Four University of Colorado at Boulder students will put their stomachs to the test for the sake of science in early March by flying an experiment on NASA聮s KC-135 aircraft known as the "Vomit Comet" from Houston聮s Johnson Space Flight Center.
The students, all affiliated with CU-Boulder聮s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will be testing the effects of zero gravity on part of a satellite instrument known as a grating drive, which rotates to select particular wavelengths of sunlight for analysis. The aircraft flies a series of steep parabolas, providing alternating periods of weightlessness, enhanced gravity and occasional queasiness.
Undergraduates Trent Yang and Nicole Troutman of aerospace engineering, Aaron Fromm of computer science and Jillian Redfern of applied mathematics developed their experiment under the direction of LASP researcher Neil Duchane. They received grants from NASA and the Texas Space Grant Consortium to determine the effects of zero gravity on CU-Boulder聮s SOLSTICE experiment.
Launched in 1993 aboard NASA聮s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, SOLSTICE measures variations in ultraviolet radiation, which affect atmospheric chemistry like the natural processes of ozone production and destruction.
The SOLSTICE instrument has been selected as one of four instruments that will be packaged and flown on a NASA satellite designed and built by LASP, said Duchane. Known as the Solar Climate and Radiation Experiment, or SORCE, the new satellite will be launched in 2002 as part of the space agency聮s Earth Sciences Initiative.
"The students applied their theoretical backgrounds in engineering, computer programming, mathematics and mechanical design to devise a 聭real-world聮
experiment," said Duchane. They each will participate in two KC-135 flights during the first two weeks of March, then return to Boulder to analyze their results.
The KC-135 performs about 30 parabolic curves on a typical flight, achieving about 25 seconds of weightlessness during each curve. As the students free-float in the jet cabin, they can check the grating to see if there is any affect from small magnetic forces in the zero-gravity environment.
The purpose of the flight is to verify that the grating drive control system and mechanical design will function properly in zero gravity, said Duchane. "This is a technical challenge because the grating drive is designed to point extremely accurately," he said. "It can distinguish an angle equal to the width of a human hair, for example, from 10 meters away."
The results are expected to help determine the best designs for grating drives, help verify the accuracy of the SOLSTICE grating drive and may even expand the scientific knowledge of magnetic forces in space, said Duchane.
Duchane and his students plan to publish the results in scientific journals and visit local area K-12 schools to share their experiences and help elementary and middle school students perform space science experiments.