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Embry-Riddle Students to Conduct Fuel-Slosh Experiment on NASA Aircraft

Microgravity Team Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 8, 2006 -- A student team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been selected by NASA to conduct an experiment of their own design aboard the space agency’s C-9, a research aircraft that flies parabolic arcs to simulate weightlessness.

The team, which will participate in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program from March 30 to April 8, consists of five Aerospace Engineering seniors: team leader James Ristow, fliers Abraham Chavez, Janiece Lorey, Jon Rossman Jr., and alternate flier Yadira Chatman.

As part of the outreach requirement for the proposal to promote mathematics and science in schools, the team will conduct an essay competition among local high schools. The winner of the competition will accompany the team to Houston as a member of their ground crew.

Yadira Chapman and Janiece LoreyThe title of the Embry-Riddle project is “Nutation Experiment Slosh Simulation Test: Prediction of Spinning Spacecraft Nutation Caused by Fuel Slosh Energy Dissipation.”

“Fuel slosh has been a long-standing problem for spinning spacecraft,” says team leader Ristow. “Sloshing fuel in the third-stage spacecraft stack dissipates spin energy and causes the stack to nutate or ‘wobble,’ which may lead to mission failure.”

The experiment will test different types of propellant tanks (a sphere, a cylinder, and a flexible walled tank) filled with water for their susceptibility to dissipate energy from a spinning mock spacecraft. The students will also test slosh simulation prediction methods.

Abraham Chavez and James Ristow“A predictive simulation that takes fuel slosh into consideration would save time and money in the initial phase of spacecraft design,” Ristow says.

Held annually at Ellington Field near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program has the goal of increasing the number of technical professionals graduating from U.S. colleges and universities. A review panel of NASA scientists and engineers selected student teams from a substantial pool of applicants across the nation to participate this year.

“I’m proud that Embry-Riddle students have been chosen for this prestigious program,” says Dr. Sathya Gangadharan, an engineering professor at Embry-Riddle who serves as the team’s faculty supervisor. “They’ve worked very hard to develop an experiment that addresses one of NASA’s real-world challenges.”

During the first week of the NASA program, the students must pass physical examinations and will receive physiological preflight training. During the second week, the students will fly in the C-9, conducting their experiment in weightlessness as the aircraft performs 30 parabolic arcs, including two that simulate gravity on Mars and the moon. After the flights, the students will take part in debriefings and reviews.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates more than 32,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Extended Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East, and worldwide through distance learning.