Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Several KU students had the opportunity to do something few have done before — defy gravity.
Five students participated in the NASA-sponsored Microgravity University in Houston from March 6 to April 4. The students designed, built and performed their own experiment that was tested in micro- and zero-gravity environments.
The five KU students called their team SMART-HAWKER2. They sent their experiment proposal sent to NASA in October and were one of 20 teams chosen from more than 200 research proposals.
Lake Wooten, Mission Hills senior, said the experiment tested shape memory alloys, wires that can bend and contract but still remember to return to their original shape. They stretched the wire and placed it inside a robotic arm. They then heated up the wire while it was inside the robotic arm, causing it to retract back to its original shape and move the arm.
Contributed photo
From left: Stephen Hinton, Olathe junior, Karen Ohmes, Hutchinson junior, Bowe Neuenschwander, Hoxie senior, and a NASA flight official experience zero gravity while testing their robotic arm. Five KU students participated in the NASA-sponsored Microgravity University, in which they designed, built and tested their own experiment.
The team tested the robotic arm while flying under unusual conditions in a Boeing 727 to experience zero gravity.
“Basically we were just testing the range of motion of our robotic arm,” Wooten said.
The plane rapidly ascended and descended from an altitude of 24,000 feet to 32,000 feet. While descending, the plane’s interior experienced zero gravity for 20 seconds, causing the passengers to feel weightless. While ascending, the passengers felt the opposite — extremely heavy.
“I tried to stand up during that part of the flight and I couldn’t because I was so heavy,” Wooten said.
Wooten said that because of how difficult it was to work with a constant change in gravity, the team fitted the robotic arm with mechanical instruments.
Karen Ohmes, Hutchinson junior and aspiring astronaut, said it was harder to work in microgravity than it was on the ground.
“It’s amazing how pushing a button will send you flying in the opposite direction because you don’t have gravity keeping you still.”
The students also toured Johnson Space Center to see where NASA’s astronauts train for missions. As part of the tour, the five students were put in a chamber with fighter pilot masks to simulate flying at a high altitude and to experience hypoxia, the body’s reaction to a lack of oxygen. Wooten said everyone reacted differently — some acted intoxicated, some acted happy and giddy, and one person blacked out and had to receive emergency oxygen.
“I started moving really slow,” Wooten said. “Time passed faster while you didn’t have enough oxygen, which is kind of interesting.”
Ohmes said the group’s experiment could eventually help to replace gears on aircraft and spacecraft with more economical malleable wires.
“We can decrease costs and the weight,” Ohmes said. “It works well in a microgravity environment.”
Ohmes said the group’s trip and experiment cost about $4,000, which Student Senate and various science departments funded.
“It was really great getting to know the other teams, collaborating with them and seeing their experiments,” Ohmes said.
Ronald Barrett-Gonzalez, associate professor of aerospace engineering and the team’s adviser, said the experiment was “wildly successful.”
He said besides making technical progress on their experiment, the team was able to learn in a unique way.
“What’s more important to me as an instructor is that they learned along the way and were able to experience things they could not have in a classroom,” Barrett-Gonzalez said.
He said he thought the students were able to reaffirm their enthusiasm for their future careers.
“I know a lot of people who go to work every day and hate what they do,” Barrett-Gonzalez said. “These young people will wind up being the whole opposite of that. They will love what they do.”
— — Edited by Susan Melgren
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