2010
NASA Pad Abort-1
Congratulations to the numerous AMA employee's that worked on the successful Pad Abort-1 flight test. Pad Abort is a launch abort system designed for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. More Information...
5th Annual Aerospace Day at the Virginia General Assembly
AMA is participating in the 5th Annual Aerospace Day at the Virginia General Assembly, February 3 and 4, 2010, to increase awareness of how vital NASA and the aerospace industry are to the economic well-being and future of the Commonwealth. Aerospace Day Fact Sheet...
2009
AMA Wins STTR Funding
Congratulations to AMA employee Haijun Shen, his Air Force Phase 1 STTR proposal with Ryan P. Russell (Ga. Tech.) for "Fast Trajectory Generation in High-Fidelity Geopotentials Using Finite Elements, Mascons, and Parallelism" was selected for funding.
AMA Wins SBIR Funding
Congratulations to AMA employee's Chris Karlgaard and Haijun Shen, their NASA Glenn Phase 1 SBIR proposal for "Desensitized Filtering and Sensor Fusion Tool Kit" was selected for funding.
Ares I-X Completes a Successful Flight Test
On October 28, 2009 as part of the NASA Constellation program, ARES 1-X successfully completed its first flight test from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. AMA employee's contributed to several areas of the project, including; structural design of the "Transitional Structure", "Trajectory Analysis" (simulation verification, range safety deliverables, and day-of-launch simulation), and "Generating Engineering Animations" of ascent and stage separation simulations and recontact analysis. Congratulations to Chris Karlgaard, Aaron Olds, Roger Beck, Brady White, Scott Angster, and Anjie Baker for their outstanding contributions to the project.
Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE)
On August 17, 2009 IRVE performed a successful flight test, demonstrating how spacecraft can use inflatable heat shields to slow and protect themselves when re-entering the earth's atmosphere. Congratulations to AMA employees, RJ Bodkin, Tim Shekoski, Dave Bose, Aaron Olds, Stephen O’ Keefe, John Van Norman, Chris Karlgaard, Roger Beck, and summer intern Brandon Smith for their contributions to the project.
AMA Achieves SEI CMMI Maturity Level 3 Rating
July 2009, AMA achieved Maturity Level 3 (ML3) of the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI v1.2 DEV). The ML3 rating recognizes AMA's ongoing commitment to delivering high quality products on schedule, maintaining customer loyalty, rapidly and effectively responding to customer requirements, as well as remaining in the forefront of engineering, IT, and visualization technologies.
Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) Launches
AMA employee's (Rob Calloway, Erik Tyler, Tim Shekoski, Rob Matarese, Toby Greider, Luke Novak, John Van Norman, Sverrir Rosario, Aaron Horning) helped put MLAS up in the air and the NASA Constellation program on solid ground. MLAS is an alternative method for astronauts to escape their launch vehicle in dangerous situations. "I hope this program in the first of many steps to come in the coming year that will show how NASA with the help of AMA is ready to go back to the moon. We have big shoes to fill from the Apollo days but we are on our way." - Erik Tyler
More information about MLAS can be found in the Virginia Pilot and at NASA Watch.
AMA Featured in Inside Business Magazine (http://www.insidebiz.com)
Read the article...
AMA Achieves ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100:2004 Certification
On May 1st 2009, AMA was successfully audited for ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100:2004 for all of their Engineering, Scientific and Information Technology practices. AMA has integrated these international Process Improvement registrations and Best Practices into their overall Quality Management System. AMA also anticipates attaining CMMI Level 3 Maturity in July of 2009.
NASA Selects Hampton Firms for Engineering Support
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected Analytical Services & Materials Inc., and Analytical Mechanics Associates Inc., both of Hampton, Va., to provide analysis, systems engineering and research support for NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton. The fixed price, multiple award blanket purchase agreements have an aggregate maximum value of $100 million during a period of five years. The Hampton firms will provide scientific, engineering, and design and development activities in aerodynamics, mechanical, structural, thermal, propulsion, fluid systems, electrical and electronics, avionics and controls, instrumentation and advanced sensor, and manufacturing technology. The work will be performed at Langley and at contractor locations.
2008
AMA was the only company nominated by NASA LaRC for the prestigious George M. Low award. AMA was nominated in the category of Small Business Services.
Recent AMA success stories at NASA LaRC include AMA’s support to the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS). In just two weeks, AMA aerodynamics engineers analyzed over 15 new MLAS shapes covering the complete flight Mach number and angle-of-attack range. The AMA effort directly contributed to the final shape for the MLAS flight test article. In addition to aerodynamic support, AMA has provided crucial structural design, analysis and fabrication support for the crew module simulator component of the vehicle. Based on this work, AMA’s Erik Tyler received the NESC Engineering Excellence Award in July 2008. In support of AMA’s nomination for the George M. Low Award, Ralph Roe, head of NASA NESC, said "The MLAS project is attempting to perform design, build and flight test of an alternate launch abort system in one year. The AMA team has provided critical design and analytical support that is making that ambitious goal achievable."
Members of the AMA Modeling and Simulation team supporting the Langley Research Center Space Mission Architectures Branch have received a NASA Space Act Award for the development of the AstroGlobe visualization toolkit. AMA personnel Doug Murphy, Min Qu, Jonathan Chrone, Michael Mahair, Chris Krentz, Rad Taylor and Rudy Saucillo of NASA created the AstroGlobe system to help communicate complex multi-dimensional orbital dynamics data using web-based interactive 3D graphics. The Space Act Award is given by the NASA Invention Control Board, which recognizes inventors for outstanding scientific or technical contributions that are significant to aeronautics and space activities.
2007
Brian Emmett received a commendation from the project manager for his outstanding performance supporting the Orion Thermal Protection System (TPS) Advanced Development Project (ADP). The commendation was presented during the 6th Orion TPS ADP Technical Quarterly Meeting at the NASA Langley Research Center.
The Modeling and Animation Team of AMA earns special recognition from NASA's Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate. The team was honored by the Director of the SACD, Dr. Ajay Kumar, and several members of the Directorate during a recent Directorate Staff meeting. Team members Jeff Murch, Bob Evangelista, Dave Helton, Rob Burns, and Josh Sams were presented laser etched plaques of recognition. Read more about the capabilities of the AMA Modeling and Animation team.
AMA's animation "Return to the Moon", developed in support of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration has gained national recognition. This two minute animation, developed in support of the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, is an exciting movie trailer style animation depicting NASA's vision for the return to the Moon. This animation was released by NASA Headquarters and can be viewed online on the NASA web site, NASA Watch, and Discovery. The full resolution video can be found here It has been shown at conferences and lectures given by numerous NASA officials included Lesa Roe, LaRC's Center Director. Read more about the capabilities of the AMA Modeling and Animation team.
2006
AMA's Chris Karlgaard was awarded first place in the "Laurence J. Bement Young Professionals Paper Competition" presented by the Hampton Roads Section of the AIAA. His paper, titled ""Hyper-X Post-Flight Trajectory Reconstruction" was submitted to the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, and was co authored with Tartabini, Blanchard, Kircsh and Toniolo.
2005
AMA was the recipient of the NASA Headquarters TGIR 2005 Award for Pioneering Technology as part of the Hyper-X Project Team. The Hyper-X Project successfully flew a scramjet research vehicle at Mach 9.68 over the Pacific Ocean, earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
2004
AMA was the recipient of the NASA Headquarters TGIR 2002 Award for Pioneering Technology for Advanced Engineering Environment. The AEE was an integrated software system providing secure access to and operability with design analysis tools deployed across all NASA centers.
