Rice students conduct experiments aboard NASA’s weightless aircraft

Rice students conduct experiments aboard NASA’s weightless aircraft

BY PATRICK KURP
Special to the Rice News

In late April at Ellington Field in Houston, a group of Rice mechanical engineering students calling themselves “Team Aviators” boarded a modified DC-9, experiment in hand, and prepared for a ride on the world’s fastest roller-coaster.

Rice’s Candice Claunch conducts an experiment in zero gravity.

The science of the senior project was primary — they hoped to test a mock-up of a Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA) in zero-gravity conditions — but the experience was likened to an extreme version of an amusement park ride. The aircraft, in fact, was dubbed the “vomit comet.”
 
“Not everybody can handle it. They all got a physical in advance, and there’s always a flight surgeon aboard, but there’s no way to completely prepare someone for the experience of weightlessness,” said John Muratore, a senior systems engineer with NASA, adjunct lecturer in mechanical engineering, and faculty adviser to the team.
 
The team was also supervised by Andrew J. Meade, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science.
 
Rice was one of 40 research universities chosen this year to participate in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. Since it started in 1995, more than 2,000 undergraduates have taken part.
 
Flying over the Gulf of Mexico, the aircraft soared from 24,000 to 34,000 feet, then plummeted for more than a minute, and repeated this pattern of steep parabolas another 29 times. For 20 to 25 seconds per dive, amounting to about 10 minutes total throughout the flight, the students, experiment, aircraft and crew remained weightless.
 

Recent Rice graduate Patrick Snyder experiences weightlessness.

“The intent of our project was to build and test a two-degrees-of-freedom mock satellite and test it in zero-gravity. We hoped to persuade NASA of the viability of motion testing satellite technology, particularly smaller satellites that would not have to be scaled down to be tested,” said a member of the team, Patrick Snyder.

Snyder and team members Candice Claunch, Dan Jaqua, Omar Nava, and Cathy Schlembach, were graduating seniors in mechanical engineering. Will Moonan, the junior observer, was also in mechanical engineering.
 
Smaller than a basketball, the PSA model weighed about 10 pounds and was jury-rigged from a kitchen bowl, a solenoid, parts of a paint-ball gun, and scraps of steel and plastic, and fitted with thrusters made from CO2 canisters. The model and the frame on which it moved cost about $2,800.
 
“Unfortunately, the experiment suggests that movement of the satellite was due more to the rates and accelerations of the aircraft and slight gravitational variations, than to the CO2 thrusters. They didn’t have sufficient control over the craft,” Snyder said.

During the design phase, the team was aware that the CO2 capsules might not provide enough pressure to get the desired motion out of the satellite model, but they were constrained by the budget. 

“We were bummed by the insufficient movement of the craft in flight, but in the long run we were pleased to have built a working control law, motion sensors, and a circuit that relayed data between the control law, sensors and thrusters.  We also built a box that satisfied NASA’s structural safety requirements,” Snyder said.

Snyder, who served as team integrator for the project, was responsible for drawing up the proposal sent to NASA. He said the experience altered no one’s plans for the future but left them with a positive impression of NASA. 

 “Everyone I met was passionate about his job, eager to teach and work with others, and enjoyable to be with.  Of course, all of us will remember it as something unique, shared only by a very fortunate select few. Who knows? Maybe in a few years one of us will consider a career with NASA.”