science

Research and Technology Mission Directorate

Research and Technology Mission Directorate is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Research and Technology Mission Directorate rather than just read about it. In short: The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is one of five mission directorates within NASA, the other four being the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, the Space Operations Mission Directorate, the Science Mission Directorate, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The ARMD is responsible for NASA's aeronautical research, which benefits the commercial, military, and general aviation…

Key takeaways

Research and Technology Mission Directorate belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Research and Technology Mission Directorate to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Research and Technology Mission Directorate from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is one of five mission directorates within NASA, the other four being the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, the Space Operations Mission Directorate, the Science Mission Directorate, and the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The ARMD is responsible for NASA's aeronautical research, which benefits the commercial, military, and general aviation sectors. The current NASA associate administrator heading ARMD is Robert A. Pearce who has held the position since 2019. ARMD is involved in the creation of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). A 2014 audit by the NASA Office of Inspector General reported that ARMD "solicits input from industry, academia, and other Federal agencies regarding research needs and...uses this information to develop its research plans", and concluded that the directorate supported "advancement of the nation's civil aeronautics research and technology objectives consistent with the National Plan" established in 2006. ARMD performs its aeronautics research at four NASA facilities: Ames Research Center and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Ohio, and Langley Research Center in Virginia.

Funding According to a 2012 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, NASA's aeronautics budget declined from over $1 billion in 2000 to $570 million in 2010, while shrinking from approximately seven percent of NASA's total budget in 2000 to around three percent in 2010. Its staffing decreased by approximately four percent between 2006 and 2010. The result was the elimination of much flight research, hindering the advance of technologies and causing some research projects to collapse. In addition, the ambition of flight research projects decreased with respect to technical complexity, risk, and benefit to the nation. This decreased ambition was attributed to a risk-averse culture within NASA's aeronautics programs, as well as to budget reductions. As of 2011, 56% of NASA's aeronautics budget went to fundamental research, 25% to integrated systems research, and 14% to facility maintenance. Its budget breakdown by NASA Center was 32% to Langley, 25% to Glenn, 23% to Ames, 13% to Dryden (Armstrong), and 7% to NASA Headquarters. By expense category, 56% of the budget was dedicated to labor costs, 13% to research announcements, and 30% to procurement. For fiscal 2019, its budget request for aeronautics research was cut by 3.3% to $634 million after four years between $640 and $660 million before being cut by 2.5% to $609 million from fiscal 2020. The supersonic demonstrator for low sonic boom will get $88 million: after a preliminary Lockheed Martin design was reviewed in June 2017, a contract should be awarded in early April 2018 to design and build the single-seat, single-engine craft before its critical design review scheduled for fiscal 2019, and flying in January 2021. $5 million will go for hypersonics research. $101 million will be spent on other flight research including the X-57 Maxwell to demonstrate a three times lower energy usage with electric aircraft in 2019. The AAVP seeks $231 million for 2019, targeting a 5–10 MW (6,700–13,400 hp) hybrid airliner turbine-electric propulsion system focused on superconducting motors. The NEAT should test a megawatt powertrain in fiscal 2019 before the 2.6-megawatt STARC-ABL ingestion system. Boeing’s Mach 0.78 Truss-Braced wing concept High-speed wind-tunnel testing is planned for fiscal 2019. The Airspace Operations and Safety Program ($91 million in 2019) includes ATM-X to support urban air mobility in national airspace: automated trajectory negotiation and management flights are planned for January 2019, followed by dynamic scheduling and congestion management.

Programs The ARMD oversees four mission programs:

The Advanced Air Vehicles Program (AAVP), which develops technologies to improve vehicle performance. AAVP projects include research into aeronautics, composite materials, supersonic technology, and vertical lift technology. The Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP), which works with the FAA to develop technologies to support NextGen and improve navigation automation and safety. The Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP), which includes the Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project and the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System, and conducts flight test operations. The Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program (TACP), which creates early-stage concepts, develops computational and experimental tools, and awards research grants to industry and university teams.

Advanced Air Transportation Technology project The Passive Aeroelastic Tailored (PAT) wing was designed for more structural efficiency by a team of the ARMD, the University of Michigan and Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences. A 39 ft (12 m) long, 29% scale of a Boeing 777-like wing was built by Aurora in Columbus, Mississippi, with a conventional configuration: two spars and 58 ribs. The skin thickness varies with the load from 0.75 in (19 mm) inboard tapering to 4 mm (0.16 in) at the tip. To aligns fibers with the load, tow-steered laminates curve along the wing span unlike current composites with 0°, ±45° and ±90° laid down and cut plies. Being more flexible but with controlled stiffness, gust loads and flutter are passively suppressed. Loads tests began in September 2018 and went up to 85% of the design limit in October, halted by load oscillations. It could be coupled with active gust load alleviation from NASA Langley and the X-56A flexible wing for active flutter-suppression.

See also ecoDemonstrator NASA GL-10 Greased Lightning NASA X-57 Maxwell

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Research and Technology Mission Directorate

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Research and Technology Mission Directorate claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Research and Technology Mission Directorate before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Research and Technology Mission Directorate ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Research and Technology Mission Directorate

In research: Research and Technology Mission Directorate appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Research and Technology Mission Directorate in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Research and Technology Mission Directorate is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aeronautics organizations, Aviation and the environment, NASA groups, organizations, and centers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Research and Technology Mission Directorate outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Research and Technology Mission Directorate in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Research and Technology Mission Directorate means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Research and Technology Mission Directorate out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Research and Technology Mission Directorate in simple terms?

Why does Research and Technology Mission Directorate matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Research and Technology Mission Directorate?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Research and Technology Mission Directorate.