Gary Garber's Blog

Tuesday at Teachers In Space Workshop

August 8, 2011 at 7:24 pm

Tuesday morning we learned how to assemble an Arduino board and how to write some basic Arduino code. We made an LED flash and hooked up an accelerometer.

We then learned more about the experiment we worked on this week. The main part of the experiment was a submission for the NASA-Make Challenge. This was sponsored by Make Magazine which is a Do-It-Yourself publication. The winning submission was to observe the melting and freezing of wax in microgravity. Some other interesting twists include have bubbles and water drops in the wax. They developed what is called the Bring It Back Kit.

At lunchtime, we had an exciting treat. Flying overhead NASA 911 which is the 747 used to carry the Space Shuttle. I was not expecting to see this circling overhead!

NASA 747 to carry the Space Shuttle

The teachers in our program broke into several subsystem groups. Besides the group working on the Bring It Back Kit. The working groups are: Thermal profile, acoustic profile, accelerometer data, a radiation profile, an imaging experiment of the bring it back kit, and a separate Inertial Balance experiment. The overall model is a typical cubeSat design, which each of these experiment in its own cubeSat.

Mojave Spaceport

Tuesday evening we went to the Mojave Spaceport. This is first private airport in the USA to be granted a space-launch license. This is where Scaled Composites (Burt Rutan’s company) SpaceShip One completed the first privately funded human spaceflight and won theX-Prize.

Scaled down model of SpaceShip One

We also had a tour of Masten Spacesystems which will be launching the experiment we are working on.

Our group in front of Masten, note on the right the engineer holding the payload container which will hold our experiment.

After our trip to Mojave Spaceport we made a trip to Vazquez Rocks.

Vazquez Rocks

This is a famous Thrust Fault. While there, one of the teachers in our group, Jim Kirk got into a tussle with one of the local lizards.

James Kirk versus the Gorn

We then came across some weird dude with pointy ears.

After that we made a search for the San Andreas fault which was cool to see.

San Andreas Fault near Palmdale

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Tuesday at Teachers In Space Workshop

Teachers IN Space

August 4, 2011 at 5:33 pm

So I have spent this week in Palmdale, CA at the NASA Aero Institute with the Teachers In Space Workshop.

Aero Institute in Palmdale

On Monday, Ed Wright, the Director of Teachers in Space gave us an introduction to the program and the goals for the week. We are building several component of an experiment to fly on the Excelsior STEM mission, which will fly on the XAERO spaceship being built by Masten.

We also had two very interesting Remote Sensing talks. Chris Jennison, is the NASA Dryden director of Remote Sensing. He talked about Landsat and developing remote sensing technology cameras and observation techniques such as Thematic Mappers.

LK Kubendam talked about the NASA Flight Opportunities Program and the different commercial spacecraft options which are being developed.

Tom Mace is the Director of Airborne Sciences at NASA Dryden and he talked about some of the different type of spacecraft used in Remote Sensing. The WB-57 from Johnson Space Center was in the hanger next to me at the Reduced Gravity Flight Workshop.

WB-57 in the hanger in Houston next to my Teaching From Space workstation

Pace also talked about the ER2, which is the NASA version of the U2 spyplane.

ER2, the NASA version of the U2 Spyplane

Ed Wright also talked extensively about Make Magazine and the Bring it Back challenge which is the basis for our experimental work this week.

Our meeting room

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Teachers IN Space

Update on robotics camps at BU

August 4, 2011 at 5:11 pm

There are two great articles on BU Today I wanted to bring attention to. These are both day camps at BU.

First, there is a nice article on U-Design Camp. This is the camp that Team 246 was teaching the last couple of weeks of July.

There is also a great article on the Artemis Camp, which is using the LEGO RCX kits that Team 246 does their outreach workshops with. So I am glad to see we can support two camps this summer.

By Gary Garber | Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on Update on robotics camps at BU

A week of LEGO Robotics Camp!

July 22, 2011 at 10:43 pm

So Alejandro spent the week at Tufts University every day this week at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) which is where I am going to be spending some time in the fall during my sabbatical. Alejandro has an exciting week in the CEEO CoED LEGO Robotics Workshop. I highly advise this camp and it is for students entering grades 3-8. Click here to learn about CEEO Workshops for Kids! I have never seen Alejandro so excited about going to a 'camp'. He has been so excited, he actually wakes up at 6:30 in the morning and reads NXT programming books. At this point, it is hard to say who is the better NXT programmer.

