THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240510
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHINCOTEAGUE LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Chuck Leonard launched his thesis project into the upper atmosphere Wednesday and watched the fragile invention as it dangled at the end of a 73-foot-wide balloon.
Four hours later, with a radio command from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, the balloon burst open and Leonard's device to measure air turbulence parachuted into a soybean field.
``Unfortunately,'' Leonard said of his master's thesis, ``it's riding on a hot-wire, so it's a bit tenuous.''
Leonard, an aerospace graduate student at Old Dominion University, was among the students from ODU, the College of William and Mary and Hampton University who sent experiments 96,500 feet skyward as part of a science mission.
The $38,000 flight was sponsored by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, a coalition of schools, government agencies and science institutes. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility provided the research balloon and launch support.
``It was a good flight,'' said NASA spokesman Keith Koehler. ``You could see it from here as it was returning.''
The balloon landed three miles from where it took off.
Leonard had a lot riding on the balloon. He designed and built a sensitive device called a hot-wire anemometer that hung like a fishing pole from the payload gondola tied to the balloon. The device measures air turbulence by recording fluctuations in electric current through a wire one-tenth the thickness of a human hair. The wire is so fine that falling dust can break it.
The hot-wire device was supposed to feed data into a microcomputer in the balloon's gondola. Leonard will use that information to determine if a global-positioning satellite system is sensitive enough to measure atmospheric turbulence.
That's pretty scientific stuff for a student. Which, of course, is the point of the Space Grant Consortium's project: to show students what it takes to be a scientist.
The William and Mary students provided equipment to sample air for pollution. And the Hampton University students used a laser to survey the density of water vapor at high altitudes.
While the launch was successful and the experiments recovered, the data must be analyzed to determine whether the experiments worked.
``By working on this real-world project, we learn how important teamwork is,'' said Bryan Marz, student project manager and graduate student in mechanical engineering at ODU.
Marz spent 18 months organizing production schedules and integrating the three experiments into a single package. His biggest problem: The on-board computer couldn't handle the 15-volt electricity required for Hampton University's experiment.
Marz solved the problem by inserting a voltage divider and reducing the power fed to the computer.
Cynthia Blackburn, an ODU undergraduate, helped design the box that housed the experiments. The aluminum cube was covered with shiny plastic to protect the contents from temperature extremes and had thick cardboard ``feet'' to cushion its landing.
Blackburn said her team's job was to make sure the box was strong enough to withstand the parachute landing. She used stress-analysis computer software to perfect the design.
``The experiments are interesting,'' Blackburn said, ``but I want to know if it breaks up when it hits the ground.'' ILLUSTRATION: ``It's a bit tenuous''
[Color Photo]
BILL TIERNAN
Staff photos
Above, Chuck Leonard checks the arm holding his hot-wire anemometer,
which uses a wire one-tenth the thickness of a human hair to measure
air turbulence. Left, a balloon carrying the anemometer and two
other experiments soars above the Wallops Flight Facility.
by CNB