The New York Space Grant News Newsletter of the New York NASA Space Grant Consortium Fall 2006 Supporting education and research in space-related fields through fellowships, internships, outreach, and corporate partnerships New York NASA Space Grant Consortium Lead Institution: Cornell University Affiliates: Barnard College City College of New York CUNY Clarkson University Colgate University Columbia University Lockheed Martin Manhattan College Medgar Evers College CUNY Polytechnic University Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Sciencenter SUNY Buffalo SUNY Geneseo Syracuse University York College CUNY Dear Colleagues: I am often asked Why study the sciences? In some way it is for the romance of discovery to understand the unknown, to explain how nature works, and to use this knowledge to build new tools, solve problems of security, and provide for a more comfortable life for all. When you uncover a deep truth of nature, it is stunningly beautiful. Reading the New York Space Grant Highlights in this newsletter makes me proud of the scientific and engineering achievements of our students across New York state. Of course these successes would not be possible without the excellent leadership of our NYSG Consortium Affiliate Directors, from SUNY Buffalo to Medgar Evers College in New York City and all the others in-between. The space sciences excite young students imaginations and propel them to learn more. Our aim is to prepare the future workforce for NASA and space-related industries. By launching rockets, flying high-altitude balloons, studying the sky with telescopes, designing and fabricating earth-orbiting satellites, or building robotic rovers, our students are getting ready to lead NASA and our nation. In New York, we are particularly grateful for the support of our industrial affiliate Lockheed Martin, which contributes several Space Grant student research internships each year. Our consortium has been enriched with the recent addition of affiliates from New York City, Medgar Evers College and York College, which are populated primarily by minority students. They have done an outstanding job and deserve our applause. We are proud to be hosting the National Space Grant Directors Meetings in New York City, October 26-28, 2006. Over 100 participants from across the nation are expected to attend to chart future NASA Space Grant programs and enjoy the Big Apple. It has been a good year! Yervant Terzian Director
Busy Year for Medgar Evers College Medgar Evers College, City University of New York is continuing its student-based high altitude balloon project, MECSAT. The project now has a base station located in Paradox, NY in the Adirondacks. The station serves as a student workshop location during the academic year and summer and is one of MECSAT s launch sites. During the fall and spring semesters, undergraduate students travel to the base station to receive training for the summer launch program. Past workshops include microcontroller-based sensor integration testing and flight module refinement. Students have worked on the integration of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, cameras, thermopile arrays, and solar radiation monitors. Ongoing projects include interfacing magnetometer and Geiger counter modules with microcontrollers. Medgar Evers College students working at the MECSAT base station in Paradox, NY At Medgar Evers College, students continue to use flight and sensor data in courses including Scientific Programming, Remote Sensing, and Space Science. The MECSAT project has motivated course modifications to provide additional students hands-on experience with flight instrument development and applying computer science and physics concepts learned in the classroom. MECSAT also continues its partnership with the MECSAT student at August 2005 Borealis launch, sponsored by the Montana Space Grant Consortium University of Vermont and the Vermont Space Grant Consortium. A flight in June 2006 included payloads developed by high school students in Milton and Brattleboro, Vermont. Another BalloonSAT flight on July 29, 2006 involved many participants from New York City (graduate, undergraduate, and high school students plus a high school teacher) in partnership with a Vermont high school teacher and Laurel Zeno, Program Administrator of the Vermont Space Grant Consortium. Payloads were developed by New York City high school students as well as undergraduate students majoring in computer science, physics/space science, math, and environmental science. MECSAT faculty also assisted the Puerto Rican High Altitude Balloon Project and provided training for Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium faculty and students with a workshop and launch in July 2006. MECSAT also conducted a similar workshop for faculty in NASA s MUCERPI (Minority University and College Education and Research Partnership Initiative) program, which provides funding to minority institutions to develop space sciencerelated curriculum and programs to stimulate student interest. The MUCERPI workshop was co-sponsored by MUSPIN (Minority University Space Interdisciplinary Network), the New York Space Grant Consortium, and Hewlett-Packard, which has also provided equipment support. New York Space Grant 2
