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LEXINGTON, Va., July 31, 2021鈥擜s a high school student, Jacob Benny 鈥�22 had a natural talent for math, and he鈥檇 also discovered an interest in physics.

But work on a project for NASA before he鈥檇 even earned a college degree? That seemed to be an out-of-this-world ambition.

This summer, the mechanical engineering major describes himself as 鈥渁 kid in the candy store鈥� as he works on a project for NASA Langley鈥檚 Vertical Solar Array Technology Group in support of the Artemis project, which seeks to return humans to the moon by 2024. Benny鈥檚 work, which is being funded by NASA Langley, may someday be used to help power lunar rovers and other devices on the moon.

NASA probes have found evidence of water at both the north and south poles of the moon, explained Col. Joseph Blandino, professor of mechanical engineering, who is overseeing Benny鈥檚 work. That bodes well for human settlement and survival there鈥攁s does the fact that much of the water is located at the south pole of the moon, which gets almost constant sunlight. Because of this, it鈥檚 possible to charge batteries by means of a deployable photovoltaic solar array.

But it鈥檚 never that easy鈥攅specially away from planet Earth. Benny described the moon as 鈥渁 harsh thermal environment鈥� in which one side of a solar array is always going to be hot and the other is always going to be cold. 鈥淭here will be some kind of thermal bending,鈥� Benny observed.

To prevent this issue, which could lead to problems deploying and retracting the solar array, Benny is seeking to make two computer programs, Thermal Desktop and Abaqus Finite Element Analysis, talk to each other.

As he does so, he鈥檚 building on the work of Jerry Haste Jr. 鈥�21, whose Institute Honors thesis, 鈥淭emperature Profile of a Photovoltaic Array Located at the South Pole of the Moon,鈥� was one of five recipients of the Wilbur S. Hinman Jr. '26 Research Awards at this year鈥檚 Institute Awards ceremony.

鈥淸Benny] is looking at the thermal issues and developing a code where [Haste] started that performs a coupled thermal structural analysis,鈥� Blandino explained.

For Benny, the hardest part so far has been learning two software packages鈥擳hermal Desktop and Abaqus鈥攁t the same time, plus two computer programming languages, C# and Python.

鈥淭he most difficult part of the project has been getting introduced to all of these programs,鈥� he commented. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot to handle, but I鈥檓 really enjoying it. There鈥檚 a lot of layers of the onion. You keep peeling, and you go, 鈥極h, I need to learn something about this tool.鈥欌�� 

He鈥檚 also enjoyed his mechanical engineering coursework at 黑料网. 鈥淢echanical engineering is super, super fun and interesting to me,鈥� said Benny, who plans to commission into the Navy after 黑料网. 鈥淚 have a blast in class.鈥�

His work may just help others blast off from the Earth鈥檚 surface. Exploring the outer solar system has been a dream for humankind for centuries, yet despite all of our technological advances, no one has been there yet.

To boldly go where no man has gone before, it鈥檚 best to start from the moon. Not only does Earth鈥檚 only satellite have one-sixth of our planet鈥檚 gravity, but since the moon has water, and water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, it鈥檚 possible to split water molecules apart into their component parts and make rocket fuel.

鈥淚f you can produce your fuel on the moon, you鈥檙e cutting your costs roughly by half to explore the outer solar system,鈥� said Blandino. 鈥淲hat [Benny] is doing is an important part of this.鈥�

As for Benny? To say that he鈥檚 amazed at the direction his cadetship has taken would be an understatement.

鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 have rated myself as a really good candidate coming out of high school, transcript-wise and everything,鈥� he commented. 鈥淚鈥檝e taken the opportunities at 黑料网 and just run with them鈥攚orked as hard as I could.鈥�

Mary Price
Communications & Marketing
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE