ISU
Team “Mixes It Up” in Zero-G by Regina Hendrickson
While some students spent summer
vacations catching waves or lying on sandy beaches, a team of
students from Iowa State University had the opportunity to experience
first-hand what it is like to float in zero gravity 28,000 to
36,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico.
David Chipman, Clayton Neumann, Jonathan Gettler, Kevin Schroeder, Russ Uthe,
Dustin Lunde, and Advisor Dr. Cheryll Reitmeier make up Team CyMix, one
of two ISU teams selected this year to participate in NASA’s Reduced
Gravity Student Flight Opportunities (RGSFOP) Program. Their experiment, “Soybean
Sugar Extraction Through Innovative Blending Design” featured a blender
designed for use in microgravity.
What is unique about Team CyMix’s blender is that unlike blenders on
Earth, it doesn’t depend on gravity to pull food toward the blades. Instead,
a metal plate moves back and forth under a roller-like blending head to crush
food. It is also unique in that it is believed to be one of the first food
technology-related experiments to fly in the RGSFOP program.
After months of planning, paperwork, fundraising, and performing outreach activities
the prototype for the blender, about the size of two microwaves, was complete
in July. Shortly thereafter team members, with the exception of Uthe and
Reitmeier, found themselves at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas,
stepping into flight suits bearing their names.
While at Johnson Space Center the team participated in several training sessions.
Once training was complete, they were given the opportunity to test their
blender on NASA’s Boeing KC-135A aircraft, also known as the “weightless
wonder.”
“The airplane
flew in such a way that we had 23 30-second periods of zero-g which is
the same gravity environment that one would experience in actual space
flight,” said team member David Chipman.
According to Chipman, the team’s blender performed well but running the
experiment during the zero-g flight turned out to be a little more challenging
than the students had anticipated. “On Earth, everything you put down
stays where you put it—clamps, bags, etc. But in zero-g, we had to Velcro,
clamp down, or hold on to anything that wasn't attached to the structure or
airplane. Anything that we didn’t floated away. That was really cool,
but it can pose a challenge when you are running an experiment.”
“On
Earth, everything you put down stays where you put it—clamps,
bags, etc. But in zero-g, we had to Velcro, clamp down, or hold
on to anything that wasn't attached to the structure or airplane.
Anything that we didn’t floated away. That was really cool,
but it can pose a challenge when you are running an experiment.”—David
Chipman
Because the weight of the blending head on the team’s prototype applies
a force on Earth that works along with the springs to crush the beans, adjustments
needed to be made to compensate for the zero-g environment. In addition, the
blender plate that moves back and forth beneath the blending head moved much
more easily in zero gravity when friction, which results from the weight of
the blender plate, was absent.
Human factors also unexpectedly came into play on the team’s first flight
when Gettler succumbed to motion sickness. “Our experiment requires two
people to run, so it was a challenge to be efficient and get proper alignment
of the bags on the plate with one man down,” said Chipman.
Overall the students believe the experiment went well, and that their team
was able to get good data from both flight days.
In addition to their flight, they were given a private tour of the food technology
department at Johnson Space Center. There they met a food technologist who
expressed interest in viewing a copy of their final report.
The students believe making connections like this could provide
valuable feedback on what NASA is looking for in future food
processors for space. “Test
directors and reviewers were interested in our blender and the challenge we
were addressing,” says Chipman. “Experiments like the one we did
are necessary as NASA looks to long-term space missions to the Moon and Mars.”
“Experiments like the one
we did are necessary as NASA looks to long-term space missions
to the Moon and Mars.”—David Chipman
Did participating in the 2004 NASA RGSFOP Program satisfy Team
CyMix’s
appetite for zero gravity experimentation? “We are entertaining the idea
of submitting an RGSFOP experiment for next year that would have more functions
and be more compact,” says Chipman. Given the chance, Chipman admits
he could be persuaded to pursue his interest in space further. “If I
ever had the opportunity, I would like to be an astronaut,” he hints.
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