Washington University students to ride microgravity plane
John Scott
Issue date: 2/6/08 Section: News
According to Sullivan, allowing Bandit to free float will give much better data regarding the propulsion system, but it will also present additional challenges due to the speed of the plane and the potential for problems.
"[The satellite] will not be attached to the plane, which is dangerous," said Sullivan. "There [need] to be people watching it at all times."
Last year, the University's team finished second place in the competition. Cornell University, last year's winner, will not be competing. If the University wins this year, the team will have the opportunity to launch the satellite.
"We don't want it to be here, we want it to be in space. So many people worked on it through their college years [and] graduated," said Sullivan.
Many improvements have been made to the satellite with each subsequent test.
"Last year, Bandit could only see a quarter frame per second. Now it can see 15 frames per second," said Sullivan. "We are seeing in time what [Bandit] would be seeing in space, which is good, because if something were to happen, we really can't be seeing a quarter frame per second. We wouldn't be able to save it then."
Sullivan said both she and the University have benefited from participating in such a project.
"I feel like it has added a lot to my college experience. I came to Wash. U. because of the satellite program," she said.
According to Mathias and Sullivan, the project also has an outreach segment, which visits several local schools to educate students.
"There's not a lot of space knowledge sharing going on in middle school situations because space is really expensive. You can't do it in middle school. It's an exciting tie for us to have with the middle school [students]," said Sullivan.
The group's proposal states that a craft similar to Akoya/Bandit would be useful "to investigate and photograph another spacecraft at close range" and be used to check for damage.
"[The satellite] will not be attached to the plane, which is dangerous," said Sullivan. "There [need] to be people watching it at all times."
Last year, the University's team finished second place in the competition. Cornell University, last year's winner, will not be competing. If the University wins this year, the team will have the opportunity to launch the satellite.
"We don't want it to be here, we want it to be in space. So many people worked on it through their college years [and] graduated," said Sullivan.
Many improvements have been made to the satellite with each subsequent test.
"Last year, Bandit could only see a quarter frame per second. Now it can see 15 frames per second," said Sullivan. "We are seeing in time what [Bandit] would be seeing in space, which is good, because if something were to happen, we really can't be seeing a quarter frame per second. We wouldn't be able to save it then."
Sullivan said both she and the University have benefited from participating in such a project.
"I feel like it has added a lot to my college experience. I came to Wash. U. because of the satellite program," she said.
According to Mathias and Sullivan, the project also has an outreach segment, which visits several local schools to educate students.
"There's not a lot of space knowledge sharing going on in middle school situations because space is really expensive. You can't do it in middle school. It's an exciting tie for us to have with the middle school [students]," said Sullivan.
The group's proposal states that a craft similar to Akoya/Bandit would be useful "to investigate and photograph another spacecraft at close range" and be used to check for damage.
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