Embry-Riddle Students Selected for NASA Microgravity Experiments

The 2000 NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program will take place Feb. 28 through March 18 at Ellington Field, near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston. The program is sponsored by NASA and administered by the Texas Space Grant Consortium, an affiliate of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program.

A review panel of NASA scientists and engineers selected 48 student teams from across the nation to participate in the program. Most teams consist of four undergraduate students, a supervising faculty member, and a professional journalist who will report on the team's experiences. Since the program began in 1997, more teams have been chosen from Embry-Riddle than from any other university in the nation.

Dr. John Olivero, chairman of the physical sciences department at Embry-Riddle, is supervising the participation of the university's student teams. Karen Petersen, a junior earning a B.S. in aviation business administration, is the microgravity office projects coordinator.

Lisnnette Nieves, a graduate student in human factors and systems engineering, is Embry-Riddle's microgravity coordinator. "This is the third time Ed Springer's team has been chosen for NASA's Reduced Gravity Program, and that's quite an honor," Nieves said. "I've flown in the program twice myself, including once on Ed's team. The experience not only brought my goal of becoming an astronaut much closer, but it's led the way to other opportunties as well. I now have a graduate assistantship at Embry-Riddle, working on a synthetic vision project with teams from NASA and Rockwell Collins."

The first Embry-Riddle team is made up of leader Edward Springer, Ryan Goveas, Sarah Kazukiewicz, and Cedric LeRoux. As the KC-135 begins to come out of free fall, the team will test a model of a satellite equipped with a switch mechanism that senses changes in acceleration and activates a backup thruster to boost the falling satellite into proper orbit. A mechanical sensor system of this kind is desirable because it is not dependent on computer data or electricity for initiation. The recent loss of the Mars Climate Observer has shown the need for such backup systems for maintaining correct orbit.

The second team, consisting of leader Nathan Cobb and David Hillman, will demonstrate a practical new way to control and dispense liquids in space. Although liquids on Earth tend to settle on the bottoms of their containers, which makes them easy to tap into, liquids in space tend to float around inside their containers. In their experiment, the students will use a feather-shaped stirring rod of their design to make a volume of liquid flow along the walls of its container. This procedure places the liquid into a reliably accessible position from which it can easily be dispensed.

During the first week of the program, students must pass physical examinations and receive physiological preflight training.

During the second week, students from each team will fly in the KC-135, conducting their experiments in weightlessness as the aircraft performs 32 parabolic arcs, including two that simulate gravity on Mars and the moon. The KC-135 is routinely used by astronauts training for space flight and by scientists carrying out extensive experiments for NASA.

Postflight debriefings and reviews will be held, and each team will also develop a program for sharing the results of their research with their school.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Degree programs through the master's level are offered at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 100 teaching sites in the U.S. and Europe, and through independent study and distance education.