The New York Space Grant News

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1 The New York Space Grant News Newsletter of the NASA/New York Space Grant Consortium Fall 2010 Supporting education and research in space-related fields through fellowships, internships, outreach, and corporate partnerships NASA / New York Space Grant Consortium Lead Institution: Cornell University Affiliates: Alfred University Barnard College City College of New York, CUNY Clarkson University Colgate University Columbia University Lockheed Martin Medgar Evers College, CUNY Polytechnic Institute of NYU Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rochester Institute of Technology Sciencenter SUNY Binghamton SUNY Buffalo SUNY Geneseo SUNY Stony Brook Syracuse University Union College University of Rochester York College, CUNY Greetings: For a few thousand years, humans have speculated about flying into heaven to explore space and its celestial objects. Finally some 50 years ago, our science and technology made a few of those dreams come true. Exploring our solar system and beyond will remain a high priority, with the hope that one day humans shall inhabit other new worlds. For these ideals to become reality we must continue to inspire, recruit, and train students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to become the future workforce for NASA. The New York Space Grant (NYSG) program is well positioned to play an important role in NASA s missions. This year marks the beginning of our renewed five-year NYSG consortium, led by Cornell University with about twenty NY colleges and universities plus a few industry and non-profit partners. Our Space Grant affiliates are spread across the state and include several minority serving colleges. An important component of our program is training STEM students by supporting NASA and aerospace industry internships. In addition we have begun new projects for K-12 teacher training, and have inaugurated a series of NASA-related presentations at secondary schools and two-year colleges. Support for graduate student training and research also remain a priority at many of our affiliates. This year we were fortunate to successfully compete and work on two NASA Ralph Steckler awards, researching an early warning system for severe space weather solar storms (RIT) and microrovers assisting human presence on the moon and Mars (Cornell). In this newsletter you will read about a few recent projects conducted at NYSG institutions. Our Space Grant students are motivated to research the countless scientific and technological areas that remain to be discovered. Yervant Terzian Director

2 Columbia Builds a Bridge to the PhD for Minority Students A critical choke point blocking underrepresented minorities from achieving leadership positions in STEM disciplines occurs at the transition from the undergraduate degree to graduate school. Many such students are from undergraduate institutions which lack the course offerings to adequately prepare them for graduate work, while others have not had the opportunity for the research experiences which are now so crucial for a competitive graduate application. With the support of the Office of the Provost at Columbia University, we began a Bridge to the PhD program in the fall of Program participants are hired as full-time employees of the University to work under the mentorship of senior faculty as part of their research teams. Full-time benefits include free tuition, which allows the students to fill in the gaps in their undergraduate preparation at whatever level is appropriate. Intensive mentoring, from GRE prep to professional development workshops, provides an effective introduction to the culture of STEM research. Students remain in the program from one to two years. Marcel Agueros, now an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Columbia, runs the program as part of his National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellowship commitment to education and outreach. Three of the Bridge students worked in Astronomy, two of whom were supported by NASA Space Grant funds. Eleven of the thirteen students graduated from the program this year, and 100% of them are pursing graduate degrees at leading institutions including Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Penn, UCSD, and Washington, among others. We recruited a new cohort of seven students this year, and in September, were notified of an NSF award of $700,000 to build this program into a national model for increasing underrepresented minorities in STEM PhD programs. The American Physical Society is already working on what they hope will become a national program based on Columbia s Bridge Program model. Participants in the Columbia Bridge to the PhD program, watched over by the Columbia lion. Space Grant supported Nitza Santiago from Puerto Rico (back row, far right) and Nicholas Hunt-Walker, a graduate of Space Grant affiliate York College (front row, far right). This fall, Nitza is at Vanderbuilt and Nick is at the University of Washington, both studying astronomy. New York Space Grant 2

