Lockheed Martin awards $5M contract to FAMU for Mars research, development

Partnership could help increase racial, gender diversity in STEM

ORLANDO, Fla. – Lockheed Martin awarded a $5 million contract to Florida A&M University on Thursday to fund its work on future Mars-related projects.

FAMU students and faculty will work on research and development for the NASA's Orion spacecraft, according to FAMU. Orion is undergoing development and testing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for future crewed Mars and deep-space exploration missions.

Murry Gibson, dean of FAMU-FSU College of Engineering said he hopes the five-year collaboration with the major NASA contractor will also help increase racial and gender diversity in engineering.

Lockheed Martin and NASA are investing in the development FAMU faculty and students will provide, but they also want to grow a diverse human capital for the future, Gibson said.

A historically black university, the FAMU- FSU engineering school beats the national average of women enrolled in engineering majors.

About 18 to 20 percent of U.S. engineering college students are women, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Only 14 percent of working engineers are women, according to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee.

At FAMU, 26 percent of engineering majors are women, Gibson estimated, and he wants to see that number grow.

University of Florida also boasts a higher than average number of women enrolled in engineering majors with more than 26 percent of graduate and undergraduate students. At UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering less than 19 percent of tenor and non-tenure faculty are women.

Only four months into his position at FAMU, the previous dean of the College of Science at Northeastern University in Boston said he also hopes to bring on more female faculty in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

"We need to grow there," he said. "It's the mentors who tell [students] they can make it."

The university engineering program is a partnership with Florida State University, allowing for a broader range of people to participate in this new venture, Gibson said.

"The partnership between FAMU and FSU is exciting," Gibson said. "We have a top historic black college and the top research institute improving diversity in the engineering field."

FAMU will contribute research on aerodynamics, autonomous vehicles and high-performance material manufacturing, which will all play a role in future missions to Mars.

“The world-class researchers and laboratories at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the FAMU College of Science and Technology, and other STEM disciplines will help make discoveries and develop new technologies needed for deep space exploration,” FAMU interim president Larry Robinson said.

Once astronauts arrive on the Red Planet they will need to gather natural resources, requiring work with autonomous vehicles.

"Most of the moving around will be done by [autonomous] robots," Gibson said. "They want to mine from the rocks, so they will have to set up a mining operation."

Cutting costs on manufacturing parts for Orion is a goal for Lockheed Martin and NASA, Gibson said he learned while on a tour of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday. The building is where Orion is being assembled.

“The primary area that got this started was we have the High-Performance Material Institute,” Gibson said.

The research center focuses on manufacturing cost-effective high-performance composite materials and systems, according to FAMU.

Gibson estimates about a hundred students will be able to work on different projects during the contract with Lockheed Martin, but there is potential for more students to contribute in smaller ways.

The deal was christened during a contract-signing ceremony at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout building on Wednesday.

Lockheed Martin is a NASA contractor and is behind the design and build of many satellites and planetary spacecraft, including Orion, NASA's first crewed, long-duration spacecraft.

Orion is set to launch on a deep-space mission on NASA's Space Launch System in late 2018, according to NASA's latest estimate.


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