{"id":58257,"date":"2014-03-28T15:06:32","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T19:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//?p=58257"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:10:31","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T19:10:31","slug":"ucf-team-tests-satellite-design-zero-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//ucf-team-tests-satellite-design-zero-gravity/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Team Tests Satellite Design in Zero Gravity"},"content":{"rendered":"
For more than 10 years, scientists and engineers have been developing satellites the size of softballs that float in space and collect data, such as weather conditions./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n These picosatellites, which weigh less than 1 kilogram (about 2.2 pounds), are a lot less expensive than conventional large satellites and easier to launch into space as secondary payloads because they take up so little room on spacecraft./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n But there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019s one problem /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2013 many payloads require that the picosatellite point in a specific direction. That/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019s where a partnership between a planetary sciences researcher and an engineering associate professor at the 海角直播 comes in./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n Todd Bradley and Yunjun Xu went to grad school together and have stayed friends throughout their careers. They both have common interests in pico-scale satellite technologies and their applications in space science. When they both got jobs at UCF, they naturally started talking about their work. Soon a joint project evolved./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n They wanted to test how well a picosatellite (more commonly known as CubeSat) can point a payload in zero gravity by using the Earth/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019s magnetic field./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201cIt/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019s just amazing how quickly the technology is moving,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201d said Nicolas Pelaez, one of two aerospace engineering students who worked on the project. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201cEverything is now getting smaller, so hopefully soon we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019ll be able to do a lot more with picosatellites in space./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n The current team, including fellow student Chris Stevens, worked on the project for a year. They made significant modifications to a 10x10x10 cm satellite (about 4 inches cubed) and then suspended it in air on a string. Two Helmholtz coils on opposite sides of the cube produced magnetic fields to mimic the Earth/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019s own field. They tested and adjusted, tested and adjusted and then tested and adjusted again until they had a working model. The NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium has provided support since 2009 when an engineering senior design team first began working on this project./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n In February Bradley, Pelaez and Stevens got to ride a Zero-G plane /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2013 courtesy of NASA in Houston /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2013 for four days to test whether their control system worked. They experienced zero gravity 160 times during their flights to see if what worked in the lab, worked on the plane. Click here to see a video of the experience./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201cIt did, I can say it was successful,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201d said Bradley, who leads the zero-gravity experiments for the team. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201cWe/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u2019re still combing through all the data we collected, but it worked just as we expected it would./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/58257/n