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Brad King Receives Presidential Award
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sEPTEMBER 13, 2004 -- L. Brad King, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, traveled to Washington, DC, last week to accept a 2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House.
King is among 60 faculty members selected from U.S. colleges and universities to receive a Presidential Award, which is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers at the beginning of their careers.
The recipients are chosen by the White House from among nominees selected by the top U.S. research agencies, including NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. King's name was put forward by the Department of Defense. All nominees have received their PhD degrees within the last five years.
As part of the Presidential Award, King receives a five-year, $500,000 grant to continue his research on very-high-powered ion engines, which could be used for manned Mars missions or ambitious robotic space science missions.
Ion propulsion engines currently rely on xenon gas for fuel. However, xenon's pricetag-about $3,200 a pound-gives new meaning to the cliche "skyrocketing energy costs."
King is experimenting with an alternative fuel that could slash the cost of ion propulsion. The white, brittle metal bismuth goes for about $3.60 a pound, is much easier to handle and store, and could reduce the cost of developing a manned mission to Mars by a factor of 200 over conventional xenon engines.
"Not only is bismuth a lot cheaper, it actually works better," King said. "It's also easier to use and more efficient. People have known this for a long time, but the technology to implement it hasn't existed until now."
The critical system that enables bismuth to be used as a propellant was developed by King at MTU; a patent is pending. |
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