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ENGINEERING STUDENT WINS THE GOLD
 

Iowa State University aerospace engineering student Kara Kranzusch won a gold medal at the International Astronautical Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, October 17-21. The Congress is an annual event organized by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), International Astronautical Academy, and the International Institute of Space Law. Kranzusch, a senior from Appleton, Wisconsin, received the IAF Pierre Contensou Gold Medal for placing first in this competition of the world's best undergraduate research papers on space-related topics.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) selected Kranzusch to present her paper, "Abort Determination with Non-Adaptive Neural Networks for the Mars Precision Landers," and sponsored her attendance at the Congress. She competed with students chosen by the German, French, and United Kingdom aeronautics and astronautics associations as well as two students, selected by a panel of IAF reviewers, from among the other IAF member countries.

"This competition is very rigorous with the students going up against the best the rest of the world has to offer," said Stephen J. Brock, manager of AIAA student programs and one of the judges.

The papers are assessed in five categories: technical content, originality, practical application, general presentation, and knowledge of subject. The categories have weight factors ranging from one to three points. "We don't just tally the numbers," Brock added. "We meet and discuss our assessments before choosing the gold and silver medalists."

Kranzusch conducted the research for her winning paper while on her first of three co-op tours with NASA Johnson Space Center. Working in descent analysis, a branch of flight dynamics and design, her task was to develop a neural network (a type of artificial intelligence program) and determine its feasibility for use in the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) lander. Specifically, the neural network was designed to determine if the parameters are such that the vehicle should abort the precision landing objective. Traditional abort determination techniques won't work because of the many unknown factors in the Mars atmosphere that could affect the lander's descent.

As the result of her research, Kranzusch showed that in the specific scenario of a dust storm with heavy dust in the atmosphere, a neural network could reduce the chance of losing the vehicle from 18% to 3.5%. Since completing her work, NASA engineers have continued to apply the neural network to a variety of abort scenarios in preparation for the 2009 mission.

After her December graduation, Kranzusch, who has a double major in public relations, will return to NASA to continue work on her certification as a shuttle flight controller at Johnson Space Center. She also plans to pursue graduate study in aerospace engineering.