Columbus, Georgia

Experiment Title: Improving Space Communication Technology Through the Study of Induced Spacecraft Tumbling

Student members of the Columbus High School Space Program proposed an experiment to measure the tumble rate of a two pound pico-satellite. The idea came from reading the design reviews of a proposed satellite by students at Auburn University which would communicate with the ground effectively without any attitude control. During the reviews, a question came up about how much the spacecraft would spin once deployed. In fact, if the Auburn spacecraft did not spin very much, the purpose of the mission to test the spinning communication scheme would not be fulfilled. The high school students proposed to adjust the center of mass of the satellite and deploy it in the same way it would be done in space aboard the NASA Reduced Gravity plane. Data will be taken in the form of video data and analysis software developed at Glenn Research Center will be used to measure rates of rotation for each center of mass adjustment and configuration change. Updated information is available from the project web-page at: http://www.columbus2space.org.

L-R: Chris Spraggins, Luther Richardson, Gail Sinkule, Coy Kouba, NASA mentor