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Clarkson student experiments to be aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft set to launch this afternoon

Posted 4/14/15

POTSDAM -- Experiments worked on by three Clarkson University students will be aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft en route to the International Space Station (ISS) in a launch …

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Clarkson student experiments to be aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft set to launch this afternoon

Posted

POTSDAM -- Experiments worked on by three Clarkson University students will be aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft en route to the International Space Station (ISS) in a launch scheduled this afternoon, April 14.

Sergio Gallucci, aeronautical engineering/honors program, of Campbell Hall; Tyler Fuerst, aeronautical engineering and mechanical engineering, of Lake Luzerne; and Whitney Blocher, chemical engineering, of Middletown, R.I., were interns last summer at the U.S. DOE’s Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) where they prepared polymer samples for the space environment of the ISS.

Aerospace scientists have struggled with how to repurpose used booster rockets that cost tens of millions of dollars to build. That could change if SpaceX's launch planned for 4:33 p.m. and soft landing attempt succeeds in sending its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit and returning it to Earth, intact and primed for another launch.

The launch was originally scheduled for Monday afternoon but was rescheduled for this afternoon due to weather

The Synthetic Muscle: Resistance to Radiation; Ras Labs-CASIS-ISS Project for Synthetic Muscle: Resistance to Radiation (Synthetic Muscle) investigation tests the radiation resistance of an electroactive polymer called Synthetic Muscle, developed by Ras Labs, which can contract like real muscle and can also expand.

The payload, eight Synthetic Muscle samples, is a polymer that has the potential to act as if it were muscle fibers in response to voltage differentials. The experiment will last 90 days, gathering information on the effects of the low earth orbit space environment on the functioning of the samples.

The three Clarkson students worked with other interns on samples going into gamma radiation testing and analyzed the effects of it on the function of the material. Gallucci and Fuerst worked with the plasma treatment of titanium coupons for the payload and supported ballistic testing of the samples to analyze possible damage by G-forces during launch.

Gallucci also designed the aluminum envelope of the payload to ensure minimum jitter and the probability of cross-contamination from launch to termination shock, and analyzed the space environment variables that could be expected in possible ISS configurations, including compliance with ISS environmental regulations.

The versatile material worked on by the Clarkson interns has the potential to introduce revolutionary movement potential to robotics: muscle fibers that could allow for a revolution of robotic movement, and through this experiment, radiation-resistant muscle fibers that could allow robots to replace humans in some situations in irradiated disaster sites, as well as in outer space.

Robots will be of increasing importance on future space missions, where they could perform tasks too difficult or too dangerous for humans. Robots built with Synthetic Muscle would have more human-like capabilities, but the material would have to withstand the rigors of space as well as any metal.

This project brought together resources from the PPPL, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and the U.S. Army.

Read more about the project at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1291.html.