Space plus baseballs, what could possibly go wrong?
NASA, the space exploration giant, is now using baseballs to advance aerospace technologies. It wants to hit a home run to space by using actual baseballs!
VARIOUS CITIES, - MARCH 12: A detail of baseballs during a Grapefruit League spring training game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees at FITTEAM Ballpark of The Palm Beaches on March 12, 2020 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Many professional and college sports, including the MLB, are canceling or postponing their games due to the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Baseball Helps Advance Aerospace Technologies
A team of NASA researchers, who are also self-proclaimed baseball fans, are taking inspiration from the complex forces of the air that impact a baseball's movement when it is hurled toward a batter at an astonishing 95 mph. And you might be wondering, how does that relate to rocket science?
Well, NASA researchers use computer simulations, called computational fluid dynamics (CFD), to predict how air moves over spacecraft and airplanes. These simulations support aircraft and launch vehicle programs like the Space Launch System (SLS) which is designed to take astronauts and cargo to the Moon.
To take their CFD game to the next level, the NASA team is using baseballs as a way to validate computational aerodynamic techniques that can be used to improve NASA technology.
The best part is that using baseballs is a simpler and more cost-effective way to validate these techniques as compared to using actual rocket geometry.
But the use of baseball is not the only exciting development. The NASA team has also added four new tools to their Kestrel toolbox, including surface roughness, boundary layer transition, prescribed motion, and responding-body motion.
By investigating roughness effects, introducing laminar flow to the analysis process, and adding prescribe motions like the rotation of a baseball, they aim to advance their technical skills.
Why Baseballs?
You may be wondering how a moving baseball can improve aerospace technology. Well, simulations with a moving body can be used to investigate flowfields that are not easily tested in a wind tunnel.
Additionally, responding-body motion can be used to study the movement of objects due to aerodynamic effects, similar to the Artemis I mission.
The NASA team has also hired an intern, Richard Huang, who's a Baltimore Orioles fan and a third-year aerospace engineering student. Huang is ecstatic to work on this project and advance the future of spaceflight with new simulation techniques while developing his problem-solving skills.
NASA is taking cues from America's favorite pastime to advance aerospace technology, and we can't wait to see what they come up with next!
Related Article: NASA Chooses TitanAir and a Pellet-Beam Propulsion Among 14 Concepts That Could Change Space Exploration for Good