3 Rochester Institute of Technology s Space Weather Research Dr. Roger Dube discusses the results of neural network prediction accuracy with Space Grant research student Caitlin Kavanaugh. With funding from a NASA Ralph Steckler Space Grant award, RIT has been developing an early warning system for severe space weather storms. Colonies on the moon and Mars will not enjoy the protection against interplanetary particles and radiation offered by Earth s strong magnetic field and thick atmosphere. As a result, potentially lethal doses of radiation and particle flux from solar events (such as flares and coronal mass ejections) could threaten a colony s viability. On Earth, such storms have disrupted communications and critical infrastructure including our power grid. Present day space weather systems provide approximately 30 minutes of advanced warning before a storm arrives at Earth. Keeping Mars colonists safe from such events requires the development, testing, and deployment of a space weather Early Warning System that provides as much advanced notice as possible. During this phase of the project, work included basic research in data synthesis, algorithm development, competitive testing of algorithms, and the search for reliable event precursors with long lead times. The results of this search for precursors will enable the design and future development of new detectors and all clear sensors customized to the space weather task, along with the identification of optimal deployment locations for each. Several students from groups underrepresented in STEM were involved in this project, including Native Americans, African Americans, and women. Students worked closely together to develop the required algorithms and then refined their operation to provide high confidence predictions. Our approach to develop a forecasting capability with longer lead times involved the search for precursors from the vast array of data available from multiple NASA satellite sources, as well as an ionospheric observatory funded by RIT specifically for this project. At the outset, we had two competing algorithms: a neural network (NNET) and a D-transform. Developing these in parallel, and then conducting Solar prominence. Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium/ESA/NASA. a contest of sorts, enabled the measurement and comparison of the two algorithms abilities to produce high confidence forecasts. Assessments were made on a combination of processing time, ability to learn incrementally, data storage requirements, and accuracy/ confidence level of the forecast. During this period, we developed an Adaptive NNET (ANN) that learns incrementally, thereby no longer requiring the retention of previous data. Moreover, incremental learning eliminates the need to retrain the NNET on previously processed data. The ANN is far more processor and storage efficient, which are important qualities for a space-bound mission. Moreover, the team was able to demonstrate that the ANN can provide 3-day predictions with 90% confidence of incoming space weather storms. The team has developed and implemented an Earth-centered early alert system, using a combination of the two approaches that monitors the Sun and 10 additional satellite data feeds. When the system predicts a storm with high confidence, an alert is sent to the team s cell phones complete with specific flux on the eruption at the Sun as well as photos of the event and a predicted arrival date. Work has begun on developing the orbital adjustments required to apply the early warning tool to Mars (or any other planetary body). 3 Fall 2010

4 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute N e w York Spac e Grant H i g h l i g h t s Rensselaer Space Grant continues to fund fellowships for astronomy graduate students. We are proud to announce that a prior awardee, Amanda Cook, has graduated and secured a NASA postdoctoral fellowship at Ames Research Center. Last year s NASA Space Grant fellowship was split between Ben Willett and Paul Mayeur. Willett used his fellowship to continue his research using Galactic halo tidal debris streams to measure the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way galaxy. Mayeur used his fellowship to study chemistry on dust grains in combination with astronomy education and outreach. Matthew Newby received a semester of support from a Space Grant research initiation supplement which allowed him to grow MilkyWay@home to 1.5 petaflops and kept the project going until new National Science Foundation (NSF) funding could Solar observing with a SunSpotter, a half diopter lens, and a solar telescope. be secured. We are happy to report that his thesis research will be funded for the next three years on a newly awarded NSF grant. This year s award went to Julie Dumas, who is our first minority fellowship winner. We also funded four undergraduate research experiences during the fall and spring semesters, leveraged by Rensselaer s Undergraduate Research Program. Twenty-two elementary through high school teachers, primarily earth science teachers in New York State, attended the week-long Earth Science in Space has No Boundaries training workshop in August The teachers learned basic astronomy and attended lectures from leading researchers on extrasolar planets, astrobiology, and the formation of the Earth, Moon, and Mars. They went through hands-on activities designed by educators from the Dudley Observatory, and looked through solar telescopes and viewed the stars at night at the Hirsch Observatory. An educator from NASA Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) certified them to borrow NASA collections of the moon samples and meteorites, and ran a video conference with a NASA scientist. The teachers wrote extremely positive remarks about their experiences, and there was palpable excitement demonstrated each day of the week. The workshop is funded through next summer by a NASA AESP mini-grant, and we have already secured partial funding from the NSF to continue the workshop for the next two years. SUNY Buffalo The University at Buffalo used Space Grant funds to partially support a research assistant in the area of solar cell materials and provide fellowships/scholarships to students conducting research on solar cells, a stereo triangulation sensor, and a robotic manipulator for a tumbling satellite. In addition, a Buffalo Engineering Awareness for Minorities (BEAM) program was supported with Space Grant and matching funds. The purpose of the BEAM summer pre-college engineering program is to enhance the math and computer skills of post-eleventh grade minority students with a curriculum guided by the NY State Learning Standards for math, science, and technology. Participating students attended math and engineering courses Summer 2010 BEAM students. taught by University at Buffalo engineering seniors or graduate students. Peer mentoring relationships benefited both the engineering and high schools students. Hands-on projects, guest speakers, and field trips to sites such as DuPont and the NY State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation further extended the BEAM students experiences. Five of the thirteen students were selected for the Research Honors Program, in which participants worked with University at Buffalo professors on engineering and computer science projects for 12 hours per week. New York Space Grant 4

5 Polytechnic Institute of NYU N e w York Spac e Grant H i g h l i g h t s During the program year, NASA/NY Space Grant Consortium funding provided partial support for several mechanical engineering students who conducted diverse research and participated in outreach activities. As outlined below, these activities focused on advanced control technology, mechatronics related experimental effort, and pre-college outreach. Jared A. Frank and David Lopez of the Mechatronics Lab, under the supervision of Professor Vikram Kapila, examined the feasibility of using mobile devices for data acquisition and control. They developed a series of remote control and monitoring applications that are able to control a diverse array of mobile robot platforms using iphones/ipods/ipads. Moreover, they developed a scaled prototype of a smart home in which a number of functions can be controlled using such devices. Whereas their current apps utilize the touch feature of Apple devices, they are also exploring the development of apps that exploit embedded sensors (e.g., accelerometers). An iphone-controlled Create mobile robot with a 3 degree-of-freedom manipulator. Vladislav Vlad Kopman of the Dynamical Systems Lab, under the supervision of Professor Maurizio Porfiri, developed a modeling framework for studying free-locomotion of biomimetic underwater vehicles propelled by vibrating ionic polymer metal composites (IPMCs). He characterized the motion of the vehicle body, developed a model to fully account for hydrodynamic effects, estimated the time-varying actions exerted by the vibrating IPMC on the vehicle body, and validated the predictions of his model by conducting extensive experiments on a miniature, remotely controlled, fish-like robotic swimmer. The results of his research appeared in the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Vlad has been awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to continue his doctoral studies. Finally, in summer 2010, Kapila directed the Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers (SMART) project under the National Science Foundation s Research Experience for Teachers Site program. Several students, supported in part by New York Space Grant, participated by assisting the eleven SMART teachers with learning mechatronics/robotics and conducting research projects. See for additional details. New York Space Grant affiliate directors at the October 2010 consortium meeting. The background is a mosaic of Mars images captured by the Spirit rover s Pancam in April 2004 (mosaic image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell). 5 Fall 2010

