The Center for Change and Complexity in Learning (C3L) presents Dr Charles Camarda

UniSA's Teaching Innovation Unit

SPEAKER: Dr Charles Camarda <A HREF="https://www.unisa.edu.au/research/C3L/" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="C3L" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">(presented by C3L)</A>
TITLE: The Role of Creativity and Innovation in NASA’s Return to Flight STS-114
DETAIL: Contributions provided by the three NASA Researchers Centers were pivotal in understanding the proximate technical cause of the Columbia accident, mitigating the cause of the problem, and developing the necessary technologies to ensure a continued safe and expeditious return to flight. We enhanced our knowledge and understanding by reaching out to the research communities to utilise the latest advances in analysis, testing, inspection, monitoring and fabrication. We were able to make significant advances in understanding the complex aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic environments; debris transport; impact dynamics and failure of thermal protection system (TPS) (tile and reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC)); ablation of damaged RCC; etc. In addition, we developed innovative technologies for non-destructive evaluation (NDE), damage monitoring, and TPS repair. Throughout this process we gained a tremendous amount of insight into how to develop innovative concepts and utilise innovative solution strategies in a timely and cost effective manner which satisfied the stringent demands of a very public, high-profile program! Dr. Charles Camarda will present his personal account of this process as an engineer involved with the Columbia Accident Investigation, an innovator of several of the technical concepts utilized for repair, and as an Astronaut who demonstrated and flew several of these technologies in space on STS-114, the return-to-flight mission of the Space Shuttle.
A light lunch will be served from 12:30 pm
12:30 pm - Lunch
1:00 pm - Presentation commences
SPEAKER BIO: Charles Camarda was born in Queens, New York and received his undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1974. Upon graduation, he began work at NASA’s LangleyResearchCenter (LaRC), received his M.S. from GW in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from VPI in 1990. He was Head of the Thermal Structures Branch at LaRC and led the structures and materials efforts of two programs: The National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) and the Single-Stage-to Orbit Program. He was selected to be an Astronaut in 1996 and flew on the return-to-flight mission of Space Shuttle following the Columbia Accident, STS-114, in 2005. He was selected Director of Engineering at JSC in December 2005 and was the Sr. Advisor for Innovation and Engineering Development at NASA’s Langley Research Center.

University of South Australia City West Campus - Bradley Forum (Level 5 Hawke Building)

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