More recently, the MECSAT project has expanded to include ozone monitoring. Through partnerships with Goddard Spaceflight Center and the University of Rhode Island (URI), MECSAT is receiving funding from NASA s Aura EPO program to support ozonesonde flights in the Northeast. These flights occur biweekly with plans for weekly monitoring during an August campaign coordinated by NASA and the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). On a regional level, the ozone flights are coordinated with URI to provide a basis for comparing tropospheric ozone data in the Northeast. An ozonesonde launch took place at the base in Paradox, NY on July 30, 2006. This flight coincided with a satellite overpass. Joined by partner John Merrill at URI, our New York City team helped set up, launch, and monitor the data. MECSAT faculty members are very active in broadcasting the project s impact on participating students. Presentations were made at conferences for minority institutions as well as education forums at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). MECSAT collaborated with two NASA broker facilitators on a Balloon Science and Education workshop at the AAS meeting in Calgary. Shermane Austin Medgar Evers College CUNY Brooklyn, NY Ozonesonde preparation and flight training for Medgar Evers College students at the University of Rhode Island The New York Space Grant Consortium congratulates Cortland Junior/Senior High School students (Cortland, NY) for their two award-winning designs in the 2006 NASA Space Settlement Contest: Home - a space settlement that orbits Mars BEAM (Between Earth and Moon) - a space settlement located at L5 For more information on this contest, see http://www.nas.nasa.gov/about/education/spacesettlement/contest/ Fall 2006
N e w Yo r k Spac e Gra n t H i g h l i g h t s Barnard College Sarah Schmidt spent an enriching summer 2005 engaged in Space Grant-supported research with Dr. Kelle Cruz, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Dr. Cruz s research group obtains observations with ground-based optical, near-infrared, and radio telescopes and space-based observatories, including the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes. Schmidt analyzed samples of low mass stars that were photometrically selected from 2MASS (The Two Micron All Sky Survey) data. Her summer project focused on measuring proper motions and examining the spectra of the stars and brown dwarfs for H-alpha emission. Schmidt presented her research in a poster titled Activity and Kinematics of Ultracool Dwarfs at the January 2006 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. Schmidt also participated in observations at the MDM Observatory in Kitt Peak, Arizona, and acquired data with the 1.3m telescope. About her summer research, Schmidt says, I was really excited to work with real data, and the application of concepts I had learned in the classroom increased my enthusiasm for my coursework. This experience confirmed her plans to continue in Astronomy. She graduated with a double major in Physics and Astronomy from Barnard in May 2006 and will begin her Astronomy graduate studies at the University of Washington, Seattle in September 2006. Sarah Schmidt presents her summer research at the January 2006 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. Polytechnic University Hong Wong, a graduate student conducting Space Grant-funded research on spacecraft formation flying (SFF), developed methods for trajectory generation and adaptive control of spacecraft near the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point. Based on the revelation that quasi-periodic orbits surrounding a Halo orbit exist, he found that a spacecraft formation could be created by placing a leader spacecraft on a Halo orbit and a follower spacecraft on a quasi-periodic orbit surrounding it. In summer 2005, Polytechnic s Mechatronics Laboratory hosted 17 high school teachers for four weeks to provide training and research experiences in the field of mechatronics. The Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers (SMART) program is funded principally by the National Science Foundation. Professor Kapila and his students use Space Grant funding to support the program. A SMART Day @ Poly event was conducted on the Siemens Science Day at Polytechnic (October 1, 2005) to disseminate the project activities to over 300 K-12 students, teachers, and administrators. For more details, see <http://mechatronics.poly.edu>. New York Space Grant