While Alejandro was in the workshop lab, I was across the hall discussing some of the exciting upcoming projects I am going to be working on. The main project I will be working on is the RoboBook project. My goals for the year are to make a significant dent in helping to design a Physics RoboBook. A RoboBook is essentially a SmartBook or the next generation of textbook (as opposed to a digital static textbook) which is customizable and interactive.

Here are some pictures of Alejandro at the CoEd LEGO Workshop.

By Gary Garber | Posted in Robotics | Comments Off on A week of LEGO Robotics Camp!

Friday at U Design

July 21, 2011 at 9:09 pm

Our last day of U Design turned out to be busier than I had anticipated. We spent the morning launching our water bottle rockets. We had two rocket launchers. One was a high end rocket launcher, the other a model built by professor Grace who lent it to us (again). Several years ago, launching soda bottle rockets was easy stuff. But in an effort to be environmentally conscious, the bottling companies have scaled back on the amount of plastic they use in their bottles. Although the reduction of plastic does not affect the cap which goes on the bottle, it can alter the inner diameter of the bottle If the inner diameter is too large, the bottle does not make a tight fit, which unfortunately happened in several cases. Next year, we will have to stick with Coca-Cola!

A few tips. Some launchers use pipes of different lengths, and the deeper the pipe moves into the bottle, the higher the bottle can fly. I have also been told that a Mentos might help the propulsion. Here are a few links for various bottle rocket launchers. The big launcher we used in camp was a BigFoot Launcher which is no longer made. But BigFoot Company now makes a portable LittleFoot Water Launcher. You can buy a low end launcher from Edmunds Scientific or Arbor Scientific. I would suggest using a bicycle pump that has a built in pressure gauge such as this one from ArborSci. As always, wear safety goggles and be careful.

When we returned from Rocket Launching, Glynn Holt’s students gave us multiple presentations on acoustics, many of which they use to study the physics of bubbles and acoustics. Although another area of interest has been Faraday Waves.

After lunch, we went on a tour of the Plasma Jet in professor Gevelber’s laboratory. He develops ceramic coatings which are used to protect the inner parts of jet engines, so they must withstand incredibly hot temperatures. They test this with a high temperature plasma beam which we got to see.

After that, I presented a brief lecture on navigation and how to read a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) flight map. You can buy a flight map from MyPilotStore. All of the students received a VFR flight map for the Boston Terminal area.

Our final presentation of the day was from Dane Sarconewho is the president of the BU Rocket team and just graduated from BU. He showed an exciting video of the liquid fueled rocket which the BU Rocket Team flew several years ago, and showed the rocket which blew up on the launch pad. Dane also is the leader of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Team and showed the quadcopter which he built and flew down in Texas. You should read the article on the BU ENG website about Dane and his quadcopter which was used to model bat habitats.

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Friday at U Design

Thursday at U Design

July 14, 2011 at 9:01 pm

We started out the day making last minute revisions to our Estes rockets. We then walked across the river to Magazine beach to launch! We first tried a ½ A engine in each rocket. The 1/2 A6-2 engine was not quite powerful enough and the rockets did not go very high, but this allowed us to test out the rockets, before using an A8-3 engine. The A8-3 engines propelled our engines high up into the air with great success. What is an A8-3 engine? The terms 1/2A, A, B, and C (or higher) tell us the impulse delivered by the engine as you can see in this chart. The next number tells us the average number of Newtons of Force which the engine delivers. The last number tells us the number of seconds of delay before the ejection charge for the parachute is set off. You can read about this on the Estes website. After returning to B.U. we worked on our soda bottle rockets.

After lunch, the students went to a talk in Smart Lighting. Almost immediately after that, Professor Glynn Holt talked to the students about with years with NASA and his research into the science of bubbles and drops. Dr. Holt served as Co-Investigator on STS-50, directing efforts of the Yale research team on design and implementation of ground-and space-based experiments for the inaugural flight of the Drop Physics Module (DPM) on the first United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-1) on STS-50. The experiments investigated the dynamic effects of small concentrations of surfactants dissolved in water drops positioned in the DPM using acoustic fields. Dr. Holt served as an Alternate Payload Specialist (APS) on STS-73, the second United Microgravity Laboratory mission (USML-2), which flew October 20 - November 7 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.

