The success of Artemis II isn’t like the finish line that many viewed the Apollo missions as 50 years ago. Instead, it’s a step before more Artemis missions powered by NC State alumni.
The success of the crew and the technology used on the flight has shown that we still have the capability for safe, manned missions. The biggest hurdle now is funding future missions, an area where private companies become involved.
With some of the last manned flights to the moon being decades ago, the renewed success of Artemis II has shown the public that NASA still has the capabilities for manned lunar missions.
The people who drive space exploration behind the scenes consist of a large number of NC State alumni. Those graduates don’t just come from fields like mechanical and aerospace engineering, but alumni across the university.
Srinath Ekkad, chair of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, said the mission’s success sets up future Artemis missions because of the reliability of NASA’s technology.
“Everything was perfect, that’s a proof of concept that we needed to be more bold. Right now, people are a little bit wary about it. Even though we are believing in science and technology, until you prove it, people are uncomfortable,” Ekkad said.
In recent years, technology has expanded to not only make missions like this better with more powerful rockets and larger spacecraft, but also more reliable. Most of all, new communication abilities of the Orion spacecraft ensure the astronauts’ safety at all times.
“Now you know where they are with pinpoint accuracy. So that means even when they are on the dark side of the moon, we could still have some kind of communication with them. This was not there in the ‘70s. So that’s the bigger step, I think the communication abilities have improved maybe a hundredfold,” Ekkad said.
Ekkad said that another key part of the mission’s success is its popularity, with funding for NASA in recent decades decreasing, private companies have been needed to fill the gap when space programs don’t have as much public funding.
“Funding has still gone down significantly. I hope, as there are space engineers in our department, that it takes it to the next level, but ultimately, it all comes down to putting your money where your mouth is,” Ekkad said. “Of course, the good part about it is a lot more private companies are putting money into it. Even if NASA doesn’t do it, somebody’s going to do it. But this was certainly a completely NASA-driven mission.”
While Christina Koch, one of the four crewmembers on Artemis II and an NC State alumna, draws much of the attention, many other NC State graduates are working on the project. Numerous employees of NASA or private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin who now play a role in these missions, come from the NC State mechanical and aerospace engineering program.
Ekkad talked about how lots of alumni in the mechanical and aerospace engineering program are working at organizations like NASA, or private companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, showcasing the vast number of NC State alumni involved in space exploration, research and design.
“The people in NASA truly believe that it’s a service to the nation. I met a lot of them. In fact, NC State has a lot of people here at NASA. NASA Langley is full of NC Staters and the reason that I met a bunch of them as alumni is the department,” Ekkad said.
Robert Hayes, an associate professor of nuclear engineering, talked about a former Ph.D. student of his who is now working on a new way to boost space technology even further by withstanding radiation and high temperatures in space.
Due to the high levels of radiation and extreme temperatures in space, hardware on satellites and electronics need to be “radiation hardened.” This intensive process makes the electronics resistant to radiation malfunction, but is typically only available for technology that is a decade old, due to the difficulty of the process.
Hayes said one of his former students is starting a company to create a more effective way of protecting technology in space, such as satellites. The process works by creating a coating that is specifically designed for each part of the technology, both reducing weight and size.
“What we found was that we were able to use to meet the NASA specifications and the military standards for conformal coats was that if we use things like gadolinium and erbium and tungsten, that we could take those oxides and combine them in the coat in a way that met those criteria,” Hayes said.
Hayes said this technology could give companies that use it a decisive commercial advantage over their competitors, as it would enable devices to be lighter, reliable and more modern.
“Size, weight and power, always optimizing that. So it’s a tool to drastically improve the size, weight and power restrictions that you currently have,” Hayes said. “So you can drastically reduce the size by using [fewer] components.”
Whether alumni are starting their own company or engineers are working in the space industry, Ekkad stressed just how much involvement former NC State students have in space exploration.
“A lot of behind-the-curtain people are NC Staters. That’s something we are very proud of because they are the unsung heroes of the whole thing.” Ekkad said.
