ASCE Lunch and Learn: Preparing the Kennedy Space Center's LC-39 Crawlerway for Artemis
NASA’s Artemis program will return American astronauts to the moon in 2025. These astronauts and the spacecraft that will carry them to the moon will be launched into space aboard a powerful Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The first four miles of the SLS/Orion journey to the moon will be aboard NASA’s large Crawler Transporter along a gravel crawlerway that connects the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad. This journey created many interesting geotechnical engineering challenges. The assembled SLS rocket, new mobile launcher, and the recently refurbished crawler transporter will weigh over 25 million pounds. This is almost 40% heavier than previous rollouts for the Apollo and Space Launch System (Space Shuttle) missions, causing maneuverability and stability concerns for the Crawler Transporter as it traverses the crawlerway to the launch pad. We will discuss some of the interesting investigations and actions that NASA’s engineers, operations staff, and their consultants performed to assure a safe trip to the launch pad.
Speaker: Steven Laux, P.E., Professor of Practice
Steven Laux is a Professor of Practice in the Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment (ESSIE) at the University of Florida. He received Bachelor and Master of Engineering degrees from the University of Florida and joined UF in January 2017 after a 32-year career as a practicing civil engineer. His primary areas of practice were in the planning, design, and construction of solid waste management facilities, and in the development and rehabilitation of infrastructure for the aerospace industry. Over his career, he served as a project engineer, project manager, senior engineer/consultant, vice president and principal at the consulting firm Jones Edmunds & Associates. He was involved in the development of many privately and publicly owned solid waste management facilities in Florida and at other locations in the US. He also led Jones Edmunds’ efforts to establish and maintain a 32-year presence serving the aerospace industry for public and private clients at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Vandenberg Air Force Base. He worked on major infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center, including three launch pads, the Vehicle Assembly Building, Shuttle Landing Facility, Launch Control Center, and many support buildings, structures, roadways, bridges, and utilities.
At UF, Mr. Laux teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in design and professional practice to civil and environmental engineers. He also assists Dr. Timothy Townsend with his research program at the Sustainable Materials Management Research Laboratory. This research has focused on beneficial use of municipal solid waste incinerator ash as aggregates in the construction of road base, asphalt and concrete, post-consumer glass as a cost-effective supplementary cementitious material, recycling and end-of-life management of various materials, and numerous municipal solid waste landfill topics.
Location: Blue Gill Quality Food