Students from Missouri University of Science and Technology will get to
experience zero gravity in June as part of a NASA outreach program.
Two teams of Missouri S&T students will conduct experiments on the
agency’s famous “Weightless Wonder” aircraft. This is the fourth time Missouri
S&T students have been selected to participate in NASA’s Reduced Gravity
Student Flight Opportunities Program, which allows undergraduate teams to
design and construct an experiment to be conducted in microgravity. In 2007,
2005 and 2003, Missouri S&T students welded aluminum and studied its
behavior with a goal of improving the speed of space construction.
This summer, the Miners in Space Weld Team will conduct its final welding
experiments while aboard NASA’s C-9 aircraft, the military version of a
McDonnell Douglas DC-9 jet airliner.
“The team hopes to collect data that will lead to a better understanding of
how to weld in space,” says team leader Michelle Rader, a senior in aerospace
engineering from Marshfield, Mo. “We have updated our electronics to a
computer-based system that will control the robotic system that moves the weld
gun across the test strip. Students on the aircraft will start and stop the
welding process using a touch-screen monitor.”
The Miners in Space Thruster Team will also take a trip on the C-9 aircraft
to test the efficiency of a refrigerant-based propulsion system in the
microgravity environment.
“The propulsion system, being developed at Missouri S&T, is a cold gas
thruster that uses the refrigerant R-134a as propellant,” says team leader
Joseph Siebert, a graduate student in aerospace engineering from St. Louis. “If
the design proves to be successful, the system will be incorporated in the
spacecraft currently being designed and built by the Missouri S&T Satellite
Team.”
To create a temporary environment of near weightlessness for the
experiments, the C-9 aircraft will fly in parabolic patterns. As passengers on
the plane, the Missouri S&T students will be accelerated quickly from about
26,000 feet to roughly 39,000 feet, and then free fall with the engines idled
back down in a 45-degree arc over the Gulf of Mexico. The plane’s choreographed
maneuvers will create between 40 and 50 periods of weightlessness, each lasting
25 seconds.
In addition to preparing for the summer trip, the two teams are conducting
several programs for the local and regional community, as K-12 outreach is an
important aspect of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities
Program.
“The Miners in Space teams regularly visit elementary and middle schools,
teaching students about microgravity and why each team is doing their
research,” says team advisor Dr. Hank Pernicka, associate professor of
aerospace engineering at Missouri S&T. “Presentations are also given to
high school students, groups of young females and underprivileged
students.”
Miners in Space Weld Team members include:
Miners in Space Thrusters Team members include: