Aerospace Engineering

Victoria L. Coverstone Professor and Associate Head vcc@illinois.edu

Return to: Faculty

The Department of Aerospace Engineering has been instrumental in developing new innovations in the areas of modeling, simulating and optimizing aerospace systems. Much of Prof. Coverstone's experience in this area was gained working under contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center to develop space mission planning software for low-thrust interplanetary trajectories. The approaches that have been developed have incorporated stochastic optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms and simulated annealing. Prof. Coverstone first began working with JPL during the summer of 1993 when she participated in the NASA Summer Faculty Program. This interaction lead to a hybrid algorithm that combined simulated annealing and genetic algorithms with VARITOP and SEPTOP (low thrust mission planning algorithms) and this approach yielded several novel trajectories. For example, a low thrust mission to Mars that allowed consistent performance over large launch opportunities (2+ years) was discovered. Using the above-mentioned techniques, several solar electric main propulsion missions of high scientific interest have been studied. These include a Pluto flyby mission, a Phobos sample return, and a rendezvous with the main belt asteroid Vesta. Comparisons with chemical propulsion missions have been made and the solar electric missions enable shorter flight times, fewer planetary gravity-assists or smaller launch vehicles and in some cases all the aforementioned. Recently, the dynamics and control of a large rotating solar sail, referred to as UltraSail, has been studied to show design feasibility. The development of UltraSail leads to a new architecture for solar sails that produce large payload mass fractions and enable high-energy missions that are unachievable using current space propulsion technologies.

Education:

• Ph.D., Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois, May, 1992.
• M.S., Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois, October, 1986.
• B.S., Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, University of Illinois, May 1985

Academic Positions:

• Associate Head, Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006-present
• Professor, Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005-present
• Associate Professor, 1998-2005
• Assistant Professor, 1992-1998
• Aerospace Illinois Grant Consortium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Program Director, 1995-present
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena, CA, NASA Summer Faculty Fellow, Summer 1993

Major Honors and Awards:

• Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence, College of Engineering, 1995
• Teacher of the Year, AAE Department, AIAA Student Branch, 1995, 1997, 2001
• An Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Fall 1994, Spring 1995, Fall 1995, Spring 1996, Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Spring 1998, Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2005
• College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, 2001
• Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Honorable Mention, 2001
• College of Engineering Award for Excellence in Advising, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997,1999, 2003, 2006
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 1994/95 AIAA/LORAL National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 1999/2000 AIAA National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 2000/2001 AIAA National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 2002/2003 AIAA National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 2003/2004 AIAA National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• Faculty advisor; First place winner, 2004/2005 AIAA National Undergraduate Team Space Design Competition
• NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1993
• National Academy of Engineering Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, Academies' Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, 2002
• National Academy of Engineering Gallery of Women Engineers Website, http://www.engineergirl.org, 2002
• National Academy of Engineering Seventh German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Academies' NAS Building, Washington, DC, 2004
• National Academy of Engineering Organizing Committee/Session Chair for the German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, 2005
• Finalist, NASA Astronaut/Mission Specialist, 1994
• Witness, Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, Testimony on Space Professionals, 2004

Selected Publications:

• Woo, B., Coverstone, V. and Cupples, M., "Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization Procedure for Gravity-Assist, Outer-Planet Missions," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2006, pp. 121-129.
• Donahue, B., Green, S. and Coverstone, V., "Chemical and Solar-Electric Propulsion Systems for Mars Sample Return Missions," Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 43, No. 1, 2006, pp. 170-177.
• Cupples, M., Green, S., Donahue, B. and Coverstone, V., "Solar Electric and Chemical Propulsion for a Titan Mission", Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 43, No. 5, 2006, pp. 1077-1083.
• Woo, B., Coverstone, V. and Cupples, M., "Application of Solar Electric Propulsion to a Comet Surface Sample Return Mission", Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 43, No. 6, 2006, pp. 1225-1230.
• Botter, T., Coverstone, V., and Burton, R., "Structural Dynamics of Spin-Stabilized Solar Sails with Applications to UltraSail," Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, 2007. to appear.

Copyright © 2008
Department of Aerospace Engineering
College of Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL