AeroSpace Architecture
Working Group / Subcommittee
of the AIAA Design Engineering Technical Committee

Dear Space Architecture Community,

On Wednesday, April 22, 1998, the AIAA Design Engineering Technical Committee (DETC) voted unanimously to establish an Aerospace Architecture Working Group as one of its subcommittees. This vote came after about a year of deliberation by the DETC. As part of the provisos to this decision, the new subcommittee will develop a more detailed charter, mission statement and specific objectives. In attendance to support me in making the proposal were Silvano Columbano from NASA-Ames Research Center and Madhu Thangavelu of the University of Southern California. It was a tremendous help and morale boost to have Silvano and Madhu there to voice their support and "vote with their feet."

One of the developments that helped gain approval for the proposal was to broaden it from "Space Architecture" to "Aerospace Architecture," so as to include the airborne science environments such as the NASA DC-8 and SOFIA aircraft. I hope that this change of title does not dilute the concept too much, but if it broadens our acceptance at this early stage, it may teach us a valuable lesson. The title may be one of the first items to discuss when we meet.

PLANNED MEETINGS

The new subcommittee will meet twice each year, in July at the International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES 1998 in Danvers, MA) and in January at the Aerospace Sciences Conference in Reno. The subcommittee will meet as part of the regular DETC meeting at Aerospace Sciences. Ideally, in addition, we would like to establish a liaison with one of the TCs that meets at the ICES in July. I believe the candidate TCs that meet during the ICES include Life Sciences and Life Support.

OTHER DETC MEETINGS

In addition, we will encourage subcommittee members to also attend the Spring DETC meeting at the AIAA SDM conference (1999 in St. Louis) and the Fall DETC meeting at the World Aviation Congress (1999 in Anaheim and 2000 in Seattle). We will make progress reports whenever practicable at those fall and spring meetings.

Also, at the April, 2000 SDM Conference, the American Society of Civil Engineers is planning a special "Space Construction" session that will be of particular interest, especially if it eliminates duplication with their biennial Space Construction Conference.

One other promising liaison is with the AIAA Structures TC. At Kriss Kennedy's request, we held a videoconference with the Structures TC in September (1997), when they seem to meet annually at NASA-Langley Research Center. I met with the Structures TC during the AIAA SDM Conference (of which they are a principal organizer). We agreed to hold the September Videocon again this year, and make sure that the folks at JSC can participate. Beyond an annual videoconference, we will look for other opportunities for collaboration.

FIRST MEETING AT ICES, Danvers MA, July, 1998

A number of our prospective subcommittee members are presenting papers in a session that Jenine Abarbanel and I am chairing on Planetary Habitats at the ICES on Thursday, July 16, 1998, 8:30 to 12:00 AM (Session ES49), in Tara Room III, Tara Ferncroft Resort. The AIAA Life Sciences and Systems Technical Committee is the Planning Committee of Record for this session, so it would be useful if we could spend some time with them during their meetings at the ICES. Space Architects who submitted abstracts to submit papers at this session include:

As the Planetary Habitats session falls on the morning of the last day of the conference, we need our NEW AEROSPACE ARCHITECTURE WORKING GROUP to meet on two of the days before the paper presentation. I suggest that since Constance Adams and Jan Connolly are presenting their other late on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 14, we plan at least to meet that morning and into the early afternoon. Ideally, we will also be able to meet on Tuesday the 13th also. I am trying to work the schedule and availability of a small meeting room. Information on the ICES schedule, etc. is available from the SAE web page at: http://www.sae.org

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR THE WORKING GROUP
The first order of business for the Aerospace Architecture Working Group is for all the interested people to (finally) join the AIAA. If you are already an AIAA member, please inform me by reply e-mail. You can find an electronic application form on their web page: http://www.aiaa.org/

I am happy to sponsor all space architects to become AIAA members. Please use me as a reference. My AIAA member number is 003185.

NEXT ORDER OF BUSINESS: Provisos and Stay tuned.

We need to make clear the provisos and conditions for the Aerospace Architecture Working Group to function as a subcommittee of the DETC. First, all participants must become AIAA members.

Second, Quorum. We need an absolute minimum of four members to attend both our January meetings at Aerospace Sciences and the July meetings at the ICES in order to begin establishing our credibility.

Third, All new Members: The Aerospace Architecture Working Group must be comprised of new participants. The Working Group may not expect to draw members from the existing DETC membership (except for me of course).

Fourth, Apply for TC Membership: All new Working Group members must apply for Technical Committee Membership. The annual deadline for this application is November 1. At our July meeting, we will get this ball rolling.

Fifth, At these meetings we must refine our charter and mission, and propose some very specific objectives. In my discussion with the Long Range Planning Subcommittee before the vote by the DETC, I suggested several possibilities for specific objectives:

1) Prepare a parametric standard for the Measurement of architectural areas and volumes in space habitats. This standard would be almost a direct analog of the American Institute of Architects D101, Architectural areas of buildings.

2) Develop an evaluation guide or standard for various kinds of simulation environments. We got a head start on this effort during the round table discussion at the Life Support and Biosphere Sciences Conference in Orlando in January.

3) Put together a "Compendium of Space Architecture" that would document significant efforts in space architectural design, simulation, and construction. This objective would be very long term, and could lead to the Working Group/Subcommittee editing a hard bound reference work that the AIAA publishes.

LONG RANGE GOAL: SPACE ARCHITECTURE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

The long range goal of this effort is to establish a Space Architecture Technical Committee on an equal footing with the other 66 AIAA TCs. In order to achieve this goal, we will need to sign up thirty people who can commit to participate and gain backing from their employer, as appropriate. Typically, it takes three to five years to establish a new TC. So we have a long way to go, but we have a good start.

Marc

Marc M. Cohen, Arch.D, Architect TEL: (415) 604-0068
Advanced Projects Branch FAX: (415) 604-0673Space Projects Division mcohen@mail.arc.nasa.govMail Stop 244-14NASA-Ames Research Center
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000