6 City College of New York N e w York Spac e Grant H i g h l i g h t s Effects of mechanical loading on bone have long been of interest to NASA, especially under microgravity conditions. Astronauts in long-term space flight can lose as much as 1-2% of bone mass per month of weightlessness. A fundamental paradox in bone is that whole bone tissue strains in vivo rarely exceed 0.1% during normal daily activities while cellular strains on the order of 1% or higher are required to initiate cellular signaling; such large whole tissue strains would cause fractures if applied to whole bone tissue. What is the missing link? Theoretical models, developed under the supervision of Prof. Sheldon Weinbaum at the City College of New York, predict that due to mechanical loading, the interstitial fluid flow surrounding the bone cells in their mineralized matrix can greatly Danielle Wu amplify whole tissue strains at the cellular level, thus helping explain this fundamental paradox. The theoretical model also predicts that tensile forces in the range of 1-10 pn are produced at integrin attachment sites, and that these forces locally stimulate individual bone cells in vivo under physiological loading conditions. To prove this hypothesis a new force probe, called the Stokesian Fluid Stimulus Probe (SFSP), has been developed to hydrodynamically stimulate single bone cells at localized 1-10 pn level forces in culture to simulate osteocytic mechanotransduction in live bone. Danielle Wu, a Space Grant-supported Ph.D. student working under the supervision of Prof. Weinbaum and Prof. David Spray at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, developed the new probe and initial experiments to test this hypothesis. The probe works by ejecting a nearly spherical bolus of fluid whose tip diameter is only 0.8 µm and Reynolds number is ~0.03. So far results indicate that the mechanotransduction mechanisms required for the initiation of intracellular signaling are located in its cell processes. To know where the cell receives its mechanical queue can guide further experiments to discover how the mechanical signal is then converted to a chemical signal during intracellular communication and throughout the bone cell network. Understanding the mechanisms for bone cell activation can help in the design of strategies for bone mass maintenance, for both long-term space flight and patients on bed rest. York College Last year York College used Space Grant funds to support six undergraduates in both summer and academic year research, as well as to travel to the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Washington, DC. Again we did this in parallel with the CUNY/AMNH Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the American Museum of Natural History. We also supported AAS travel for a new CUNY graduate student in astrophysics. This was the first step in the recent build-up of our astrophysics graduate program at CUNY. Across the University we now have six astronomy faculty appointed to the CUNY Graduate Center, and are supporting three graduate students. In our most exciting news, a Space Grant supported student from York College, Nicholas Hunt-Walker, graduated last year not only from York, but also from the Bridge to the PhD program at Columbia University. He entered the astrophysics PhD program at Nicholas Hunt-Walker the University of Washington this fall. Mr. Hunt-Walker was also accepted to graduate programs at Columbia, University of Arizona, and University of Wisconsin- Madison. As a York Space Grant fellow and later in the Bridge program, he became an expert at accessing and analyzing datasets from NASA s high energy missions such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Fermi Gammaray Space Telescope. His research involved studying gamma-ray pulsars with Jules Halpern at Columbia and the gamma-ray spectra of starburst galaxies with Tim Paglione at York. New York Space Grant 6

