Advisor
Daniel R. Kirk, Ph.D.
Daniel R. Kirk is the Associate Dean for Research and a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Florida Tech in 2004, Dan completed his Ph.D. and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics under a National Science Foundation Fellowship. He was the Valedictorian of the class of 1997 at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute where he majored in mechanical engineering with minors in astronomy and philosophy. Dr. Kirk has obtained over 8 million dollars in funding, produced over 80 conference and journal publications, and has managed research projects with NASA, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, as well as with over a dozen leading aerospace companies. Dr. Kirk’s research group is directing experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) to study how liquid propellant slosh behavior may affect the dynamics of rocket motion. Dr. Kirk is an AIAA Associate Fellow and a Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellow. Dr. Kirk also serves as director of The Aerospace Systems And Propulsion (ASAP) Laboratory. The ASAP provides the space systems development experience and expertise required. The ASAP Lab has successfully designed, built, tested, approved and currently operates an experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) that has become a primary source of data for scientists and engineers studying propellant behavior in microgravity, used for mission planning and safety. ASAP also participates on RINGS, an ISS experimental platform to develop electromagnetic formation flight and wireless power transfer, critical capabilities for the creation propellant-less spacecraft. ASAP has also experience with CubeSats, a recent one being SABOL, a protein aggregation experiment developed in conjunction with the Astrobiology Physics Department at Florida Tech, with implications on the research of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Kirk’s specific areas focus on the following.
• Thermal and fluid modeling of rockets and spacecraft in micro-gravity environments. There are numerous scientific and engineering questions related to in- space, chemical rocket propulsion, including the behavior of propellants (cryogenic and non-cryogenic) in microgravity. This includes examining how the propellant is distributed within the tank during various phases of a typical mission and how propellant sloshing dynamics can adversely impact the safety, reliability, and performance of a space vehicle.
• Fluid transfer in zero gravity. Many proposed space exploration architectures envision the use of propellant depots in space. The question of how to transfer propellants (or other liquids such as water) from one tank to another is one in which there are currently numerous proposed ideas, but no clear best, or most efficient, solution. Our joint collaboration brings tools and resources together which can be utilized to address this question and opens the opportunity for the design, development, and operation of refueling systems for spacecraft in Low Earth Orbits and Geostationary Earth Orbits.
• The use of novel additive and digital manufacturing techniques for aerospace applications.
• CubeSat and SmallSat (low mass and size, usually under 500 kg) design, development, and integration. Research, development, and demonstration of critical technologies and operations procedures for spacecraft rendezvous and capture, formation flight, and robotic manipulation by using CubeSats and ISS experiments.
