{"id":61407,"date":"2014-09-18T16:38:04","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T20:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=61407"},"modified":"2020-08-25T11:49:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T15:49:28","slug":"space-launch-carry-experiments-ucf-professor-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/space-launch-carry-experiments-ucf-professor-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Launch to Carry Experiments of UCF Professor, Graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"
Two payloads on Saturday morning\u2019s SpaceX-4 launch at Cape Kennedy will have UCF ties.<\/p>\n
The launch is scheduled for 2:16 a.m. from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and will deliver cargo and crew supplies to the International Space Station. Several experiments on the flight will include:<\/p>\n
Colwell\u2019s experiment in a six-inch-square box will look at slow-speed collisions of dust, which aren\u2019t possible to create in Earth\u2019s gravity. The results of the low-energy collisions will be used to help understand the processes in action in the protoplanetary disk, the disk of dust and gas that surrounds the center of our solar system. The test will lay the groundwork for experimenting with larger particles.<\/p>\n
Colwell, who is also assistant director of the Florida Space Institute<\/a>, studies the origin of the solar system, including the early stages of planets, Saturn\u2019s rings, and the evolution of comets and asteroids.<\/p>\n