NC Space Grant | 2006-07 Program Awards

Appalichian State University

Development of a Gamma Ray Burst Optical Afterglow Response Telescope with Background Exoplanet Search Mode
New Investigations Program
Dr. Daniel Caton

A special telescope will be assembled at Appalachian State University’s Dark Sky Observatory to observe the afterglow of gamma ray bursts (GRBs). Those events are observed by NASA’s Swift satellite which automatically notifies a network of ground-based telescopes to observe the visible-light event that follows the gamma ray burst. Since only a few bursts happen per week the telescope will spend its idle time (while waiting for a GRB notification), searching for exopolanets (planets around other stars), by looking for drops in brightness when those planets come between us and their parent star.

Measurement of the Viscosity of the Martian Atmosphere
New Investigations Program
Dr. Tonya Coffey

Martian dust coats the scientific equipment exploring the planet, causing it to malfunction. Properties of Mars dust, including size and charge, must be studied to create ways to combat its effects and presence on scientific equipment and solar panels. The Dust Particle Analyzer (DPA) studies dust particles falling inside a chamber filled with simulated Martian atmosphere. The viscosity of CO2 is used to approximate Martian atmosphere viscosity in the calculations of the dust's size and charge, but the accuracy of this approximation is questionable. We are therefore making precise measurements of the viscosity of the Martian atmosphere, which will aid in DPA calculations.

North Carolina A&T State University

Senior-Year Engineering Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Project
Higher Education Course Development Program
Dr. Wililam Craft

Student teams from North Carolina A&T State University will work with the staff of the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute to address four major engineering challenges facing the observatory.

Balancing of the second radio telescope for better tracking precision,
Profiling dish geometry surveys of both radio telescopes to improve their signal-collecting capabilities, particularly in the high frequency spectrum,
Monitoring the dish surfaces in real time to maximize sensitivity in any position, and
Creating an instrument package on each dish designed for optical fiber control.

North Carolina State University

State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research Symposium: Free Registration and Poster Printing for NCSG Undergraduate Researchers
Higher Education Course Development Program
Dr. George Barthalmus

Undergraduate researchers participating at the 11 NC Space Grant universities will be provided free registration and printing of their research posters at the 2nd annual State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research Symposium in Raleigh on November 18, 2006. Further, students who have conducted allied research through Special Topics, Capstone or Honors Thesis for credit may also present their work before the North Carolina audience.

The Aero/Space Economy in North Carolina: Involving the NC Economic Development Partnerships.
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Chris Brown

North Carolina has a modest presence in the narrowly prescribed core aerospace industry but a more significant presence, and potential for growth, in the broadly inclusive aerospace-related cluster. Activity in this broader Aero/Space Economy could have widely distributed impacts throughout virtually all major industry sectors and geographic regions.

In this project we will meet with each of the state’s seven Economic Development Partnerships to discuss the economic value of the Aero/Space Economy and its relevance to their region. This is crucial to building a statewide economic and political constituency for the purpose of furthering the development of the Aero/Space Economy.

Human Influences on the Sensitivity of Fire Regimes to Climate
New Investigations Program
Dr. William Hoffmann

Fire behavior is highly sensitive to meteorological conditions, so even modest changes in climate have pronounced impacts on the observed number, intensity and size of wildfires. Humans, however, are responsible for igniting most vegetation fires worldwide, and therefore influence the way in which fire activity responds to climate. Using satellite images, ground weather data and a fire behavior model to quantify how human activity influences the effect of climate on biomass burning. This work will permit development of improved global fire models for predicting global consequences of climate change.

Establishment of Stress Resistant Tomatoes for Advanced Life Support in Space Exploration
New Investigations Program
Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya

Advanced Life Support Systems for Space Exploration requires plants which can withstand conditions beyond the adaptive range of our current wild or domesticated plants. My work focuses on understanding signal transduction pathways that are involved in plant responses to environmental conditions. We have taken a biotechnological approach – introduction of stress tolerant traits into valuable crops by changing levels of metabolites involved in stress signal transduction pathway. We will develop crops (tomato) resistant to extreme environmental conditions like cold and drought.

Development of Tethered Aerial Platform for Space Systems Senior Design Program
Higher Education Course Development Program
Andre Mazzoleni

This project involves developing a tethered aerial platform for the space systems design program in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering program at NC State. The design program involves developing technologies such as lunar "crush-type" hard-landers, lunar penetrator missions, and "crawlers" for space elevators. All of these projects will benefit from the ability to deploy a large tethered floating platform which can be used to test these technologies. The proposed activities will provide opportunities for students to learn about planning, designing, purchasing, fabrication, testing and working in teams.

Phosphoinositide Signaling and Plant Responses to Gravity and other Environmental Stimuli
New Investigations Program
Dr. Imara Perera

Plants provide a source of food and a means of purifying the air and water and therefore are important for both long distance space travel and for colonizing other planets. However, since the space environment is not optimal for plant growth, understanding how plants sense and respond to changes in their environment is critical for designing plants better adapted to extreme conditions. My work is focused on the phosphoinositide (PI) pathway which is involved in plant responses to stress. We have generated transgenic plants with altered PI metabolism and will characterize their response to different environmental stimuli including gravity, drought, cold, and pathogen attack.