N e w Yo r k Spac e Gra n t H i g h l i g h t s Clarkson University Thomas Berez earned his Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in July 2006. He was partially supported by the Space Grant during his graduate studies at Clarkson. In additon to his dissertation, his research on lubrication theory and applications from a combined historical, space sciences, and engineering perspective will result in two papers, on which he is currently working. Next fall he will attend Johns Hopkins University, working towards a Ph.D. in the History of Science and Technology. Michael Brazell, a McNair scholar, was the Clarkson Space Grant Program (CGSP) intern for summer 2006. He worked on computational fluid dynamics of mixing in low gravity. He presented his research at the annual McNair Scholars Conference and the annual Symposium of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) conference held at Clarkson. Brazell will continue his studies at Clarkson University, working towards a Ph.D. in the area of computational fluid dynamics. CGSP supported four Clarkson Honors Program undergraduates to conduct space-related research during summer 2006. Two Clarkson University students worked as summer 2006 Space Grant interns at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, NY. Columbia University New York Space Grant Involvement with NASA Explorer Schools On May 5, 2006, approximately 50 students from Central Park Middle School (Schenectady, NY) visited Columbia University and the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The students toured the Columbia campus and conducted observations of the Sun with guidance from Astronomy graduate students. They also attended a lecture on the evolution of stars and the discovery of extrasolar planets given by Professor David Helfand, New York Space Grant Affiliate Director and chair of Columbia s Department of Astronomy. The New York Space Grant also provided travel funds for NASA Explorer School teachers to attend an Explorer School teacher workshop on June 3, 2006 in Falmouth, MA. Teachers from Central Park Middle School and New York City Middle School 44 participated in the workshop. Central Park Middle School students visit Columbia University (top) and the American Museum of Natural History (bottom). Fall 2006
N e w Yo r k Spac e Gra n t H i g h l i g h t s SUNY Geneseo It has been an exciting year for Astronomy at Geneseo. Although Professor David Meisel retired from teaching after 35 years of service, he is still active with research in the Computer Science department. Meisel and two students, Jon Mucha and Yoshi Morimoto, continued research into Arecibo micrometeors with preliminary simulation results indicating that these particles (10-8 to 10-18 kg) are likely accompanied by radiative, magneto-hydrodynamic microshock waves. Professor Aaron Steinhauer joined the Physics department as the resident astronomer. He worked with two students this summer on a photometric project involving two important open star clusters, NGC 2420 and NGC 2506. Part of the project included an observing run to Kitt Peak on the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope. Steinhauer also worked with another student on an infrared spectroscopic survey of the Cepheus A molecular cloud. Two students continued work with Professor Ed Pogozelski on the autonomously guided parafoil. The goal of this project is to launch the system using a small weather balloon and have it return to a predetermined landing location. Guidance is accomplished with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that delivers location information to an onboard computer system, which determines the best landing location from a set of four possible that are programmed into the balloon. A small, onboard formfactor computer runs a compact distribution of Linux from a Universal Serial Bus (USB) flash drive to monitor the sensors and guide the craft. The navigation program running on the in-flight computer is robust enough to facilitate data acquisition, logging, and eventually some in-flight imaging. The expected completion date for this project is August 2006. On-campus Astronomy at Geneseo will get a significant boost during the upcoming academic year. The recently completed science building will feature a permanent dome outfitted with a Meade 20-inch Ritchey- Chretien telescope. 20-inch telescope at SUNY Geneseo. Sciencenter The Sciencenter s popular Science Minute: Write for the Radio Contest drew more than 200 entries from elementary and middle school students in spring 2006. Students selected their own research projects and wrote 60-second radio spots about science topics of their choice. Having the spots read by younger voices made the science more accessible to adults while providing a unique opportunity for the students to broadcast their efforts and receive recognition for their research. Many teachers from New York schools in Interlaken, Dryden, Lansing, and Ithaca, in addition to Smithfield, PA, used the contest as a collaborative class project to connect science and language arts education. Winning scripts can be heard on the Sciencenter s web site: <http://www.sciencenter.org>. New York Space Grant 6
