AAE Students participate in NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program
| Event Date: | December 11, 2009 |
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NASA has selected an experiment proposal for flight testing in June 2010 from Prof. Steven Collicott's AAE 418 class. This makes the 43rd team to be accepted to fly in NASA's KC-135 aircraft, also affectionately known as the Vomit Comet, with one or more teams every year selected since the program began in 1996.
The proposal is, "Effect of Textured Surfaces on Bubble Detachment and Contact Area in Microgravity." The team of AAE undergrads is:
Matt Baldwin – Alternate Flier
Michael Brod
Alvin Chang
Kartik Dalal
Clara Garman
Christa Humbert – Flier
Chad Kiel
Collin Morgan – Flier
Kevin Quach
Stephanie Sumcad - Flier and Team Leader
Ricky Tayek – Flier
The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics has been involved in the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunity program since fall 1996. Prof. Steven Collicott specializes in research and engineering on low gravity fluids topics and he advised the first few teams of students. Collicott then created an upper-level undergraduate course for students to design zero-gravity flight experiments specifically for the NASA program which then became part of the curriculum. In all, it is a team-based, hands-on multidisciplinary experience that brings rave reviews from students and alumni alike.
The selection process is very competitive and teams of undergraduate students from all over the country send in proposals for experiments to be performed in a reduced-gravity environment.
Periods of weightlessness lasting about 25 seconds during each "parabola" of the flight give students scant time to perform their experiments and prepare for the next parabola. Most of the maneuvers reproduce the weightlessness experienced by space shuttle astronauts flying in orbit around Earth, but a few of the maneuvers reproduce the gravity on Mars and the moon.