Sandia National Labs NM Partnerships Collaboration Report 2021-2022

UT Austin and Purdue LDRD collaborations lead to NASA awards

Research initiated at UT Austin, Purdue, and Sandia led to three NASA University Leadership Initiative (ULI) awards totaling $14.8M. The teams, chosen by NASA, will explore innovations in areas of aeronautical research. The three projects focus on various aspects of autonomous research. Emission & Absorption Spectroscopy Sensors for Hypersonic Flight Control This 3-year, $3.5M ULI award to Purdue resulted from their collaboration on Sandia’s A4H LDRD Mission Campaign. The project will focus on the development of novel in-flight and ground measurement techniques for hypersonic flight. The optical and laser sensor capabilities developed through the A4H project will be used to examine the surfaces and flow of hypersonic vehicles.

Autonomous Aerial Cargo Operations at Scale This 4-year, $8M ULI award to UT Austin came about through three UT Austin PhD students working on Sandia’s Autonomous Detection and Assessment with Moving Sensors (ADAMS) Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project. Sandia will continue to collaborate on this work and serve on the Technology Recipients Board for the ULI project. FAST: Full Airframe Sensing Technology for Hypersonic Aerodynamics Measurements This 3-year, $3.3M ULI award performed at UT Austin will enable high-fidelity aerothermal simulations of hypersonic vehicles. Work done on Sandia’s Autonomy for Hypersonics (A4H) LDRD Mission Campaign led UT to focus on creating a new paradigm in sensing for hypersonic vehicles that could also be applied to lower-speed craft. Sandia will collaborate on this work by providing expertise in hypersonic vehicle air flow simulations.

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Academic Programs

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