N e w Yo r k Spac e Gra n t H i g h l i g h t s SUNY Buffalo Six Space Grant fellowship recipients at SUNY Buffalo conducted research on topics including metalsemiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors, robotic rovers, polymer photonic bandgap structures, pulsed power in thin metallized films, turbulent plumes, and a flexible robot arm. From left to right: Jennifer Haggerty (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Adam Halstead (Electrical Engineering), Erin Hopkins (Biochemistry), and Evan Halstead (Physics). Adam Halstead was part of a team that designed and constructed the robotic rover shown in the photo. Not pictured are Meiya Li and Amar Setty, who have finished their studies. Discovery Series a Success With the support of the New York Space Grant Consortium, the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center presented a four-part Discovery Series for residents of the Twin Tiers. Presentations on Mars, Venus, asteroids, and other solar systems attracted a diverse public averaging sixty-five attendees per session. Located at the Elmira - Corning Regional Airport, Wings of Eagles is positioned to meet the aerospace interests of over 100,000 urban and rural residents in south central New York and north central Pennsylvania. There is high community interest in space exploration as Elmira, NY is home to retired NASA astronaut and Shuttle commander Eileen Collins. A broad collaboration has emerged between Cornell University, the New York Space Grant, Wings of Eagles, and the Elmira School District which focuses on improving students mathematics, science, and engineering skills. The Wings of Eagles Discovery Center has acquired a Magic Planet that will be used to support educational initiatives throughout the region. This unique display, previewable at <http://www.globalimagination.com>, can depict a space-eye view of the Sun, Earth, and other planets in our solar system. Fall 2006
Central New York Rocket Team Challenge: t-minus 24 hours and holding Saturday, June 3, 2006 After months of preparation, design, fabrication, and testing, the 34 rocket teams representing Central New York elementary, middle, and high schools received the bad news. The weather forecast at the Syracuse University launch site was red due to low-level thick clouds, moderate rain, and ground-level wind gusts. The final scheduled day of the Central New York Rocket Team Challenge faced a meteorological reality. The impact of wind conditions, a component of the students studies, was included in their rocket launch simulations. They could handle adjusting the launch guide angle (degrees from vertical) to alter the flight profile. However, because of the rain and low clouds, the Saturday launch was scrubbed. The launch will be postponed until Sunday, was the call by Dr. Peter Plumley, Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology (MOST) Exhibits Project Manager and the mission director and coordinator of the spring 2006 Rocket Team Challenge. Organized by Syracuse University s College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), MOST, and Technology Alliance of Central New York (TACNY), this event was sponsored by the New York Space Grant Consortium and Lockheed Martin Corporation s Syracuse division. Thirty schools enrolled in the Rocket Team Challenge program in early February. During informational meetings hosted at MOST, college and museum staff spoke to the students about Rocket Science 101, rocket design and construction, and rocket safety. Each student team received basic materials, rocket simulation software (RockSim by Apogee Components), and training to build a rocket capable of lifting an electronic payload with an eggstronaut to a peak altitude between 200 and 400 meters. Each rocket carried a video and audio acquisition device with real-time transmission back to the launch site as well as a high-speed digital altimeter to document the flight trajectory. Criteria for competition and judging of the rocket teams included: Rocket aesthetics, Student presentation incorporating relevant technical knowledge, Successful