Decades of discovery

Rice, NASA discoveries reap out-of-this-world rewards

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

Oct. 22, 1998

From early rocket probes and the Apollo missions to developing state-of-the-art high-strength, lightweight materials, Rice University has played a role in the nation’s space program and, likewise, NASA has shaped Rice.

From the early departments of space science, geology and biology to today’s more specialized fields of mechanical engineering and materials science, electrical and computer engineering, and bioengineering, Rice has participated in developing the frontier of space research in nearly every department in science and engineering.

The relationship began in 1962 when President Kennedy spoke at Rice Stadium, announcing plans to put a man on the moon. In response, Rice created the first space science department at any university in America.

Rice then donated the land on which the Johnson Space Center (JSC) is built; in return, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) helped construct Rice’s space science and technology building. It was a signal from an orbiting satellite that detonated a small explosive charge to break ground on the building in 1965. NASA Administrator James Webb spoke at the ceremony.

Because of NASA, Rice was one of the very first universities to establish a department of space physics. In 1981, Fondren Library became the official repository of a sizable share of JSC’s archives.

But it was the research and science that remained the driving force–Rice had caught “space fever” as it was called in newspaper articles in the early ’60s.

As Rice’s Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, as it is now named, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, a look back at some of the highlights will illustrate how current projects have built on past.

One of the first projects the new space science department took on in 1963 was the development of four rocket probes to measure light and particle energy in the auroras, the northern and southern lights, and airglow. The probes found the two phenomenon were not the same, but weren’t able to determine the cause of each. Led by Professor Brian O’Brien, the probes were named Sammy I, II, III and IV after the school’s mascot, Sammy the Owl. The first was launched in January 1964, and it marked the first time a payload was developed by any Southern or Southwestern university.

In 1965, Rice became the first university to receive approval to design and build its own satellites under the new NASA University Explorer Program. Owls I and II were to study the aurora and Van Allen radiation by night and day, but unfortunately they never came to fruition.

In June 1967, the Aurora I satellite was successfully launched to study the auroras. The Aurora I satellite was built at Rice, led by O’Brien, with help from students Curt Laughlin and Paul Cloutier ’67, now a professor of space physics and astronomy, among others.

Brian O’Brien, one of the first professors of space science at Rice, shows off the instrumentation for one of four Sammy rocket probes in 1965. The probes were launched in the mid-’60s to study the auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights.

Ramon Trachta, satellite design engineer for the new space science department in the mid-’60s, works on one of the Sammy rockets, wich flew to altitudes of 100 miles and included photometers, a magnetometer, low energy particle detectors and Geiger counters.

The country was wrapped up in the news of space research–virtually every time something was successfully launched, it brought back valuable new data.

“There were no traditions, we were writing the rules as we went along,” says founding chair of the space science department Alex Dessler.

Throughout the ’60s, Rice launched several successful series of rocket probes to study auroras, airglow and variations in the Earth’s magnetic field. Rice researchers also developed instruments for a variety of satellites, including one to measure the convective current of solar plasma.

A Rice experiment was also part of the nation’s first biological satellite. Directed by biology researchers Edgar Altenburg and Luolin Browning, it tested the genetic effects of the weightless environment of space using 10,000 fruit flies.

Rice alumnus Frank Low ’59 headed research as an adjunct professor in 1966 on “R Monocerotis,” a new star system forming some 2,000 light years away, and provided the first opportunity to study the evolution of stars. Low developed a special detection instrument for use in a new kind of telescope that could provide fine measurements of infrared light, making his discovery possible.

A series of balloon flights hoisted gamma ray telescopes to 130,000-plus feet to study the remnants of an exploded star in the Crab Nebula. Robert Haymes, who headed up the project, discovered a pulsar there. Later, Haymes was to make history by discovering cosmic rays from antimatter in the center of the Milky Way.

In 1965, NASA appointed Curt Michel, professor of space science, to the first five-member class of scientist-astronauts, a group that was to conduct experiments on the moon. However, the moon program was being shortened, and it became apparent it would be a long wait for a ride to the moon. Michel decided to return to Rice to continue research.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, on the Apollo 12, 14 and 15 missions, John Freeman, professor of space physics and astronomy, was principal investigator of the Suprathermal Ion Detection Experiment (SIDE), part of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP). Set up on the moon, the ALSEP was an octopuslike set of experiments radiating out around a central nuclear thermoelectric power source.

Beaming back data for a total of seven years, the SIDE experiments measured the velocity, energy, flux and number density of positive ions in the vicinity of the moon’s surface. Pointed into the solar wind, the SIDE, which looked like an oversized cereal box mounted on a tripod, provided the first look at the moon’s atmosphere and its interaction with the plasma wind from the sun. Inside one of the instruments was a sticker in the shape of a Rice pennant, bought at the campus store. Michel and Kent Hills, a senior research associate, also worked on the SIDE project.

