Early Career Initiative (ECI) Selection for FY21– ROAMX Team proposal selected!!

September 8, 2020 – The ECI Call for Proposals was issued in March, and proposals were received in July. ECI promotes professional development for early career NASA scientists, engineers and technologists. STMD typically selects a proposal from each NASA Center. Recent Ames ECI awardees are Dr. Sarah D’Souza (2017) and Dr. Mary Beth Wilhelm (2019). The ECI technology concept development is funded for 2 years and provides a sound basis for proposing to an upcoming STMD or SMD mission. Ames Chief Technologist office received 10 proposals in response to the call. Through an extensive proposal review process, the Ames R&T panel down-selected to 3 proposal finalists. The proposals were evaluated for concept and budget soundness, early career teaming, external partnerships, project management approach and submission of a video introducing the team and the concept.

A total of twenty-two (22) proposals were submitted from 8 different Centers. Upon review by both general technologists and subject matter experts, 5 proposals were selected. After the formal evaluations and discussions, the selection meeting was held on August 11.

The STMD review panel selected the Rotor Optimization for the Advancement of Mars eXploration (ROAMX) team proposal concept, led by PI Haley Cummings, from Code AV. “Our team is excited to expand the exploration of Mars by enhancing science capabilities on Mars through the use of rotorcraft with optimized rotors. We are also excited to uncover and leverage the aerodynamics of these unconventional rotor flight conditions. This is going to be a fantastic next two years!”

ROAMX seeks to significantly enhance rotorcraft capabilities on Mars, thereby enabling a vast expansion of experiments and exploration of the surface and atmosphere of Mars. This work will lead to an optimized rotor using novel unconventional airfoils and rotor blades for use in future-generation advanced Mars rotorcraft which significantly increase rotorcraft payload capacity, speed, and range. To accomplish these goals, the focus of this research is to continue optimization of airfoils and blade geometries for advanced Mars rotorcraft and to experimentally validate rotor performance predictions.

Congratulations to the ROAMX team!!

Debra Reiss-Bubenheim
Ames ECI coordinator