Discovery Space: Next Generation

Are Students Taking NASA's Place?

Well, not really. But in terms of performing some functions that used to be the exclusive domain of NASA and some major aerospace contractors, they may indeed be filling a significant void. That's the gist of a story a few days ago on Space Review, called "Student satellites: encouraging trend or a sign of panic?"

The story says that there is a growing crisis in the aerospace business: The business is booming, but not enough new people are entering the field to fill the needed jobs. Back in 2002, a national commission called the Walker Commission was formed to look into the problem. They wrote:

"In the 21st century, the U.S. must continue to have a highly skilled, stable, secure, and growing aerospace workforce, and a citizenry that is well prepared in mathematics and science.” But, according to surveys, they found that “Engineering students ... gave the aerospace industry low ratings for its physical work facilities, exciting and meaningful tasks, opportunities for professional development and growth, and supporting and encouraging management.”

So, increasingly schools are taking matters into their own hands, in the US and in other countries as well, the article says.

One major program that has been offering college students -- and even some high-school students -- a chance to go ahead and design, build and operate real space hardware on their own is one that I mentioned here in a previous post: the National Space Grant Student Satellite Program. Under this program, students build satellites that fit into a standardized shape and size but can have a wide variety of purposes. They are called Cubesats, and have so far been successfully designed and built by students at Cornell, California Polytechnic, the Universities of Arizona, Kansas, Nebraska, and Hawaii, and Montana State, among others.

The satellites are small enough to be launched as "secondary payloads," sharing a ride to orbit as a piggyback add-on to major commercial satellite launches -- a very cheap way to get a ride to orbit.

"If these projects become widespread this may have a substantial impact on the 'enthusiasm gap'," the article says. Not to mention providing real, hands-on experience of the whole process of designing and building a satellite to survive the rigors of launch and the space environment, waiting for the launch and seeing what happens (some of these satellites were lost when a Russian rocket that was providing their piggyback ride crashed -- another lesson in the realities of the space business), and then actually controlling and operating the satellites if and when the do reach orbit.

In other countries, some students have had a chance to work on even more ambitious satellite projects, One of these was the Student Space Exploration and Technology Initiative Express satellite (SSETI), which was built by students across Europe working together through internet links. It was launched in 2005.

NASA is now going a step further, as I mentioned here in another post: NASA's Ames Research Center, under the direction of its head Pete Worden (a former Air Force officer who has been at the cutting edge in thinking about innovative approaches to space travel and research for a long time), has started a project to get students working on research satellites to go into orbit around the moon. The new project is called American Student Moon Orbiter (ASMO).

Apart from NASA, others have been initiating programs on their own. Numerous universities have initiated satellite projects on their own, and private agencies like the X-Prize Foundation have been offering additional opportunities (for example, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Arizona are collaborating with a student team working on an entry in the Google Lunar X-Prize, a prize of up to $30-million for the first independent (that is, not government funded) craft to reach the moon, travel at least 500 meters, and send back lots of pictures and data. The CMU and UAz students have vowed to achieve this by the time of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon. In other words, one year from today! (Happy Apollo 11 anniversary everyone! Read Ray Villard's blog entry today for some thoughts about the ever-popular ridiculous claims that the whole thing was faked).

NASA should probably be doing more to encourage, train, and offer interesting positions for the next generation of space engineers. But in the meatime, it's nice to know that there really are some chances for students to roll up their sleeves and do significant work that will actually get to fly.

(Photos: Top 2 pictures from University of Toronto, showing cubesats attached to rocket payload ready for launch, and a collection of cubesats going through final checkout. Lower photo: SSETI satellite, courtesy of ESA)

 

Who's an Astronaut's Best Friend?

On Mars, a robot might be your best buddy. And a contest last week helped to prove the point.

Imagine you're a scientist on Mars in the early days of the human exploration of the red planet -- oh, say, a couple decades from now. Oh alright, a few decades.

You're exploring the terrain, searching for important geological clues to the planet's history, or for sources of water or other important local resources for the base, or maybe for traces of life. Then without warning a rock gives way, you stumble, and all of a sudden you're immobilized with a broken leg and a dwindling oxygen supply. Your crewmates are miles away exploring another section.

Fear not! Your faithful rover shows up in the nick of time, carrying a spare bottle of oxygen and some basic materials that you can use to fashion a splint.

Or something like that. Anyway, that's the basic concept behind one part of the Mars Society's annual competition of robots designed and built by college students around the country -- the University Rover Challenge. In this test, the roving robots had to cross unfamiliar terrain and locate a simulated stricken astronaut in order to deliver first-aid supplies. The only information they were given was the astronaut's last known position, and they had only 35 minutes to locate him. It's a situation that could possibly, in our lifetimes, become a life-or-death reality.

Of several teams entered, only one, from Oregon State University, actually found the astronaut (which was actually an empty spacesuit lying on the desert floor), and took away the prize. Georgia Tech placed second and Iowa State third, even though they didn't actually reach the goal, by each coming within a few meters of the astronaut.  The winners will get all expenses paid for five team members to attend the Mars Society's annual convention in August (and stay tuned to this spot in coming weeks -- I'll let you know more about this fascinating annual Marsfest).

Besides this Emergency Location challenge, the other sections of the competition involved one other logistics task -- fastening steeply-leaning contruction panels in place with nuts and bolts -- and two science tasks -- one that involved analyzing samples of soil for various characteristics, and the other involving geological examination of the area using different wavelengths of light. All of the tasks had to be completed by the robots within a 35-minute contest period.

The competition was held at the Mars Society's simulated Mars base in the Utah desert, called the Mars Desert Research Station, on June 6 and 7. About 60 students from ten universities in the US and Europe participated in the contest. Oregon not only won the astronaut rescue but the overall competition. University of Nevada, Reno placed second, and York University of Toronto came third.

Congratulations to all of the winners, and to all of the other competitors who worked hard but didn't get the glory. You've all helped to play a part in paving humanity's way to a biplanetary future.