At the time, their finding that the moon held water vapor was a puzzling result; they didn’t know whether the source was natural or perhaps related to the Apollo equipment. Freeman said they now believe the cause may be comets that landed on the moon.

For his work on SIDE, Freeman received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Me-dal. The research also spawned two dozen scientific papers, seven master’s degrees and five doctoral dissertations.

A second instrument, dubbed CPLEE, for Charged Particle Lunar Electronic Experiment, flew on Apollo 14 and was part of the ill-fated Apollo 13 package. The CPLEE measured ions and electrons, both from the local environment and from the solar wind and magnetosphere. Developed by O’Brien and David Reasoner ’69, adjunct assistant professor of space science, Patricia Reiff ’74, current professor and chair of the Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, conducted her doctoral thesis on the CPLEE instrument and data, and several other students also got degrees, including at least one other doctorate, from that project.

Following the Apollo 12 landing, a 10-gram sample of lunar soil came to Professor of Geology Dieter Heymann. In fact, he was the first non-NASA researcher to receive moon soil samples. He studied them to determine the inert gases present. Kept in a fireproof safe within the department, the samples were guarded for a few hours by a security officer. Heymann asked that the guard be removed because it became apparent that he was only drawing attention to the location of the samples. From 1970 to 1987, Heymann studied samples from Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 as well as samples from Soviet probes.

In the late 1980s, Dessler was among those studying data from Voyager 2, which flew out past Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus to investigate Neptune.

More recent space physics and astronomy NASA-related activities include the 1996 Polar spacecraft, on which Reiff is co-investigator (co-I) on the magnetometer instrument; Reiff is also co-I on the upcoming IMAGE mission to be launched in the year 2000.

Robert O’Dell, the Andrew Hays Buchannan Professor of Astrophysics, former project manager of Hubble Space Telescope, discovered protoplanetary disks in the Orion Nebula. In addition to O’Dell, among those studying star birth and evolution using the Hubble Space Telescope are Reggie Dufour, professor of space physics and astronomy, and Patrick Hartigan, assistant professor of space physics and astronomy.

In 1996, the pulsar theories of Michel were confirmed by Hubble Space Telescope images.

Tom Hill ’67, Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Space Physics and Astronomy, is co-I of the CAPS instrument on the Cassini mission to Saturn, marking Rice’s return to deep space.

Cloutier, co-I on the magnetometer instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor, discovered the magnetic field of Mars this year. Cloutier was formerly the principal investigator on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter spacecraft.

Rice researchers led by Freeman are currently involved in developing real-time models of space weather, and Anthony Chan, assistant professor of space physics and astronomy, is developing models of “killer electrons” that can disable spacecraft. Chan also works with Adjunct Professor Franklin Chang-Diaz of JSC on creating a new-generation plasma rocket.

The department also boasts experts on gamma ray bursts, the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere, and electric and magnetic fields.

As for outreach efforts, in 1995 Rice, with the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS), developed a NASA-funded program, Creating the Public Connection, delivering real-time Earth and space data to museums and schools via special links and over the Internet.

Last year Rice began work on NASA’s Museums Teaching Planet Earth program. Contributing their NASA-related research along with Reiff are Arthur Few, professor of space physics and astronomy, and Ron Sass, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

It is not just the Department of Space Physics and Astronomy that enjoys NASA support.

In recent years, NASA has supported research in several fields at Rice, including gravitational biology, telerobotics, software for high-performance computing, and research in nanoscale science and engineering focused on fullerene materials and fabrication of ceramic composites.

Rice University and NASA plan to further nanotechnology and its applications for use in space. On Oct. 15, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, seated left, and Rice President Malcolm Gillis signed a statement of collaboration outlining their commitment. The signing was witnessed by Director of the Johnson Space Center George W.S. Abbey, standing left, and Director of Rice’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology Richard Smalley, standing right, who will lead Rice’s participation in the project.

A new planned collaboration to develop nanotubes, signed last week by President Malcolm Gillis and NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, will further strengthen Rice’s interactions with NASA.

In 1996, Rice became a NASA Specialized Center for Research and Training in Gravitational Biology, and in 1997 Rice became a member of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Researchers at Rice’s Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering are involved in studying the effects of microgravity on living systems, from cell growth to muscle atrophy and bone deterioration.

According to the Office of Sponsored Research, there are some 40 Rice researchers involved in NASA-sponsored research at Rice, and over the past 15 years, Rice has received about $30 million in funding, with annual totals gradually increasing in recent years.

“I’m really delighted to see that science funding of NASA has stabilized,” says Reiff, who participated in NASA’s Office of Space Science strategic planning effort, laying out the missions to fly in the next 20 years.

“This has been an amazing decade as far as discovery is concerned,” Reiff says. “The challenge and excitement of exploration is the part that really captivates us to learn something. It is hard to overstate the excitement of being part of this.”