Vortex generators for next-generation spaceflight | Johann Kailey-Steiner | TEDxYouth@MileHigh

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

How can we affect the efficiency of sub-orbital space flight? In this amazing talk, 9th-grade student Johann Kailey-Steiner shows how vortex generators can be applied to the future of spacecraft.

Alright, so in 6th grade I began
my research for science fair

with a relatively simple project.

If I changed the design
of an SS model rocket in different ways,

which design will fly the highest?

Now, I had predicted that the rocket

with no modifications
would go the highest,

but in fact, this hypothesis
was wrong in one case.

The rocket that I had added tape
to sticking out all over

ended up flying the highest,

even though I predicted
that the tape would add drag,

therefore the rocket
would not fly as high.

So I did some research as to why
this might've happened

and I decided that maybe the tape
had acted as vortex generators.

Now vortex generators sound
more complicated than they really are.

They're just these little blades,
I guess you could call them,

that are used on generally
smaller airplanes to reduce the drag

and add lift at a slow speed
in order to reduce stall speed.

A stall is when the wing of an airplane

gets at a very high angle
to the air coming at it

and the air comes over
and separates off the end of the wing,

as you can see in the picture on the left.

Now the wing can no longer create lift,

but with vortex generators,

the air comes over the wing
and adheres to the wing

so the wing continues to create lift.

7th grade was
the blood and bones of my project.

I was privileged to work with a mentor
named Adrian Adamson that year.

He worked on the Spirit
and Opportunity Mars rovers.

He's obviously really smart,
as you can tell,

and in his spare time, he made
these altimeters right here.

They're for model rockets,

and they measure altitude and speed
among other things.

I remember the first time
he came over to my house

to explain how to use his altimeters.

We were sitting at my dining room table,

and he was explaining how to use
the altimeter, and pointing to a computer,

and explaining
all of these complex equations,

and I just had no idea
what he was talking about.

You know that feeling you get

when you so much so don't know
what somebody is talking about

where you can't even
ask questions about it?

That's the feeling that I got.

After he left, my mom
came up to me and said,

"What did he tell you
about the altimeter?"

and I said, "I pretty much nodded
and smiled my way through it,

and I wrote down these random words
I heard here and there,

but other than that, I didn't know
what he was talking about."

But, undeterred
by his superior intelligence,

I took the few ideas
that I had written down

and did some research,

and actually did some Q&A
back and forth with Adrian,

and I came up with a plan
for my seventh grade science project.

The plan was to do 24 launches

to prove that vortex generators
reduce drag on model rockets.

The plan didn't go exactly as intended.

So I launched out at my cousin's ranch
in the winter in the snow,

and it was cold.

On top of all of that, it was windy,

so that meant that the rockets pretty much
never landed within the ranch's property.

So there was a lot of running and jumping
of fences and avoiding barbed wire.

Look at that great hair-do I have there.

(Laughter)

That not only sacrificed my sanity,
but also my jeans.

Also the rockets never lasted
maybe more than six launches

without needing a repair.

So, there I was, torn pants and all,
running after these rockets

like a deranged dog
running after tennis balls,

there's snow in my boots,

and I'm trying to make these repairs
really quick and easy in my car,

and it smells like sulphur and glue,

and then I'm running all the way
back out into the middle of the field

to enter in this data from my altimeter
into this computer with frozen hands.

Unfortunately, instead of 24 times,
I had to repeat it 43 times.

This is because about half way through,

I realized that the data I was getting
was not accurate.

So, I had to do 19 more launches
in order to make it accurate.

That was not fun.

Near the end, I was in tears
because my shock cord had broke,

and the altimeter plummeted
to the ground for the thousandth time,

and the wires had popped out
and it was cold, and I was hungry,

and it was late.

I just wanted to be done.

But I kept testing
for the glory of discovery.

In 8th grade, I was given
the fantastic opportunity

to work in the wind tunnel at CU Denver

with the assistance
of professor Joe Cullen.

The really cool thing if you think
about it, of using a wind tunnel,

is the Wright brothers
all the way back when they invented

the first powered airplane
used wind tunnels to test their designs.

Now NASA uses wind tunnels
to test their designs,

and now I got to test
a wind tunnel to test my design.

So when I first arrived at the wind tunnel
and met Professor Cullen

was that same feeling when I met Adrian,

and he was explaining all this equipment
and all this data I would be getting,

and all of these words
that I did not understand,

and all I was hearing was Charlie Brown's

teacher going "wah, wah, wah, wah."

But eventually, because Mr. Cullen was
very good at explaining these concepts,

eventually, I figured out
the ways of the wind tunnel.

