Undergraduate engineering and science students from the university of california, SAN diego will develop a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for long endurance (20+hours) arctic summer science…

This is a cooperative agreement awarded by the Shared Services Center (an alternate name for the NASA agency) to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) for the development of a new solar-powered unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for long-endurance Arctic environmental monitoring and surveillance missions. The $116,105.82 contract involves undergraduate engineering and science students from UCSD designing, fabricating, and testing the UAS, which will be based on a low-drag flying wing design currently under development at NASA. The students will work under the mentorship of UCSD Professor John Kosmatka and NASA personnel. This contract does not have a set-aside designation. The project aims to create a "green" UAS platform that can perform long-range, zero-pollution science missions in the Arctic region, which are not currently possible with existing UAS platforms.

Undergraduate engineering and science students from the university of california, SAN diego will develop a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for long endurance (20+hours) arctic summer science missions. These missions include atmospheric monitoring, animal migration patterns, and ground surveillance. The proposed UAS will be developed based upon the flying wing "prandlt" glider currently being developed at the NASA armstrong flight research center (PI: AL bowers) with students from the university of california, SAN diego. Preliminary wind tunnel tests (NASA-langley) and glider flight tests (NASA armstrong) have shown that this radical configuration has more than 30% less drag than conventional aircraft. The proposed usip project involves transforming this low-drag glider design to a very efficient solar power autonomous UAS by incorporating solar cells, electric motors, and batteries. This radically new aircraft platform along with flight performance instruments will be flight tested at NASA armstrong during this usip program time period. Once proven, this aircraft will be used for a long-range atmospheric science mission in northern alaska (summer, 2018). There are no existing uass that can perform these long-range zero-pollution missions. This new 'green' UAS platform will expand NASA's fleet of long-range science aircraft. Undergraduate students will (1) perform the engineering design and analysis to develop the solar electric powered UAS, (2) fabricate the composite aircraft using NASA armstrong provided tooling, (3) install the aircraft autopilot and performance sensors, (4) perform flight testing at NASA armstrong flight research center, and (5) evaluate the UAS performance for the upcoming arctic science mission. Students will be mentored by professor john kosmatka (ucsd, PI), university graduate students, and unfunded NASA mentors (AL bowers, oscar murillo, dave berger).