CLEARFIELD— A new facility opened last week by Weber State University will give students hands-on experience to solve real-world problems in national defense. The Miller Advanced Research and Solutions Center (MARS) is located at the Falcon Hill Aerospace Research Park near Hill Air Force Base. It was made possible through a donation of $3.5 million from the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation.

“MARS is a collaboration between the State of Utah (the USTAR funded building), the Air Force (the real estate at Falcon Hill) and Weber State University to bolster the northern Utah aerospace ecosystem,” said Ian R. Harvey, Director of MARS. “The specific role MARS will fill involves specialty materials that make possible high-speed flight, an environment of extreme conditions where tips and leading edges are subject to atmospheric frictional heating and ablation.”

The USTAR (Utah Science Technology and Research) funded building was built by the state under Gov. Jon Huntsman, he said. “USTAR had three facilities, one in Logan, one at the University of Utah and this one in Davis County about six or seven years ago. The state knew there needed to be an interface between the Air Force and education and how best to equip the building. It has a high base for large equipment.”

The facility sat idle and the state was losing money without a clear vision of what to do to make it useful, said Harvey. “They released the title to WSU with the challenge to make it possible for both industry and HAFB to thrive.”

That was a little more than a year ago, he said. “HAFB asked WSU what they needed and WSU asked HAFB what they needed in the field of aerospace.”

MARS will be filling a gap between prototype missile shell manufacturing and high volume production, said Harvey. “In the process we’ll be educating the future workforce in techniques for handling and producing airframes using high-temperature compatible advanced composite materials.”

These airframes currently require thousands of hours of manual labor to build in prototype mode, he said. “Our role will be to evaluate tools and techniques that can be ramped to automated manufacturing scale.”

Everybody is fully behind this to make it a successful operation, Harvey said. “It’s not just equipment and projects, the building will be buzzing with student activity. Students who are seeking high value jobs in industry who will remain in the area for their careers.”

The first education program at MARS is starting immediately this semester, he said. “It will be a joint master’s degree in Advanced Composite Materials designed for engineers already working in the aerospace industry who want to advance their careers.”

The program is jointly administered by USU and WSU, said Harvey. “Distance (virtual) learning will be offered by USU, onsite coursework at the MARS building and lab-based learning at the WSU campus.”

“Our family continually works to increase access to education and endeavors to support programs that enrich the lives of students as well as build stronger communities,” said Gail Miller, chair of the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation. “This center and its programs will play an important role in protecting our nation's freedoms, creating a better world for future generations and inspiring students to solve real-world problems.”

MARS is not a planet orbiting by itself, said Harvey. “It’s all about community relationships and partnerships that meet the needs of HAFB and industry.” λ