7 N e w York Spac e Grant H i g h l i g h t s Union College Space Grant and Union College matching funds supported a vigorous summer research program in Halley Darling, 13, with Prof. Rebecca Koopmann, measured gas contents of galaxies near the NGC 5846 group, using data from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) blind survey for neutral hydrogen. Anna Sise, 12, conducted a summer project with Prof. Gary Reich to model the behaviors of clusters of atoms using the Ising model of magnetic phase transitions. Suzanne Estok, ll, worked with Professors Ann Anderson and Mary Carroll to use Union s patented Rapid Supercritical Extraction (RSCE) method to fabricate and characterize tetraethylorthosilicate-based aerogels. Two students, Chad Union s Space Grant awardees (left to Harrington, 11, and Colin Turley, 13, worked with Prof. Scott Labrake right): Chad Harrington, Anna Sise, Colin and Prof. Michael Vineyard to investigate environmental pollution in Turley,Halley Darling, and Suzanne Estok. upstate New York. They conducted particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis of aerosol and rainwater samples on the Union College Pelletron accelerator. A portion of Space Grant funds is dedicated to supporting K-12 outreach programs. The Union College Society of Physics Students, partnering with Union College s Kenney Community Center, visits local secondary schools to interact with students and provide stimulating physics demonstrations. The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers an annual workshop designed to stimulate high school students to pursue STEM careers and provide teachers with an enriching experience that extends into their classrooms. Twenty-two high school physics faculty and students from five area schools attended the Second Annual Physics Constants Workshop on Dec. 5, They performed six experiments to measure fundamental physical constants, using equipment such as the College s Pelletron particle accelerator and scanning electron microscope. Rochester Institute of Technology RAIDER WMS-based image viewer with OpenStreetMap overlay. The Rochester Airborne Imagery Database for Education and Research (RAIDER), a new web-based image archive viewer developed by RIT with NY Space Grant support, was used in a recent demonstration on the real-time collection and delivery of geo-referenced airborne imagery to county emergency managers. This demonstration consisted of four major elements: 1) a multi-band imaging system incorporating four cameras operating simultaneously in the visible and short-, mid- and long-wave infrared wavelengths, 2) an onboard inertial navigation and data processing system that renders the imagery into geo-referenced coordinates, 3) a microwave digital downlink, and 4) a data dissemination service via File Transfer Protocol and RAIDER. In the course of two flight operations, RIT successfully collected and downloaded over 700 images (over 500 Mbytes) at ranges up to 22 miles from the ground station antenna. These images were viewed by county personnel within minutes of their acquisition inside a mobile Geographical Information System (GIS) van. In one tasking exercise, county personnel requested imagery of a geographic coordinate within the 22-mile radius, then received a georeferenced image of the target in approximately 5 minutes. System flexibility was demonstrated by switching from transmitting live color to thermal infrared images of the cooling water plume from the Ginna nuclear power station. RAIDER was a key component of this demonstration, as it can provide real-time imagery to disaster managers that is accessible by any device connected to the internet, such as a smart phone. 7 Fall 2010

8 NY Space Grant-Sponsored NASA Summer 2010 Interns Garen Der-Khachadourian Bachelors / Electrical and Computer Engineering (Cornell University) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory To reduce power consumption and eliminate unnecessary wiring, the project I worked on miniaturized key electrical components for motor control into an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). I optimized the power stimulus of a resolver, a tool on the ASIC that measures the angle of rotation of a motor. Furthermore, I designed a Matlab graphical user interface (GUI) to control the ASIC remotely. Jean Paul Duperval II Bachelors / Mechanical Engineering (SUNY Stony Brook) NASA Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS) Program I worked on a dozen engineering projects which included the preparation of technical scopes of work, the design of mechanical and electrical systems, piping simulations, and site visits to troubleshoot critical equipment failures. I also designed the repair of malfunctioning equipment and installed new research equipment at Langley. Sarah Koehler Bachelors / Mechanical Engineering (Cornell University) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory I worked with the Aerobot Airship, a robotic blimp that we d like to send to places such as Titan in order to explore them from an aerial perspective. Specifically, I worked on developing the lateral dynamic model for the airship such that we can accurately control