MRT students take steps to continue aerospace technology
remaining a reality for USU’s Microgravity Research Team.
The team is an undergraduate and graduate program inviting students and faculty of all disciplines to participate in space research. Formerly is was known as Get Away Special (GAS).
As MRT creates state-of-the-art aerospace technology through a trial-and-error process, the students learn skills they can apply at a hands-on level and are provided with practical job experience.
“I was excited to join the team because it will give me the opportunity actually use the skills I’m learning in my classes and apply those skills to design and produce tangible projects,” MRT member Jeff Brady said. “Plus, it will give me experience so that I will be more appealing to potential employers once I graduate.” After NASA administrators announced the development a new opportunity for space research aboard the newly designed space shuttle in 1976, R. Gilber Moore, Morton Thiokol’s executive and former USU professor helped develop the team.
Moore said he was excited about the educational opportunities this program would provide and even stood up in the middle of the presenter’s speech to ask how much each payload would cost. Moore took out his personal checkbook and bought the first Get Away Special payload reservation. He then donated the reservation to USU, creating its first Get Away Special Team.
“It is exciting to think that former and current team members and their advisers are currently doing space research and engineering at NASA and in private industry,” Moore said.
Steve Berkley, mechanical engineering major and MRT member, said he became involved with the team when he was just a sophomore at Box Elder High. Berkley explained some of his most memorable experiences, saying, “One of the coolest experiences had to be when we got our boiling water experiment back from space.”
The experiment was placed in a big container along with many other experiments and put into a space shuttle orbiting Earth. In space, there is no up or down and the bubbles went every direction, he said.
“It was neat to see the effect space had on our experiment,” Berkley said.
For more than two decades, USU has been the leader in student space research, sending more experiments into space than any other university in the world. On June 27, 1982, USU sent the first payload experiment into space and continued to send 10 more payloads into space, for a total of 11 experiments – just one less than NASA. A payload is a cubic aluminum container placed in the space shuttle containing microgravity experiments, according to mrt.usu.edu.
“One of the coolest parts about being a member of the team is being able to tell people that I help design and build experiments for space,” Berkley said. “That sounds impressive to potential employers at job interviews and also to in-laws at family reunions.”
NASA recently announced they will no longer be flying experimental payloads into space due to the impending retirement of the shuttle program. MRT is determined to continue their activism in space research and has been working to create alternative methods to assure their experiments make it to space, according to NASA.com.
The team has been creating experiments for a Student Outreach Contained Research Available to Educators (ISO-CRATE). An ISO-CRATE is completely self contained, unlike a payload, which relies on the power exuberated by the space shuttle, and weighs about 17 pounds and is the size of a shoebox.
MRT is also working on the Remote Educational Learning Module, similar to the ISO-CRATE, which is an aluminum box. The RELM contains a controller for students to program and control their experiments as well as a digital camera to record their experiment throughout the flight, according to GAS team history.
MRT is currently involved with the construction of the sixth Materials International Space Station Exposure experiment.
The MISSE consists of two aluminum suitcase-like structures which will be attached to the outside of the International Space Station.
The small structures will be filled with about 145 different material samples, such as copper, zinc and aluminum. Once attached to the International Space Station, the “suitcases” will be opened, exposing the various materials to the space environment. The idea behind this project is to discover how the sample materials handle and “weather” in space to provide knowledge that will further indicate the best materials to be used for space/satellite construction, said Andrew Auman, past MRT coordinator and current member.
Jeff Duce, MRT coordinator, said the next project the team will tackle is the construction of a replica of the historical Sputnik. Sputnik, a Russian-built rocket, was the first experiment to orbit the Earth. The first Sputnik flew Oct. 4, 1957, and now nearly 50 years later, MRT will honor the its legacy by designing, testing and building an American version of Sputnik.
“It is important for space research to continue because of the advantages and breakthroughs it has provided for life on Earth,” MRT member Andrew Auman said.
-lphippen@cc.usu.edu