We spent the remainder of the day working on our bottle rockets which will be launched in the morning.

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Thursday at U Design

Wednesday at U Design

July 13, 2011 at 8:49 pm

Today we finished work on all of our airplanes and put the finishing touches on our Cadet Planes. Students finished work on their Estes rockets and we will be launching the rockets in the morning. Again, many thanks to the New England AFCEA for donating the rockets!

Students began to construct water bottle rockets and most of them made parachutes and tested them out in the 7th floor atrium of the Photonics Center.

While the students were busy with their projects, several of Professor Holt's students were busy behind the wind tunnel trying to create Faraday Waves s, including, one of my BUA students, Will P. It was exciting to see them attain full Faraday waves after struggling for a half a day.

flight_simulator_tutorial_16_cessna_instrument_panel

My morning lecture consisted of explaining how the instrument panel on a Cessna 172 works. We explored the function of the following instrument in the below diagram (going clockwise): Airspeed indicator, the attitude indicator, the altimeter, the turn & slip coordinator, the Heading indicator, and the Vertical Speed indicator. I them demonstrated how these instruments work on Flight Simulator on the projector. You can by a home copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator which we have been using in class for less than $20. Joysticks can be bought for $20 but Rudder Pedals are more expensive at about $100, although they are not necessary.

The students have been instructed to limit any time on the computer to 10 minute increments of playing Flight Simulator and that they many only simulate a Cessna 172 flying in the greater Boston area. I also gave the students VFR flight maps to use as a navigation tool. VFR Flight maps can be ordered online from MyPilotStore.com

In the morning, Professor Sheryl Grace introduced us to how a jet engine works. As a prop, she used an old full size jet engine which has had a section cut away so the students can see the inside of the engine. She also presented a demonstration of a smoke tunnel and further developed the concepts of camber, angle of attack, lift, stall, and laminar flow of air.

In the afternoon, David Campbell demonstrated the wind tunnel and how pressure sensors in the air foil can be read. He also showed us how the pressure drops during a stall. Downstairs, David showed us a working jet engine. This small jet engine only exerts about 25 lbs. of force but was LOUD!

David Campbell demonstrate a Wind Tunnel

Small Working Jet Engine

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Wednesday at U Design

Tuesday at U Design

July 12, 2011 at 9:11 pm

Another great day at U Design.

In the morning, students started by working on their Cadet Balsa planes. They needed to prepare their wings to and tail pieces to be glued together. I then gave a brief lecture on my NASA experiment. The following link will allow you to view the presentation which is a Flash file made with prezi .

Later in the morning we had a lecture/activity where the students investigated Hyperspectral Imaging with Professor Josh Semeter . For our activity, the students looked at the optical spectrum using a diffraction grating of sunlight and the light from fluorescent fixtures. Hyperspectral imaging is looking at the spectrum of different points in an image, which will be useful for looking for atmospheres around planets in other solar systems. Prof. Semester is also the Director of the BU Center for Space Physics .

Professor Semeter explains Hyperspectral Imaging

Back in the lab, I presented a brief lecture on camber, angle of attack, and the factors that affect lift and drag in airfoil design. I used several simulations from the NASA Aerodynamics Index. The particular Java simulation which nicely demonstrates these concepts is the FoilSim III simulator.

The rest of the morning was spend gluing the paper onto the Cadet airplanes. After lunch, students started working on building Estes rockets. Some students chose an easy Estes rocket to build. I would like to thank the New England Chapter of the AFCEA (The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) for donating the rockets to our camp. Some students took on the challenge of building their own rocket from scratch, which includes building and cutting your own launch tube and fins for the rockets. I am hoping that we will launch the Estes rockets Thursday morning. During the afternoon, students finished their rockets and those who built successful Cadets were given the Balsa Skylaunchers to build.

During the afternoon we also received a tour from Professor Ted Fritz. Professor Fritz is building a satellite to analyze the Aurora Borealis (the Norther Lights), and we saw this work on the 7th floor of the Photonics Center. Even more exciting, Ted is the advisor for the Boston University Student Satellite project, BUSAT. This is an satellite which is being built by a team of over 20 undergraduate students as part of an Air Force competition. Two of my BU Academy students, Nima B. and Alex B. are part of the team which is building this satellite. Nima is working with software and Alex is working with the power systems. During our tour I got to observe them at work which is a treat.