the aerobot. Michael J. Kuhlman Masters / Electrical Engineering (Rensselaer/University of Maryland) NASA Robotics Academy at Marshall Space Flight Center Our team conceptualized and initiated prototyping of a burrowing robotic worm. The robotic worm design consists of a piezoelectric ultrasonic drill, a conical auger, and multiple elongating segments mimicking the peristaltic motion of an earthworm. One key function of this robot is to retrieve lunar samples taken from various depths within the lunar regolith, for either in-situ analysis or for return to Earth. Angela N. McLelland Bachelors / Mechanical Engineering (Union College) NASA Kennedy Space Center As a NASA intern collaborating with the Boeing Company s Mechanical and Structural Design Group, I supported the yearly inspections of operating ground support equipment, a task often assigned to interns that provides opportunities to examine spaceflight-related equipment. My secondary objective this summer was to assist in engineering design and drafting aspects for the Constellation Project. Christopher Daniel Petersen Bachelors / Aerospace Engineering (Syracuse University) NASA Marshall Space Flight Center My project was to integrate Micro Electronic Mechanical System (MEMS) technology with that of a new, developing avionic module called SMART (Small Multi-purpose Advanced Reconfigurable Technology) to create a miniature, cost-effective attitude control unit. The primary use of this technology will be in nanosatellites, but it has the potential to be used in larger satellites and small spacecraft. New York Space Grant 8

9 Space Grant Student Internships at NASA & NY Industry: Summer 2010 This summer NYSG supported student research at affiliate institutions, plus awarded funds to seven NY student interns at NASA centers and NASA Academies. NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) supported two student interns at NY industries. Two more Space Grant interns worked in NY industry, funded by NYSG and Moog Inc. Details on these summer 2010 internships are provided in the table below. Location Students Students Home Institutions NASA Ames Research Center 1 Columbia University NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2 Cornell University NASA Kennedy Space Center 1 Union College NASA Langley Research Center 1 SUNY Stony Brook NASA Marshall Space Flight Center 2 Rensselaer/Univ. of Maryland and Syracuse University Honeybee Robotics (New York, NY) 1 Cornell University Lockheed Martin (Owego, NY) 1 SUNY Binghamton Moog Inc. (East Aurora, NY) 2 SUNY Binghamton and SUNY Buffalo New York Space Grant Affiliate Directors and Institution Locations Prof. Yervant Terzian, Cornell University (Director) Prof. Wayne Anderson, SUNY Buffalo Prof. Shermane Austin, Medgar Evers College, CUNY Prof. Thomas Balonek, Colgate University Prof. Frank Cardullo, SUNY Binghamton Mr. Ron Crawford, Lockheed Martin Prof. David Ferguson, SUNY Stony Brook Prof. Susannah Fritton, City College of NY, CUNY Prof. David Helfand, Columbia University Prof. Hiroshi Higuchi*, Syracuse University Prof. Vikram Kapila, Polytechnic Institute of NYU Prof. Rebecca Koopmann, Union College Prof. Reshmi Mukherjee, Barnard College Prof. Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Prof. Chris O Dea, Rochester Institute of Technology Prof. Tim Paglione, York College, CUNY Prof. Judith Pipher, University of Rochester Prof. Aaron Steinhauer, SUNY Geneseo Prof. David Toot, Alfred University Prof. Charles Trautmann, Sciencenter Prof. Daniel Valentine, Clarkson University * We are very sad to report the passing of Prof. Hiroshi Higuchi on November 21, 2010, after a short illness. He was a great leader in our consortium. NY county map from geology.com 9 Fall 2010

10 Fall 2010 New York Space Grant News Simulating the effect of airplane wingtip vortices interacting with the ground, the above image was captured using innovative techniques developed by Prof. Charles Williamson and Space Grant-funded undergraduates Daniel Harris and Victor Miller. This image was published in the Jan issue of Physics Today, and was one of the winning entries in the Gallery of Fluid Motion contest at the American Physical Society s Nov meeting. Authors: David Helfand (Columbia University) Roger Dube (Rochester Institute of Technology) Heidi Newberg (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) Wayne Anderson and Marilyn Helenbrook (SUNY Buffalo) Vikram Kapila (Polytechnic Institute of NYU) Danielle Wu (City College of New York, CUNY) Tim Paglione (York College, CUNY) Rebecca Koopmann (Union College) Don McKeown (Rochester Institute of Technology) Editors and Layout: Erica Miles and Cavya Chandra (Cornell University) NASA/New York Space Grant Consortium 517 Space Sciences Building Cornell University Ithaca, NY New York Space Grant News NASA/New York Space Grant Consortium