Undergrads race to space with NASA rocket project

One day, students enrolled in Science, Technology and Society 497B (Sound Rocket Science) hope their project of more than a year will be shot into the mesosphere and land in the Atlantic Ocean, about 100 miles offshore.

But for now, that desire is only an abstract concept. Until then, those students huddle around tables, computers and pieces of machinery, working together to build a sounding rocket to be launched by National Aeronautics and Space Administration in May 1999.

"We have to have this thing totally designed -- every nook and cranny, nuts and bolts -- by May 31," said Keith Soldavin (senior-electrical engineering), leader of the group that will design the structure, at one recent meeting. The students sat around a table, discussed possible problems, studied a sample rocket and watched the next year of their lives spread out before them.

If successful, the rocket will test the temperature of the mesosphere in five different ways, radio results back to the launching base at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and float to safety with its insides intact. But first Soldavin's group must communicate well with the other four groups -- covering power and wiring, the experiments, radio communication and publicity -- to make sure everything works without a hitch.

The program, Student Projects Involving Rocket Investigation Techniques (SPIRIT), gives students hands-on experience with a major aerospace project that will take more than a year to complete, said Project Manager Tim Wheeler. Taking the one-credit class is simply a reward for the countless hours they put into it, students say.

"For undergraduates, it's a lot of work," said Paul Kaster (senior-electrical engineering). "But I think it'll be worth it."

The real reward comes not with the class, but with the rocket's launch. While some students will graduate before the proposed May 1999 launch, many say they plan to go to Virginia for the launch.

By then, the rocket will have been reviewed by NASA to work out unexpected bugs, and the equipment tested, Wheeler said. But until the countdown reaches zero, nobody knows for sure what will happen, he added.

"There's absolutely no guarantee that it will go up," Wheeler said, adding that about 15 percent of rocket launches never leave the ground.

If successful, the flight will last six minutes, peaking at about 120 kilometers. On the way up, two spheres will be released, one built of aluminum, the other inflatable, to test the temperature of the mesosphere. Meanwhile, small cameras attached to the rocket will photograph the ocean's surface to determine its roughness, Wheeler said.

For now, each group is considering its own dilemmas at meetings, often after the weekly class. As the power and wiring group picks apart an old piece of equipment NASA has donated for the project, the structure group considers how the rocket can float in the Atlantic after its door has opened to release the experiments.

"Nothing in and of itself is really difficult," Soldavin said. "It's just knowing where to start that's tough."