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Students to fly "Weightless Wonder"
December 16, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - A team of four physics students from the University of West Georgia have been chosen by NASA to test their science experiments while floating aboard the agency’s famous “Weightless Wonder” aircraft. These adventurous students include juniors Dmitriy Plaks of Powder Springs and Zade Coley of Carrollton, Cathy Tran of McDonough and sophomore Elizabeth Nelson of Soloni, Ohio.
This
is the second time that a team of science students from UWG has been chosen
for this honor, said faculty advisor Dr. James Espinosa, assistant professor
of physics. This team was also the only one chosen from a University System
of Georgia institution. The students will join 50 other teams from schools
such as Cal Tech, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the United
States Naval Academy and Purdue University.
Each year, the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, gives undergraduate student teams the opportunity to research, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced gravity experiment. The student teams follow much the same path as scientists who develop experiments that fly in space.
“I’m very proud of these students,” Espinosa said. “In about six weeks, they went from an idea to use sound to extinguish a flame to a detailed 31-page proposal which presents preliminary experimental results and plans for the construction of a complicated device that will test their concept. Our University should be especially proud of their selection since their competition included teams from schools like Cal Tech and MIT.”
The UWG student team will fly to Houston, Texas during spring or summer 2005, and will test their “Acoustic Fire Control in Microgravity” experiment. The team’s objective is to study the effect of acoustics on a flame in microgravity during reduced gravity flights.
The flights will be taken on NASA’s “Weightless Wonder,” a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9 that takes parabolic flight paths to simulate zero gravity. Students will experience how the human body reacts during the 30 “hill climbs and freefalls” on each flight that creates 25-second intervals of weightlessness at a time.
The UWG experiment stems from the tragic flash fire that killed Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee in January 1967. Firefighting techniques in microgravity are inefficient because the chemicals used are hard to dissipate in zero gravity, said Plaks, the team leader. During these experiments, different sound frequencies will be used in attempts to put out flames.
“We propose to manipulate and extinguish a flame using acoustics,” Plaks explained. “We hope to demonstrate a revolutionary way of suppressing fire in microgravity without introducing any toxic or contaminating effects.”
Three months after their flights, the team is expected to issue a final report to include their scientific findings, analysis of the experiment’s effectiveness, and conclusions drawn from the findings.
All four students are part of the UWG Honors College and Nelson is enrolled in the Advanced Academy of Georgia and desires to become an astronaut.
“This is the second time in the past five years that a West Georgia Honors College team has been selected by NASA to participate in this program,” said Dr. Donald Wagner, Dean of the Honors College. “Competition is intense and usually dominated by engineering students from research institutions.”
UWG Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Thomas J. Hynes said this recognition is evidence of the faculty’s responsibility to the students.
“This kind of work is emblematic of the University's commitment to faculty directed creative activity and research,” Hynes pointed out. “Espinosa provides the kind of encouraging environment that allows students to explore important questions. In answering those questions in a rigorous and creative fashion, in a forum like the NASA Micro Gravity Project, these students provide further evidence of educational excellence at UWG.”
UWG President Dr. Behuruz N. Sethna agreed saying the inclusion of UWG students in the national program such as NASA’s reflects on the University’s quality of education.
“It is matter of great pride when UWG students compete with the nation's best students in science and mathematics and come out on top,” Sethna said. “This speaks volumes for the quality of our students, faculty, and learning environment.”
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