The NASA sounding rocket program office (srpo) has identified limitations in present boom designs and desires a long-reach boom design that allows for RE-stowing of the boom 01 attached hardware…

This federal contract award, with ID NNX16AI94A, was issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) under a cooperative agreement. The contract, valued at $200,000.00, is to advance the design and development of deployable/re-stowable booms and hardware in collaboration with NASA's Langley Research Center's Structural Dynamics Branch. The objective is to create a long-reach retractable boom with improved compactness in the stowed configuration, which will be integrated with a solar panel deployment and re-stowing system for a sounding rocket. This project aims to enhance the safety and ease of recovering hardware during suborbital flight missions. The contract does not have a set-aside designation, and there is no mention of major subcontractors in the information provided.

The NASA sounding rocket program office (srpo) has identified limitations in present boom designs and desires a long-reach boom design that allows for RE-stowing of the boom 01 attached hardware during flight. There is value in being able to recover hardware based on financial and scientific value. Additionally, in previous work, NASA langley research center's structural dynamics branch (langley-SDB) initiated prototyping a solar panel designed to deploy through an unfolding process, a project that currently is unfunded. Langley-SDB would like a team to revisit the design, building and testing of a SOLA1 panel capable of being deployed and RE-stowed from a sounding rocket. The objective of university of nebraska-lincoln (UNL) team's proposed project will be to advance the design and development of deployable/RE-stowable booms and hardware in collaboration with NASA and langley-SDB. This will involve creation of a long-reach retractable boom targeting increased reach combined with improved compactness in the stowed configuration, which will be the base unit for a new actuation system for stowing and deploying the panel. The retractable mechanical system could be integrated across other suborbital platforms containing deployable mechanisms FO1 the safety and ease of recovery of the hardware. A sounding rocket with deployable skin on the payload section and DE-spin will be used as a launch vehicle for engineering validation of the boom and SOLA1 panel. This project will be led and performed by a multi-discipline student team who will apply technical and project management skills to achieve project success. The student team's technical and project skills will be enhanced through mentoring, training, and active participation in project development and monitoring, planning, building, testing, analysis, and, as needed, development of recovery plans. In addition to applying technical and programmatic skills for design and prototyping, students will participate in summer fellowships to grow their knowledge and enhance project development. A senior level three-credit-hour course will divide time between technical project development and application and training on project management and assessment tools to fully UNDE1 stand the multiple facets that affect successful project and program performance. The students will be supported in their efforts by faculty and graduate students with a variety of backgrounds (engineering, project management, law, etc.) to provide the students broad exposure to project considerations. Langley-SDB personnel will also continue their mentorship of this project.