flight, Successful eggstronaut payload recovery, and Accuracy of apogee estimation. Meteorological conditions at the launch site improved sufficiently on Sunday, June 4 to lift the launch hold. At 9 a.m., with a flash of blinding light, the first rocket thundered off the launch pad and streaked upward to the delight of the participating students, parents, and teachers. Video from each successful launch is available online at <http:// www.most.org/2_ee_rocketeams.cfm>. Participants in the Rocket Team Challenge gained experience in teamwork and computer design; High resolution altitude-time data recorded by the Chittenango High School rocket. The pressure from the parachute ejection charge 10 seconds into the flight is the only variance in the data. New York Space Grant
learned the fundamentals of rocket science with components of electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering; and experienced the thrill and exhilaration of high-power rocketry. Larry Leatherman, MOST president, addressed the students: We are so proud of you all for participating in the 2006 Rocket Team Challenge. We hope you have learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Learning and fun those are two goals of the MOST that we try to bring to each project, exhibit, and activity we re involved in. You hold the keys to our future as our scientists and leaders of tomorrow. I know I speak for your parents and all those who helped organize this project and of course, the MOST [by] wishing you the very best in your launches today and in your future. Peter Plumley Museum of Science and Technology Syracuse, NY Two seventh-grade students from Lincoln Middle School, Syracuse City School District wait to have their rockets cleared at the pre-launch safety check. Launch of a student-built rocket at the Central New York Rocket Team Challenge on June 4, 2006 The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is the world s largest model rocket contest, with teams competing for their share of $60,000 in prizes. The contest is sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry, with co-sponsorship by NASA, the Department of Defense, American Association of Physics Teachers, and AIA member companies. Students must design, build, and fly a model rocket carrying a raw egg, returning the egg safely to the ground after a 45-second flight. The goal is to encourage students to study advanced math and science and to consider studying aerospace fields in college. TARC is open to teams of students in grades 7-12 from any United States school or non-profit youth organization (such as Boy Scouts, 4-H, Civil Air Patrol, etc.). The 2007 contest rules have been posted and applications will be available in early September (application deadline is November 15, 2006). Visit <http://www.rocketcontest.org> and sign up to get the latest details and future updates on this exciting, educational event. Fall 2006
Cornell University s ICE Cube Satellites A group of Cornell University students designed and built two small satellites for launch as part of the national Cubesat program. This project, led over the past four years by Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Professor Mark Campbell, is designed to give students who are passionate about space a hands-on flight project and produce valuable scientific data about space weather. The two Ionospheric scintillation Experiment (ICE) Cube satellites measure just 10 cm on each side and weigh approximately two pounds each. Each of the satellites is a self-contained unit with power (solar cells, Lithium-Polymer batteries, and power distribution), on-board communications for a space-ground link, a deployable gravity gradient boom, and various sensors with an on-board computer. The satellites use a Cornell-designed Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver from Professor Paul Kintner s group to monitor fluctuations in the GPS signals, thus measuring small disturbances, or scintillations, in the ionosphere. The mission includes collecting GPS signal strength data at very fast data rates and communicating the findings back to the Cornell campus 400 kilometers away for analysis. Cornell s satellites are a part of the Stanford University / California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) Cubesat program, whose purpose is to engage students in the design, construction, and launch of picosatellites. Cornell s ICE Cube project team has averaged 25 students per year, including Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science students at the undergraduate and Masters of Engineering levels. The project has been supported by Department of Defense funding, alumni donations, and New York Space Grant Consortium funds for student internships. On July 26, 