Contact: Maridith Geuder
Mark F. Horstemeyer
In the wake of the Feb. 1 loss of the space shuttle Columbia, a Mississippi State professor is helping investigators analyze the impact of falling foam debris on the space vehicle's ceramic-tiled underbelly.
Mark F. Horstemeyer, who holds the university's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems Chair (endowed professorship) in Solid Mechanics, recently was asked to assist the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
An authority in the computer modeling of high-rate impacts, he now is part of a team that includes CAVS colleagues Dave Oglesby and Kiran Solanki, as well as Ted Nicholas of the U.S. Air Force Wright Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Oglesby and Solanki are research associates at the MSU center.
"Our goal is to evaluate an analytical tool used by NASA and by aerospace manufacturer Boeing Co. to understand foam impacts on the ceramic tiles and carbon heat shield," Horstemeyer said. The research involves high rate computational simulations of the impact event, he added.
The team's conclusions will be presented in a formal report to the board, which is chaired by retired Adm. Harold W. "Hal" Gehman Jr.
"We're part of the ongoing process by the board to solicit expertise from scientists, engineers, technical and administrative personnel," Horstemeyer explained.
Nationally recognized for his work in multi-scale modeling, he previously was affiliated with Sandia National Laboratories in California, where his research included damage modeling, among other areas.
The first endowed professor at CAVS, he has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and formerly was a Computational Fellow at the University of Minnesota. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University, a master's in engineering mechanics from Ohio State and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.