecraft project. The course was taught by AAE Associate Professor Karen Marais.

The aircraft teams were tasked with designing an aircraft capable of delivering 20 ft. containers - to be used for supplies, as living quarters, hospitals, etc. - to combat zones. Requirements for the project included:

1. The container must be external to the aircraft.
2. The aircraft must be a fixed wing airplane.
3. The design of the aircraft must use an existing engine.
4. It must be possible to drop the container during flight.
5. The aircraft must be able to land and takeoff on rough surfaces.

The goal of the spacecraft teams was to examine the potential use of a small satellite as a cost-effective way of conducting a precursor mission for future human exploration as well as more extensive robotic missions. Requirements for the project included:

1. Selecting a smallsat concept and the basic science mission, with an emphasis on using simple and proven technologies for cost, reliability, and scalability consideration.
2. Designing a new launch vehicle, specifying the number of stages and type(s) of fuel.
3. Performing trade studies for a smallsat precursor mission at the architecture level, including vehicle architectures, launch vehicles, science instruments, selection of a target asteroid, orbital mechanics, spacecraft and other mission system-level trades.

Orbital ATK chose a winning team for each project. Certificates were presented to the students during the Fall 2016 meeting of AAE’s Industrial Advisory Council by Dave McGrath, Orbital ATK’s Director of Systems Engineering and IAC member.

pictured, from left to right: Stephen Kubicki, Tyler Schmidt, Michael Dai, Subhiksha Raman, Ernesto Ramirez, Amy Comeau, Alexander Stevens, Dave McGrath