Developing Multi-Layer Structure for Multi-thread Protections Systems
New Investigations Program
Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei

The objective of this work is to design, fabricate and characterize the structural members using metal foams in the form of sandwich panels. Compound panels composed of layers of open and closed cell Al foams separated from each other with solid panels with the option of passing a second phase (such as water) through the open cell section in order to not only increase the radiation shielding, but also control the temperature inside the vehicle. The surface panel sides of the sandwich panel can be coated on both sides to provide maximum shielding against all different types of radiation.

Engaging Kenan Fellows as NC Space Grant Ambassadors: Leveraging a Model Program of Teacher Leadership and Curriculum Development to Expand the Reach of Space Grant throughout NC K-12 STEM Education
K-12 Professional Development Program
Dr. William Tucci

Twenty-eight Kenan Fellows will travel in July to Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, to explore the educational uses of astronomical and earth science instruments, particularly student use of radio telescopes remotely. Following the PARI visit, Fellows will travel to NASA’s NC Educator Resource Center at UNC-Charlotte, to become familiar with the use of NASA-generated materials. Later in the month, the Kenan Fellows will travel to NASA-Langley to explore the curricular materials available at that site for use in their curriculum projects.

The Fellows will integrate NASA materials in their curriculum products, which will reach across a range of subject areas and grade levels. Dissemination to the teachers of North Carolina will be on the Kenan Fellows, NC DPI, and Learn NC web sites.

North Carolina Students Participating in Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NCSPACE)
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Braska Williams

NC Students Participating in an Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NC S.P.A.C.E.) at the North Carolina-Mathematics Science Education Network (NC-MSEN) North Carolina State University (NCSU) Pre-College Program (PCP) will sponsor a variety of activities to expose underserved students and parents to careers and activities in the aerospace engineering field. Students will travel to NCSU’S Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department and NASA-Langley Research Center for a tour. The MAE Department of NCSU and the College of Engineering will present workshops to parents and students on the various careers in engineering and particularly, MAE engineering. In addition, teachers who work in the NC-MSEN PCP will be trained on the utilization of NASA Aerospace Curriculum in the classroom.

Developing Nonlinerar Optimal and Robust Control Techniques for Space Exploration
New Investigations Program
Dr. Fen Wu

Spacecraft and reusable launch vehicles have inherent nonlinear characteristics that cannot be ignored. For these systems, global/semi-global stability is a desired property for the safety of their space missions. Increasingly stringent operating requirements of spacecraft have also continually demanded high performance flight control systems. This research effort will be focused on the development of novel nonlinear control theory. Its application to high-precision spacecraft attitude control problem presents significant technical challenges and has great importance in achieving NASA strategic goal in space exploration.

Integrating Smart Wireless Sensors in Structural Health Monitoring Course
Higher Education Course Development Program
Dr. Fuh-Gwo Yuan

This project will set up the experimental part of the course entitled "Introduction to Structural Health Monitoring," by obtaining smart wireless sensors, telemetry module, and system hardware/software to identify the structural damage due to either impact or fatigue from wireless sensor networks. With these experiments the course would greatly benefit by integrating the SHMS with hands-on experience, thereby allowing the students to get a complete picture of the subject.

University of North Carolina at Asheville

Fall Space Week at Vance Elementary, 2006
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Judith Beck

Educators from the University of North Carolina Asheville and from the Colburn Earth Science Museum will collaborate in designing and implementing a week of programming for all students at Vance Elementary School, a designated “NASA Explorers School.” The programming will consist of StarLab planetarium shows and inquiry-based activities surrounding space and space-related technology and design. Teachers will be provided with materials for follow-up and extension activities. Following “Space Week” at the school, the students and their families will be invited to attend a day of planetarium shows and family-oriented activities about space at the museum.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

A Numerical and Analytical Investigation into Determining Optimal Fracture Parameters for the Numerical Modeling of Crack Propagation Using the Cohesive Finite-Element Technology
New Investigations Program
Dr. Kingshuk Bose

Fracture in structural components is an important consideration during the design phases of spacecrafts. To avoid catastrophic failure of space structures, it is important to prevent the initiation of new cracks as well as the growth of any pre-existing cracks. In addition to experiments, engineers typically use computer simulations to assess the likelihood of fracture in spacecraft components. This project aims at improving the effectiveness of such simulations by addressing some shortcomings of one of the emerging techniques for analyzing such problems, based on the use of cohesive finite elements.

Mapping Red Wolf habitat in North Carolina with Satellite Remote Sensing: An improved Supervised Classification method Using Multiple Spatial Resolution Images
New Investigations Program
Dr. John Chadwick

Dr. John Chadwick of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte will use satellite images and GIS techniques to provide detailed mapping information for the red wolf reintroduction program in the eastern U.S. The first part of the study will be to develop a method for using high resolution satellite images to improve the effectiveness of less-costly lower-resolution images for mapping. The second part of the study will be to use tracking locations from several GPS-collared red wolves in eastern North Carolina with digital land-use maps to allow red wolf managers to better understand the wolves' behavior and habitat preferences.

