Call for Abstracts
Alternate Oral and Poster Abstract Due Date: 23 July 2025
It is not too late to participate in the 2025 event! We are still accepting abstracts for alternate oral presentations and the poster session! What exactly is an alternate? All HTSC alternates have dual roles. If we have a cancellation in a technical session, alternates are the first choice for backfilling oral presentation slots. Additionally, alternates also present a poster in the poster session.
This event is restricted to and conducted at the SECRET//NOFORN level. Attendance is limited to U.S. citizens with a final SECRET clearance. Final presentations should not be more restrictive than Distribution C.
Abstract & Submission Requirements Checklist
- Abstracts must be unclassified. If appropriate, be sure to have your derivative classifier do a sanity check on your unclassified abstract prior to submitting it. Please keep in mind that you are beholden to the classification guide your material falls under.
- Abstracts must carry a distribution level of A or C. If your presentation material is not derived from work done under DoD funding or oversight, please use your organization's equivalent to the distribution levels below.
A = Approved for public release, distribution unlimited
C = U.S. Government Agencies and their contractors only - If you find it impossible to submit a worthwhile abstract at the unclassified level or need Distribution F approval, please contact Michelle Williams at mkw@blue52productions.com.
- When you upload your abstract, please do not password protect your file. The submission site is cleared for CUI and has end to end encryption with a security scan upon upload. If you submit a file password protected it will not upload and your form will not submit.
- Abstracts should be no more than 400 words long.
- Abstracts must contain the title of your abstract in the body of the submission and proper CUI markings and control blocks as applicable. These do not count toward the 400 word limit.
- Abstracts must contain an unclassified outline including the key points of your presentation (this does not count against the 400 word count).
- Abstracts should clearly express: 1. objective, 2. relevance to the proposed topic area(s), 3. scope, and 4. conclusions of your presentation.
- Because of the high interest in this event, we are expecting a very large number of submissions. Presentations that contain classified information, are clearly associated with the proposed topic area(s), and are technically focused (versus company sales pitches) will have the highest probability of selection. Please remember that HTSC has a greater emphasis on platform and applied technology versus purely basic or foundational research which is covered at other conferences.
- IMPORTANT: Speed up your organizational release process of your abstract by letting your approvers know that abstracts will not be published on the web, nor will they be distributed beyond the technical selection committee.
Notification & Presentation Information
In late April 2025, you will be contacted regarding the status of your acceptance. Final presentations will be due 30 July 2025. Please note that selection and presentation of an abstract, whether oral or poster, does not waive registration fees. All speakers and posters will need to register and pay the applicable fees.
2025 Topic Areas:
- Design and ground/flight testing of thermal protection systems concept or components;
- Thermal management of subsystems including active & passive technologies;
- Novel instrumentation or applications development;
- Oxidation/ablation modeling and test;
- Erosion modeling and test, to include all environmental effects;
- Thermostructural modeling, material properties, and testing;
- Advanced structural concepts and integration;
- Weather effects;
- Sustainability.
- Booster motors/engines/booster systems with multiple stages demonstrated via ground testing;
- Booster motors/booster systems with multiple stages demonstrated via ground testing;
- Approaches to thrust modulation and termination;
- High performance propellants with low sensitivity;
- Launch and operating environments design consideration; and
- Divert and Attitude Control Systems (DACS). Air‐Breathing (Systems Level) Propulsion Areas of Interest Include:
- Air-breathing systems (to include scramjet, ramjet, rotating detonation engine, turbine and combined cycle) and engine development programs;
- System design solutions addressing boost, cruise, and terminal phase requirements;
- Ground test methodologies, facilities, and test diagnostics;
- Engine material, fuels, and thermal management technologies; and
- Modeling and Simulation (M&S) with validation.
- Uncertainty modeling and quantification methods;
- Hypersonic flow field modeling and validation;
- Relevant vehicle boundary layer transition modeling, phenomenology, and test;
- Effects of flow field chemistry including plasma effects on vehicle performance;
- Effects of shock‐shock and shock/boundary‐layer interaction;
- Ground test methodologies and approaches (e.g., wind tunnels, shock tunnels, ballistic ranges);
- Aerodynamics influence on control surface performance;
- Ablation/erosion influence on aerodynamics coefficients;
- Jet interaction modeling and validation;
- Wake flow field and signature modeling;
- Base region flow field and aeroheating modeling; and
- Flight test validation of aerodynamic models and configurations.