Another highlight of the day was several other BU Academy students who stopped by and tell me about their summer research. I saw Perry H. who is doing some work with metamaterials in the Averitt lab and I believe he is examining liquid ammonia with some metal in it. I will let Perry correct me. Matt R. is working with robotics helicopters in the Belta lab. Andrew C. is working with graphene in the Goldberg Lab.

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Tuesday at U Design

Monday at U Design Camp

July 11, 2011 at 8:38 pm

We had a great day at the U Design Camp. A reminder of your homework assignment. Bring in a 2 liter soda bottle.

Skystreak

The students built a Guillow Skystreak in the morning. Guillow sells a nice variety of balsa wood and foam airplanes. For lunch, the students (when not playing Ultimate Frisbee) played around with changing the position of the wings, which led into our afternoon discussion of pitch, yaw, rolling, and the parts of an airplane.

Cadet Airplane

They students also built a Guillow Cadet. They Cadet is a complicated airplane which takes about 3 days to build as there are periods where you need to wait for the glue to dry. The steps are complicated, and it is a good demonstration in which groups can follow directions, and can work methodically and carefully, versus those who try to finish quickly (so they can go play the flight simulator) At least three groups chopped up their fuselage into tiny piece. But those who can work well will be rewarded with Skylauncher, which is another fun Balsa wood airplane with a passenger!

The Cadet Airplane from Guillow

They also built a Whitewings Trainer. White Wings are paper airplanes on steroids. They are well engineered and usually made from a combination of Balsa Wood and Paper. When properly launched with a rubber band catapult, they can stay aloft for a few minutes. The Trainer is a nice plane because the students can adjust the camber (shape) of the wind and the dihedral angle of the wing to change the aerodynamics. We had a brief competition where they tried to hit a target with their WW Trainer. Many of the students also started to build either a WW Jet Plane or a Bi-Plane. Tomorrow we will finish building the advanced White Wings and if the weather holds out we can launch them at Lunchtime.

For the morning lab tour the students went down to Biomedical Engineering for a demonstration of the brain with Professor Xue Han.

By Gary Garber | Posted in NASA and Space Science | Comments Off on Monday at U Design Camp

Friday in Houston

July 10, 2011 at 9:34 pm

On Friday morning we got a Director's tour of Johnson Space Center Tour. This was a bit more involved than the Space Center Houston Tour which Catalina, Alejandro, and Leonardo went on the previous Friday. Although I never got to see Rocket Park. 🙁

The Space Exploration Vehicle. This is a prototype of the 'car' that Robonaut or future astronauts would drive around Mars (or the moon or an asteroid). What I found interesting is that the Space Suit is external to the vehicle and the astronaut enters his/her space suit from behind from inside the 'car'. They were driving the SEV around that morning for the reporters who were at JSC for a series of demonstrations leading up to this week's July 9th Space Shuttle launch.

NASA Space Exploration Vehicle

The Neutral Bouyancy Lab is where they train the astronauts in the water. The pool is about 12 meters deep. The divers get to breath a special air mixture which allows them to stay down at 10 meters for about 5 hours, which is longer than usual. They had a giant U-pipe which simulate the Space Shuttle Payload bay. Now that they are done with the Shuttle Mock-up, I think they should donate it to a skateboard park. They also have several modules of the Space Station in the pool. There is a great episode of NOVA on fixing the Hubble and they talk about the training in the pool. Unfortunately, this was the week they were doing annual maintenance on the pool and they had just filled it back up with water. So no astronaut training we could watch. 🙁

Our visit to the NBL

Shuttle Payload Bay in NBL

Space Station Modules in NBL

The details

A BIG pool

We also got to visit the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. I was told that if the SPMF wasn't full or reporters that day, they were going to let us walk around. Again, 🙁 But they had mockups of a lot of cools things.

ISS Modules

Destiny, where Robonaut 2 lives!

Shuttle Mockup

Robonaut 1 and a guy playing with LEGOS

We got to see the real Mission Control. They were very busy doing a simulation in preparation for the upcoming Space Shuttle Launch. Truth be told, it is not much more exciting than a game of Pong, where you watch a dot move across the screen.

Shuttle Mission Control

Space Shuttle on the Screen Simulation

We also got to see the ISS Flight Control Room for the American part of the Space Station. This was an active control room. We were not allowed flash pictures as we didn't want to distract them.