The nice thing about using the wind tunnel
was that I was able to control variables

such as wind
and the tilting of the rocket

that I was not able to control the year
before when launching the rockets.

So even though everything
was going great in the wind tunnel,

there's always a point in an experiment

where everything
just comes to a screeching halt.

This happened for me when I realized
that the data this year

was conflicting with the data
the year before.

It was showing that the vortex generators
in the wind tunnel were adding drag

at every position and every speed,
which I did not want,

while the year before,

the vortex generators
had consistently reduced drag

at a low speed, so I had to find out
why are these results conflicting?

Where had I gone wrong?

At that moment, my future
flashed before my eyes,

and I knew that
if I did not solve this problem

I would be doomed to a life of failure

and my dreams of becoming
an aerospace engineer were dashed.

But, coming back to reality,
Professor Cullen came to my aid,

and we went through
some extensive brainstorming

about what might be the issue,

and we came up with an idea
that maybe the very things

that we were trying to control
with the wind tunnel,

such as the wind
and the tilting of the rocket,

were the things that allowed
the vortex generators

to reduce the drag in the first place.

So to simulate this idea,

I mounted the rocket at an angle
in the wind tunnel.

You can see that here.

These tests proved very successful
because the vortex generators

consistently reduced drag
when the rocket was at an angle.

So now, I made this mechanism here.

There's me in my incredibly messy shed.

I made this mechanism
that extends the vortex generators

when they reduce drag,
and they're in while they add drag.

I have this radio controlled
airplane controller,

and I flip this switch,
and it sends a signal to this servo.

You can tell it's actually pretty simple.

It sends a signal to this servo in here,
and that servo pushes down on this,

which is pretty flimsy,
but it's a prototype,

and it's got vortex generators on the end.

It pushes down on this cone in here,

and the vortex generators
push down and out on that cone

and out of the rocket.

After these three years of hard work
on these science fair projects,

I was able to have
some pretty amazing opportunities.

After a long application process,

I was chosen among 29
other 7th, 8th, and 9th graders

to participate in
this Broadcom MASTERS Competition.

It was great because I met
and worked with kids

that had the same interests as me
in the STEM category,

which is science, technology,
engineering, and math.

(Cheers)

We met the President,
and he's really tall,

and we got a minor planet named after us,

which is pretty cool too.

And now here I am doing a TEDx talk,

and it all started
with the science fair and an idea.

So now let's move ahead in time.

How can what I've learnt
be applied in the future?

NASA and other private companies
are breaking new ground

in developing space flight technologies,

not only for exploration,
but also for flight around the globe,

commercial space flight.

Vortex generators may be able
to be applied to these new rocket designs

in order to reduce the drag
while the rocket is in the atmosphere.

SpaceX is a company
in the aerospace industry,

and they've developed this rocket
called the Grasshopper.

What the Grasshopper can do,
which is very cool,

is it launches from one spot, and then,
it can launch, maneuver, even hover,

and the it comes back down
and can land in that same spot upright,

unlike a space shuttle, which launches
and lands like an airplane.

Colorado has been,
and will continue to be,

a very important part
of the aerospace industry.

We have CU, which has
a nationally-recognized aerospace program,

Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance,

and Sierra Nevada,
who is working on the Dream Chaser,

which could possibly be
NASA's next space vehicle.

One more cool thing about Colorado:

we have Front Range Airport, which soon
may very well be Front Range Space Port

for space flight transportation.

Imagine yourself,
instead of climbing into an airplane

for a trip from New York to London
that would take eight hours,

climbing into a rocket
to blast into low earth orbit

at 17,500 miles per hour for a trip
of an hour and a half instead.

Or even imagine yourself being one of
the first people to step onto an asteroid,

or even Mars.

As a kid, you're at the perfect age
to accomplish this goal

of being an astronaut.

But there are these barriers,
unfortunately, that will have to be passed

in order for all of this to be possible.

One is expense, two is fuel
and propulsion, three is efficiency.

Researchers and scientists
are all working on these issues,

but young, fresh minds are really
necessary to come up with these ideas

that nobody has come up with before.

All it takes is to have just a little bit
of drive, passion, motivation,

just interest in the things around you.

Ask your counselor or teacher
about getting a mentor like I did,

and new opportunities
will open themselves up to you.

Just experiment
with the things around you also.

There's so much more to explore
and be discovered.

The Universe is immense, you can see here,

and expanding.

This is a real photo.

Each of those lights is a galaxy

and each galaxy
has hundreds of billions of stars.

Each star has a Solar System,
and each Solar System has planets,

and we are just one planet
in one Solar System.

That just tells you
how vast the Universe is,

and how much more
there is to be explored.

So, exploration and discovery
should be a part of life.

Make them a part of yours.

Thank you.

(Applause)