Students to work in zero gravity

Two University Engineering undergraduate teams will travel to the National Aeronautics & Space Administration's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on March 8 to present their experiments on weightless environments.

The teams are a part of the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, which is sponsored by NASA in collaboration with the Texas Space Grant Consortium.

Ed VanCise, Engineering senior and lead flyer for the Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Production Experiment team, said he is excited about the projects and what he believes is one of the "neatest" things about the University's participation in the program.

"The fact that two teams out of 48 nationwide are from the University of Michigan is exciting. Not even every state gets a representation," VanCise said.

Engineering Prof. Luis Bernal, who is working with the student team, said, "the projects are almost completely run and researched by undergraduate students."

He added that about 20 students are involved, but only four for each project will fly in zero gravity aboard a KC-135A aircraft in Houston.

Teams for RGSFO are selected based upon a rigorous national selection proposal competition. Team's proposals are chosen based on the criteria of scientific merit, the quality of an outreach program done after the research, whether a project has adequate funding and whether a project involves the use of zero gravity.

The experiment team of the Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Production Experiment plans to study the effects of microgravity on the production of single-wall carbon nanotubes.

The second experiment team of the Liquid Droplet Radiator Pointing Experiment will study the operation of an LDR in microgravity, which might eventually lead to lighter and more economical power and cooling systems.

Although VanCise is a lead flyer for the nanotube project, he will be joined by fellow team members: Engineering senior Mark Dub, Engineering junior Sarah Hoehne and Engineering sophomore J. Scott Haviland.

Engineering junior Erica Pendergrass is the lead flyer for the LDR project and is accompanied in flight by teammates: Engineering senior Daniel Herman, Engineering senior Jack Mcnamara and Engineering senior Travis Patrick.

Lucia Brimer, assistant project director for RGSFO in Texas, will accompany the student teams on the aircraft when they enter zero gravity for two straight hours.

"The aircraft will be traveling in a path of 40 parabolas. There will be 40 parabolas each with 30 seconds of weightlessness," Brimer said. "In between the periods of weightlessness the flyers will be pushed down into their seats with a force equal to two times the force of gravity."

Although the zero-gravity aircraft KC-135A is deemed the "Vomit Comet," the students still excited about the flight.

"This was a true team effort, and we could not have completed this project or won a flight slot with NASA without the efforts of many people who worked to make this a success," Dub said.

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