Stories of Aerospace Engineering

Read the stories of researchers and students at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, and discover the scientific questions they are working on and the solutions they come up with.

TU Delft student team designs a self-supporting lunar village

Dream Team ‘Space Oasis Delft’ has designed a lunar village for 150+ residents. The dwellings have elements of biomimicry, contain a self-sustaining biosphere and simulate a day-night cycle as well as seasons. Smart design choices safeguard not only the occupants' safety but also their mental well-being.

Open data is taking off in aviation – thanks to BlueSky

Why would you buy or sell software commercially if you can get the data from public sources too and can make the tools available to the public? BlueSky, an open-source tool for creating air-traffic simulations, came about some ten years ago in answer to this question. Since then, BlueSky has grown into a community of users from around the world.

This clever slipper with holes in it makes wind turbines significantly quieter

Wind turbines provide one of the cleanest forms of energy in the world, but they have an annoying drawback: noise. Researchers and entrepreneurs at TU Delft have come up with a solution they’ve called MuteSkin®. It’s a clever add-on that can be slipped on a wind turbine blade like a flip-flop and that can dramatically reduce the noise it produces. Now the team is about to take this ‘crazy’ idea from the wind tunnels to the wind farms. Daniele Ragni, Bieke von den Hoff, and Friso Hartog explain how they and their colleagues are tackling this, together with industry partners.

Finding the path of least resistance

Reducing aerodynamic drag can unlock significant fuel savings in the aviation industry. To reduce the drag of an aircraft, it is important to maximise the extent of laminar air flow around it and minimise turbulent air flow. Thanks to a revolutionary, and unex-pected discovery, the research group of Professor of Flow Control Marios Kotsonis managed to extend laminar flow on swept wings. Will this unexpected research result lead to a breakthrough for climate neutral aviation?

How the aviation industry can leave behind fewer climatic trails

It is widely known that aircraft with their CO₂ emissions contribute to climate change, however less attention is paid to the effects of the condensation trails they leave behind. Those trails have a significant impact on the greenhouse effect. Assistant professor Feijia Yin is investigating how the formation of persistent condensation trails can be better predicted, so that aircraft can avoid areas in which they occur.

'Elderly' first Dutch nanosatellite celebrates fifteenth birthday

She is affectionately referred to as "the old lady". After 15 years in space, she can safely be called very elderly. Few of her peers are still operational at her age. But the old lady is also hard of hearing and barely understandable. This month, the self-proclaimed adventurers who built her, celebrate her birthday but fear it will be her last. Proud father of the very first hour Chris Verhoeven (Faculty of EEMCS) and current caretaker Stefano Speretta (Faculty of AE) describe the Delft nanosatellite Delfi-C3 that exceeded all expectations.

Is there life elsewhere in our solar system?

A grand odyssey of exploration is about to begin. Humankind’s next bold mission to the outer solar system. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice), is poised to explore giant planet Jupiter and its largest moons. After years of preparations, Juice will be launched into space on April 13 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The mission, in which TU Delft plays a leading role in the experiment PRIDE, is diving into orbit of a moon other than Earth's for the first time. Something the Americans, Japanese and Chinese have never succeeded in doing before.

Mars is not a back-up option

What can planetary science on the bone dry Mars teach us? What happened to its atmosphere? And, are there possible fall-back options for humankind on Earth? In context of the National Climateweek, we spoke with Sebastiaan de Vet, planetary scientist at TU Delft.

Climate neuroscience for aviation

There is a knowledge gap when it comes to how non-CO2 emissions of aviation affect global warming. Jin Maruhashi modeled the global transport patterns of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and then used a neuroscience machine learning algorithm to find patterns in these data. It landed him the award for Best Climate Action Paper of the TU Delft.

The women on a mission to reduce space debris

Over a million objects larger than one centimetre are orbiting the environment around Earth, threatening space operations and the future of space exploration. With their start-up Ecosmic, Gaia Roncalli, Benedetta Cattani and Mireia Leon Dasi are on a mission to tackle the rapidly increasing space debris issue. Roncalli, the recipient of the 2022 International Aviation Women's Association (IAWA) scholarship, and the all-female Ecosmic leadership team are contributing to a sustainable future and inspiring others along the way.