- Challenges associated with hypersonic flight systems related to NG&C and electrical systems;
- Hypersonic power system and energy storage technologies and methods (flight and ground systems);
- Auto‐pilot design and implementation for hypersonic systems and platforms;
- Navigation and guidance in GPS‐contested environments;
- Tactical/strategic navigation systems;
- M‐Code and hypersonic‐specific code and algorithm implementation;
- Unique control system technology development and maturation for moderate to high lift/drag ratio vehicles;
- Packaging of electrical systems in constrained hypersonic vehicle configurations;
- Uncertainty analysis and contributors for NG&C systems;
- Electrical failure analysis and unique electrical phenomena related to hypersonic systems;
- Electrical interactions with hypersonic environments;
- Latency mitigation methods & technologies for hypersonic systems; and
- Integration between NG&C, aerodynamic, aerothermodynamic, and power system simulation methods and analyses.
- Architecture concepts studies;
- Sensor / shooter interactions;
- Battle management and CONOPS;
- Fire control and engagement management;
- Targets and threats;
- Test planning;
- All aspects of the threat kill chain (detect, track, engage, assess);
- Survivability of the defensive system;
- Determination of lethality (hard or soft kills); and
- Technical challenges of the mission.
- Modeling, experiments, and phenomenology;
- Efficient algorithms and data fusion;
- Machine learning and autonomy;
- Interaction and scattering of multispectral beams with wave turbulence;
- Detection of hypersonic objects using specific spatial waveforms;
- Impact on navigation and guidance;
- Other topics specific to detection and countermeasure;
- Vehicle signature effects to include impact of ablation, heating, turbulence; and
- Sensor platform capability and experimental results.
- Sensor trade studies for a hypersonic environment;
- In flight non-contact methods of diagnostics of hypersonic environment;
- High temperature antennae and window materials;
- Wave propagation using space domain and time FDTD simulations in hypersonic environment;
- Propagation of signals through high temperature materials and flow fields;
- Signal processing;
- Sensor designs for hypersonic vehicles;
- Ground test facilities for combined hypersonic environment testing related to sensing;
- Modeling and simulation of hypersonic engagements of a moving target,
- Target discrimination in a time constrained environment; and
- Communications architectures and technologies.
- Lessons learned during ground test;
- Methods of using ground testing to reduce flight test risk;
- Capabilities of existing ground test facilities;
- Ongoing and proposed facility upgrades;
- The technical challenges of future facility needs;
- Ground test results and analysis availability and access to data repositories;
- Ground test traceability to flight environments and physics;
- Hardware in the loop;
- Novel hypersonic instrumentation applicable to ground and flight test data acquisition; and
- Current ground test activities supporting hypersonic flight system development (characterization, as well as qualification testing).
- Integration of subsystems (flight electronics, ordnance, controls, etc.);
- Performance trades with competing weight, range, payload parameters;
- Integration, test, and assembly, as well as launch system integration;
- System architectures and design to provide operational capabilities;
- Booster‐to‐vehicle integration;
- Model based system engineering;
- Affordability & producibility;
- Reliability & maintainability;
- Mission, campaign, and wargaming simulations;
- Digital engineering applicable to hypersonic systems; and
- Applicable systems engineering lessons learned.
- Compressing the kill chain to reduce our adversaries’ decision time;
- Energy management and trajectory optimization with vehicle constraints;
- ISR-T, targeting and identification, and cueing/custody;
- Application of artificial intelligence capabilities;
- Mission (offensive and defensive) and flight planning;
- Decision making;
- Target assignment;
- Development of weapons quality data; and
- Defensive and survivability constraints.
- Modeling and simulation of weapon effects;
- Modeling and simulation of lethality;
- Lethality data integration into weaponeering tools;
- Minimizing collateral damage;
- Kill assessment methodologies;
- Ground and flight testing;
- Campaign employment and target-weapon pairing;
- Advanced technologies in hard-kill and soft-kill;
- Fuzing, energetic materials, and lethality enhancements;
- Post-intercept debris and damage state characterization;
- Implications on shot doctrine; and
- Communication between platforms to optimize lethality.
- Existing high-fidelity and weaponeering modeling and simulation solutions;
- Technologies for analyzing/visualizing large data sets;
- Minimizing program costs and schedule utilizing modeling and simulation;
- MS&A to provide insights into operational effectiveness;
- Design optimization trade studies;
- Toolset advancements to account for extreme environments;
- Non-deterministic MS&A approaches;
- Uncertainty quantification techniques;
- MS&A validation against ground and/or flight test data;
- Efficient computer processing architectures (HPC, clusters) and unique verification and validation challenges; and
- Implementation and execution within a digital engineering ecosystem/environment.