2006, a Dnepr rocket, carrying the two ICE Cube satellites and many Cubesats from other institutions, experienced a failure that resulted in an unsuccessful launch. The rocket and its multiple payloads crashed approximately 100 miles from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan. ISC Kosmotras, the launch provider, is currently investigating. The Cal Poly Cubesat web site <http://www.cubesat.calpoly.edu> will continue to provide details as they become available. Mark Campbell Cornell University Ithaca, NY Andrew Welch prepares one of Cornell s ICE Cube satellites for thermal vacuum testing. The test set up simulates the space environment. Photo credit: Cornell University Photography New York Space Grant 10
Summer 2006 Internships New York Space Grant Consortium funding supported undergraduate student internships at various locations this summer, including Space Grant affiliate institutions and NASA centers. The following table summarizes these internships: Internship Location NYSG affiliate institutions # of Students Cornell University 5 Lockheed Martin Systems Integration NASA centers 7 NASA academies 4 * Interns funded by Lockheed Martin. Description 18 Research in various science and engineering fields. Research in astronomy & space sciences, mechanical & aerospace engineering, and earth sciences. 4 NYSG student internships in various engineering disciplines.* Research internships at: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Kennedy Space Center Langley Research Center Marshall Space Flight Center Internships at: NASA Academy at Glenn Research Center NASA Robotics Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center NASA Robotics Academy at Ames Research Center Students from colleges and universities across New York state worked on research projects spanning a variety of topics. Among them were: Bradley Austin (Columbia Univ.) Hypervelocity Stars. Joseph Beerworth (Cornell Univ.) Implementation of Shell-to-Solid Software. Dmitriy Bekker (Rochester Inst. of Tech.) An FPGA-Based, SOC Approach to On-Board Instrument Data Processing: Enabling New Mars Science with Smart Payloads. Michael Brazell (Clarkson Univ.) Computer Simulations of a Lid-Driven Rotating Flow in a Cylinder: Development and Comparisons of Numerical Methods. Laura Cooper (Tompkins Cortland Comm. Coll.) Development of Science Activities for Children. Justin Fike (Cornell Univ.) High-Agility Robotic Arm for In-Orbit Construction. Garrick Glickenhouse (Rensselaer Poly. Inst.) Search for Progenitor Companion of Tycho s Supernova. Francisco Guzman (City Coll. of New York) Automated Kinetic System for Rodent s Knee Joint Therapy. Lauren McCarthy (Barnard Coll.) Atmospheric Properties of L-dwarfs. Lee Mendelowitz (Cornell Univ.) Modeling Xe+ on Xe Charge Exchange Collisions Using Partial Wave Analysis. Khang Nguyen (Syracuse Univ.) Lift Control By Thrust Vectoring on an Embedded Cross Flow Fan Airfoil. Micheal Nicasio (York Coll.) Observing Atomic Hydrogen in the Milky Way Galaxy with the York College Radio Telescope. Timothy Pennucci (Columbia Univ.) Investigating the MAGPIS Field: A Search for Young Supernova Remnants. John Skok (Cornell Univ.) Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope for Remote Planetary Sensing. Mollie Van Gordon (Barnard Coll.) Spitzer IRS Mid-Infrared Spectral Analysis of L-dwarfs. Jonathan Wee (Cornell Univ.) Thermally Actuated Deformable Mirror. 11 Fall 2006
New York Space Grant Affiliate Directors Professor Yervant Terzian, director of the New York Space Grant Consortium, greets former NASA astronaut and retired USAF Colonel Eileen Collins during her February 2006 visit to her hometown of Elmira, NY. Space Grant and other summer undergraduate research interns visit the Corning Museum of Glass. Prof. Yervant Terzian, Cornell University (Director) Prof. Wayne Anderson, SUNY Buffalo Prof. Shermane Austin, Medgar Evers College Prof. Thomas Balonek, Colgate University Prof. Edward Brown, Manhattan College Prof. Thong Dang, Syracuse University Dr. Denny Fallon, Lockheed Martin Prof. David Helfand, Columbia University Prof. Vikram Kapila, Polytechnic University Prof. Reshmi Mukherjee, Barnard College Prof. Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Prof. Tim Paglione, York College Prof. Ed Pogozelski, SUNY Geneseo Prof. Charles Trautmann, Sciencenter Prof. Daniel Valentine, Clarkson University Prof. Sheldon Weinbaum, City College of New York New York Space Grant Consortium 517 Space Sciences Building Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-6801 New York Space Grant News Newsletter of the New York Space Grant Consortium Editors: Erica Miles Patricia Fernández de Castro Pamela Ahn Dept. of Astronomy and Space Sciences Cornell University is an equal opportunity employer.