Aerospace Team Online
ATO#127 Designing a Mars Airplane - March 30, 2001
Part 1: Upcoming Chats
Part 2: Contest
Part 3: Making Airplanes Quieter
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UPCOMING CHATS
Enter these chats from the Common Events page http://quest.nasa.gov/common/events/
Aerospace Team Online Chat with Kelly McEntire
Wednesday, April 4, 2001 10 AM PST - 1 PM EST
Chat with Kelly McEntire the branch chief for Turbo Machinery.
Have you been wondering about whether to use a Turbo Jet engine for your
Mars Airplane Design? Kelly knows propulsion. Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/mcentire.html
Aerospace Team Online Chat with Joe Kolecki
Tuesday, April 17, 2001 10 AM PST - 1 PM EST
Chat with Joe Kolecki a physicist specializing in space environment effects.
His speciality is the planet Mars. Do you have a question for him about
what the environmental effects on a Mars airplane? Read his bio at http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/CoE/JoeKolecki.htm
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Planetary Flight Book Jacket: March 26 to April 26, 2001
Grades 5-8
Contest Description:
This contest invites students to create a book jacket
for a novel about planetary flight. The book jacket should include the
title, author, and illustration on the cover.
The binding should include the title of your story
and the author's name. The back of the jacket should include a brief description
about the characters, setting, and plot of the story.
For more information visit: http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/planetary/contest.html
[Editor's Note: Kelly is the branch chief for the turbomachinery
engineers at NASA Glenn Research Center. Read his bio at http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/team/mcentire.html
]
MAKING AIRPLANES QUIETER
by Kelly McEntire
March 29, 2001
Have you ever been near an airport and listened as
the jets take off or been under one as it roared into the air at takeoff.
It is extremely loud. How would you like to be one of the lucky ones whose
house is right at the end of an airport runway? They get to hear this
noise all the time. Many people who live near the airport are getting
tired of all that noise, so they complain to the government. The government
is trying to help them out by asking us at NASA to fix the problem by
making jet's quieter.
Jets are powered by jet engines. The technical name
for a jet engine is a Gas Turbine Engine. They make a jet plane fly by
generating thrust. Thrust is generated by sucking air into the opening
of the engine, then heating it to 1000's of degrees with jet fuel, and
then shooting it out the back of the engine hundreds of time faster than
it went in. Unfortunately, moving all this air through the engine is very
noisy.
The first step in making jet engines quieter is to
understand why they are noisy and what parts are making the most noise.
It is easy to tell that the engine is making a whole bunch of noise, but
it isn't easy to tell what part is causing it. We investigate this problem
by building a small part of the engine so that this part gets isolated
from the other parts. We then test it to see how much noise it generates.
We do this with each major part of the engine. Once we understand what
causes the noise, we can then begin the task of designing the new part
to correct the cause of the problem and thus make the engine run more
quietly.
We also investigate ways to make an engine burn less
jet fuel and to burn it cleaner so we have less air pollution. More people
are flying and more packages are flying than ever before. Small increases
in engine efficiency can mean huge savings in jet fuel. The same is true
for decreasing air pollution.
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