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Louisiana was fortunate to have two undergraduate
student teams selected to participate in an exciting program sponsored by NASA
and the Texas Space Grant Consortium. The Reduced Gravity Student Flight
Opportunities Program offered an opportunity for a team of undergraduate
students and a journalist to fly an experiment aboard NASA's KC-135A reduced
gravity aircraft. A team from LaTech and the LSU Agricultural Center
successfully flew their experiments. Descriptions of both projects are given
below.
Twenty-four teams were selected from around the nation through a research
proposal solicitation process. Each team consisted of undergraduate students, a
journalist, and faculty advisors. The faculty did not fly, so the students had
to be fully capable of conducting the experiment by themselves. The teams spent
2 weeks in Houston, April 7-19, 1997, receiving physiological training for the
flight, check-fitting their experiments, and completing their medical
clearances.
In order to participate, each team was required to arrange course credit
through their universities either as a organized class project or as an
independent study project. Final reports on the design, fabrication,
performance and final data analysis were required.
The Louisiana Tech University Microgravity Team
The Louisiana Tech University Microgravity Team
included four senior mechanical engineering students: Karen Bottom (LaSPACE
Scholar), Stacie Lirette, Jason Settle, and Daina Wyatt. Under the supervision
of Professor James D. Lowther, the students wrote the proposal, designed,
built, tested and conducted their experiment, which served as their engineering
senior design project. The team is shown in the photograph below.
Titled "The Effects of Microgravity on the Liquid Nitrogen Boiling Curve," the
experiment involved studying the enhanced heat transfer mode of boiling on the
surface of a small aluminum plate submerged in a liquid nitrogen filled
cryostat. A full report and technical description of the project is given in
Appendix J. A videotape of the experience is also available along with a
newspaper article.
Professor Lowther reported that these students represented the cream of the
graduating class at LaTech. Karen graduated Summa Cum Laude and will pursue
graduate work at MIT. Jason graduated Summa Cum Laude and was commissioned in
the U. S. Air Force. Stacie graduated Summa Cum laude with a 4.0 and will join
Exxon in Houston. Daina graduated Magna Cum Laude and will join Exxon in New
Jersey.
A
requirement of the program was to generate news coverage for the teams'
activities. Samples of some of the articles are available
here
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KC-135 Flight 