AE Students Perform NASA Test of iPAD Use in Microgravity

4/2/2013 Written by Susan Mumm

Five AE students moved closer to the dream of being an astronaut when the NASA chose their team to conduct an experiment in microgravity.

Written by Written by Susan Mumm

Five AE students moved a step closer to the dream of being an astronaut recently when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chose their team to conduct an experiment in microgravity.

The AE at Illinois team aboard the 'Weightless Wonder.'
The AE at Illinois team aboard the 'Weightless Wonder.'
The AE at Illinois team aboard the 'Weightless Wonder.'

The students worked with NASA mentor Sherri Thaxton on demonstrating and recording human response to using an iPAD tablet computer in microgravity. The experiment’s results will be useful for astronauts while on the International Space Station and in other microgravity situations. Steve D’Urso, faculty advisor for the AE team’s project, said astronauts follow lists of strict procedures in conducting their work. NASA is interested in reducing and replacing the volume of paper used to print out these procedures and keep records by transferring the astronauts’ tasks from paper to iPADs. Student Dan Regan of Wheaton, Illinois, said Boeing is also interested in the data, as the company considers whether to use iPADs (or other tablets) in the cockpit of Boeing’s CCDev capsule.

Along with Regan, Jordan Holquist of Springfield, Illinois; Erik Lopez of Los Angeles, California; Zak Lee-Richerson of Peoria, Illinois; and Samantha McCue of Bartlett, Illinois, were chosen from AE to be one of the eight teams nationwide for NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight. The students traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston in April to conduct experiments aboard the “Weightless Wonder” (alias the “Vomit Comet”). The aircraft is hollowed and padded so passengers can experience free floating in near zero gravity.

AE at Illinois group.
AE at Illinois group.
AE at Illinois group.

The students divided into two groups of three, with one group including Thraxton. During the 1 ½ hour flights reaching altitudes of 40,000 feet, the students experienced zero-gravity in 30 parabolas lasting about 20 seconds each. The time to conduct experiments and gather data was limited, so the groups spent a great deal of time strategizing before the actual take-offs. “They came organized and focused,” said D’Urso. “(NASA) organizers said the (Illinois students) stood apart from other teams, and were very professional in that respect.”

The students experimented with working on a free-floating iPAD, and with one tethered to one of their arms. They worked with the machine’s switches, buttons and sliders, with the latter proving to be the most important of the three tests. The students recorded the effects of the microgravity on typing speed and hand-eye coordination.

“The iPAD was harder to work with in microgravity,” Regan said. “It’s a lot more difficult than typing on the ground.”

The flights provided some time for play as well as work: in the last two parabolas the students got to do flips and acrobatics while floating. “We also did one parabola with lunar gravity (microgravity) and one with Mars gravity (strong gravity)” to experience the difference, Lopez said.

In addition to conducting the flight experiments, the Illinois students were treated to tours of Lockheed Martin’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Boeing’s CST-100 Avionics Laboratory and the space center’s Neutral Buoyancy Room where astronauts practice physical movements while wearing spacesuits. The tours were made possible in part through connections with AE alumni Lee Archambault, Steve Hoffman, Blaine Brown and Mike Lembeck. Archambault, an astronaut; Hoffman, who works at SAIC; Brown, a program director for Lockheed Martin Corp.; and Lembeck, Chief Executive Officer of Lembeck Engineering, met with the students while they were in Houston.

“They were so quick to go out of their way for us,” Regan said of the alumni hosts. The Illinois Space Grant Consortium and the Illinois Space Society, a student organization, helped sponsor the students’ trip to Houston.

The students believe working on the microgravity project will be a bonus to list on their resumes, and was an experience they’re unlikely to forget. “I already wanted to be an astronaut in the first place,” Holquist said. “This is like crossing one thing off the list of things to do that.”

To view more photos, please go to the Aerospace Engineering at The University of Illinois Facebook page.


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This story was published April 2, 2013.