CETA Researcher Receives NASA Grant

Dr. Tom Filburn, associate professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in CETA, and Dr. Ramesh B. Malla, an associate professor of Geo-mechanics in Civil Engineering at the University of Connecticut, submitted a proposal through the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium to NASA for research dollars under Phase One of the NASA Ralph Steckler Space Grant Colonization Research and Technology Development Opportunity. They have now been notified that their proposal is one of just 18 proposals from around the United States selected by NASA to receive money under the program. Among other recipients were professors at MIT, Penn State, and U.C.-San Diego.

Under their grant, Doctors Filburn and Malla will design a lunar habitat that takes advantage of efficiencies in design by designing the life support system in collaboration with the habitat structure. Dr. Malla is an expert in lunar soil (regolith) and has worked on lunar structural design. Dr. Filburn, who is director of the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium, has worked on various life support systems for use in space. In addition to the two professors, students from both universities will work on the project to create a lighter, more efficient habitat module.

The Steckler Grants are a legacy of Ralph Steckler, who was an assistant film director and photographer in Southern California with a lifelong interest in space colonization. He left part of his estate to NASA to support space colonization, and it is that bequest that funds the program Dr. Fulburn and Dr. Malla will draw on.

Phase One of the Steckler Grants will last nine months, during which the grant recipients will establish the scientific and technical merit and feasibility of their proposed innovation, research or technology development. Among the projects being funded in Phase One besides habitation are rovers, surface power, communications and extravehicular activity systems.

Phase Two, which will last two years, will provide money to the investigators on each of the four most promising Phase One projects so they can conduct the research and technology development effort. This activity will be followed by Phase Three, during which the Phase Two projects will be integrated with NASA programs or projects.

The Connecticut Space Grant Consortium is a network of colleges and universities, industry, museums and science centers, and state and local agencies working together to support and enhance science and engineering education, research, and public outreach for NASA’s aeronautics and space projects. The affiliates are organized in 52 consortia in the states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The University of Hartford is the lead institution in the Connecticut Consortium.

CETA congratulates Dr. Filburn and Dr. Malla on their grant and looks forward to learning more about their research.