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The nearly $100 million boost to NASA aeronautics spending proposed in President Joe Biden’s budget will go in part to get the Langley Research Center’s X-59 supersonic plane in the air to test if it can really break the sound barrier without shattering eardrums down below.
A range of Langley research efforts are also set to benefit from a nearly $400 million increase proposed for NASA’s science budget, which would approach $8 billion, and a more than $300 million hike in the space technology budget that among other things funds Langley’s development of an inflatable heat shield that will place a critical role when landing people on Mars and returning people and equipment to Earth.
“It’s a strong budget for NASA and a strong budget for Langley Research Center,” said director Clayton Turner.
Langley plays a central role in NASA’s efforts to improve aviation, to better understand Earth’s atmosphere and climate and to develop technology for space exploration.
It is the lead center for NASA’s “Geocarb” initiative, one of the efforts getting a major boost in the budget proposal. Geocarb will be a satellite observatory 22,236 miles above the Earth collecting 10 million daily observations of the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and solar-induced fluorescence.
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Langley researchers are also playing a major role with another science priority set by the budget, the “PACE” for plankton, aerosol, cloud ocean ecosystem monitoring satellite slated for launch next year.
New mathematical tools Langley designers use to develop previously unthought-of shapes for aircraft came up with the long needle-nose of the X-59, which they believe will fly at supersonic speeds without producing the sonic booms that kept earlier efforts, like the Concorde from flying over land.
Another new airplane design, this one featuring a version of the kind of strut that propped up wings on the old Piper Cub or small Cessna planes, promises more fuel-efficient flying with the struts acting as a kind of extra wing.
The center is also working on electric-powered aircraft that by taking to to air could ease urban traffic jams -- even at places like the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
“I like to put it this way: we want to make it so grandparents could fly across the country in a quarter to half the time to see their grandkids,” Turner said. “And when they land, they could get from the airport to the babies’ home in 10 or 15 minutes, instead of a couple of hours.”
The Biden Administration budget, still subject to Congressional revision, calls for a $1.9 billion increase for the agency, to just under $26 billion. In addition to increases for climate research, aeronautics and space technology, it sets a priority on Moon to Mars exploration by proposing $7.5 billion for the Artemis mission and the return of American astronauts to the Moon as early as 2025.
Dave Ress, 757-247-4535, dress@dailypress.com