North Carolina Students Participating in Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NCSPACE)
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Victor Mack

The UNC Charlotte Pre-College Program North Carolina Students Participating in an Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NC S.P.A.C.E.) seeks to provide educational opportunities integrating STEM and flight. Activities will include:

professional development activities for teachers;
hands-on instruction regarding flight principles for students;
videoconferencing with NASA professionals;
a state-level competition incorporating flight with a NASA keynote speaker; and
an opportunity for one science instructor to learn and experience Space Camp.

These activities will be conducted in an effort to increase parent, student, and teacher awareness in flight –related careers.

Far-From-Equilibrium Processing of Ultra-Light Alloys with Advanced Properties for Space Applications
New Investigations Program
Dr. Qiuming Wei

One of the most important requirements for materials in space applications is light weight. This is because use of light weight materials increases the payload of the space vehicles. Light weight alloys for space applications include alloys based on magnesium, aluminum and beryllium. Far-from-equilibrium processing such as severe plastic deformation (SPD) can remarkably refine the dimension of the microstructures of such alloys and hence greatly improve their specific strength (strength divided by mass density). This project takes on the effort to explore the capability of such processing toward improved microstructure and mechanical properties of the representative ultra-light alloys.

A Course Proposal: Design of Intelligent Spacecraft
Higher Education Course Development Program
Dr. Andrew Willis

An inter-disciplinary course is proposed which integrates concepts from mathematics, physics, engineering and computer science to educate students on the design of intelligent spacecraft. Course instruction takes a new tact best summarized by the expression : All science was new at some point. This approach augments class topics with historic context and, in some cases, facsimiles of original works such as Galileo's theory on planetary motion. Course topics include mathematical models of planetary motion and heat transfer and how these models are used in designing intelligent spacecraft, i.e., robotic systems which can autonomously perform complex space-mission tasks.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

North Carolina Students Participating in Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NCSPACE)
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Dianne Affleck

NC Students Participating in an Aerospace Collaborative Experience (NC S.P.A.C.E.) at the NC-MSEN (North Carolina-Mathematics Science Education Network) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Pre-College Program (PCP) will host a series of informative and hands-on learning general astronomy experiences with a focus on astrobiology. NC-MSEN PCP students, teachers, and parents will be targeted with planned activities open to the community. With the support of UNC CH faculty/graduate students, Morehead Planetarium staff, NASA personnel, and the UNC CH NC Space Grant Campus Director, personnel will be recruited to conduct astronomy/astrobiology teacher workshops, training, activities and planetarium visits.

Destination: Space – Launch Weekend
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Jeff Hill

"Destination: Space–Launch Weekend" is a general public engagement program at Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. "Launch Weekend" is a series of events focusing on human space exploration and leveraging the excitement surrounding the opening of the planetarium’s new show, "Destination: Space," an original production about the original space race and NASA’s renewed efforts to send humans to the moon and Mars.

Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke will deliver a talk to anchor "Launch Weekend" activities. Morehead is also planning a presentation by an active NASA astronaut.

"Destination: Space–Launch Weekend" is tentatively planned for Sept. 28-30, 2006.

Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes of the Early Universe: PROMPT and Skynet
New Investigations Program
Dr. Daniel Reichart

This program will support the completion of UNC-Chapel Hill's near-infrared PROMPT telescope in the Chilean Andes, which will be used to identify the most distant explosions in the universe, while they're still only tens of seconds old. It will also be used to help support development of Skynet, which controls PROMPT and a rapidly growing number of small telescopes across the US as well, all through easy to use web pages.

The Launch Pad Professional Development Series for Informal Science Educators in the NC Grassroots Science Museums Collaborative
K-12 Professional Development Program
Dr. Denise Young

The Launch Pad Professional Development Series will provide three days of professional development for NC museum and science center educators in the area of astronomy and space science. The topics of the sessions: 1. Misconceptions in astronomy/ best practices; 2. NASA’s new vision for space exploration; 3. NC resources for informal educators, formal educators and K-12 students. Presenters will include NASA scientists and engineers, experienced educators and university faculty. The ultimate goal of the project is to enhance the ability of informal science educators to serve K-12 students and teachers in the areas of astronomy and space science.

University of North Carolina at Pembroke

Using Computers and Computer Modeling in Astronomy
K-12 Professional Development Program
Dr. Jose D’Arruda

Using NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program as an Effective Outreach Tool to Reach Native American Youth
General Public Engagement Program
Dr. Timothy Ritter

Over the past four years a joint team of students from UNC Charlotte and UNC Pembroke have participated in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunity Program. This program provides undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct microgravity research on board a modified C-9 aircraft. An important part of the program is community outreach. The team, which is predominantly Native American, reaches out to communities through our presentations at schools, youth programs, etc. in order to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. With the funds from this grant the team will make 1-2 outreach presentations per month to largely, but not exclusively, Native American youth across the state of North Carolina.