One team will simulate the beginning of a low-budget nanosatellite mission currently being developed in the aerospace engineering department at UT Austin. Two nanosatellites, weighing 20 pounds each and measuring 15 inches across, will be launched while attached to each other by a spring-loaded separating mechanism. The team’s participants are team leader Jamin Greenbaum, Orlando Diaz, Amber Newport, Stephen Yeldell and Kevin Litton, all aerospace engineering seniors.
Another team will test a fluidic momentum controller, an experimental spacecraft attitude control device—it works to keep the spacecraft in a specified orientation. Spacecraft need devices like this that can generate the proper angular momentum to counteract all disturbances to the craft’s orientation. Currently spacecraft use large, spinning gyros to do this, but momentum can also be produced by circulating fluid through fluid loops, which are lighter and more energy efficient than gyros. The team’s participants are team leader Amanda Kelly, Patrick Smith, Shara Walenta, Brad Steinfeldt, Chad Zaruba, all aerospace engineering seniors, and Michael Davies, an aerospace engineering freshman.
Another team will connect 12-lead electrocardiograms to themselves while on the plane to analyze and identify the changes the heart goes through in parabolic flight. While three-lead EKGs (used in doctor’s offices and by paramedics) have been studied in parabolic flight, 12-leads (used in emergency rooms) have not. Usually a 12-lead EKG machine is very large, but the team will use a smaller, PC-based machine to conduct their experiment. Team members are Madhurita Sengupta, an electrical engineering junior, James Rexroth, an electrical engineering sophomore, Waralee Sattam, a biomedical engineering sophomore and Laura Sarmiento, a neurobiology junior.
Another team will examine the effects of gravity on a pure methane flame with a controllable and predictable structure. The microgravity environment of the plane will allow team members to study the flame with and without gravity—they will compare flames in microgravity to flames in gravity. This research will help them better understand combustion and fire safety in space, the effects of combustion in engines of aircraft that perform dive maneuvers in the atmosphere, and possibly affect the development of new combustion engines. Team members include team leader Eric Rogstad, Phillip Mader, Elvis Silva, Carlos Dostal and Jose Rodriguez, all junior aerospace engineering majors, and Tyson Roll, a sophomore aerospace engineering major.
Another team will work with particles they hope will reduce the impact of vibrations on structures in space by transferring energy from the vibrating bar to these free-floating particles. This energy is then transferred back to the beam when the particles move, but at that point the moving will not be synchronous with the movement of the beam. They will measure the difference in magnitude of the vibration of a structure on earth and in space. Team members include team leader Bill Tandy, Robert Ross, Tim Allison, John Hatlelid and Ann Hoang, all aerospace engineering seniors.
NASA requires each team to perform educational outreach about their project, and each project also had to comply with numerous NASA safety guidelines.
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About the Cockrell School of Engineering:
The Cockrell School ranks among the top ten engineering programs in the United States and aspires to move into the top five. With the nation's fourth highest number of faculty members elected to the National Academy of Engineering, the Cockrell School's more than 7,000 students work with many of the world's finest engineering educators and researchers. This environment prepares graduates to become engineering leaders and innovators working for the betterment of society.