|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Daze Till St. Pat's 20080 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes left |
Vissions: Missouri S&TChannel Descrip:All systems go: S&T graduate, Endeavor crew have successful launch  Endeavor successfully launched tonight under a November moon from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. We wish S&T graduate and astronaut Sandra Magnus, along with the Space Shuttle's six other crew members, a good weekend.While Magnus is aboard the International Space Station, she'll be blogging on Spacebook, a Missouri S&T blog aimed at getting more kids interested in science. Readers will learn the ins-and-outs of what's it's like to be an astronaut, from launch to landing. Here's an except for her post that describes what it feels like to launch (she spent 11 days in space in 2002): "... about a minute or so before main engine cut off, we go through a time period where we feel 3g's through our chests. This is the maximum g-force that we experience. It seems to last forever and it is hard to talk; you feel like there is a 200 lb gorilla sitting on your chest. The greatest thing is that right after you feel this very strong force holding you down in your seat, the main engines cut off and you are in orbit and immediately start floating in your seat, only held down by your seat belt. It is quite a contrast!"Photo credit: NASA/KSC S&T grad to blog from space NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, a Missouri University of Science and Technology graduate, is scheduled to launch into orbit aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on Nov. 14. The space shuttle will drop Magnus off at the International Space Station for a four-month stay, during which time she will be contributing to a Missouri S&T blog aimed at getting more kids interested in science. Read the full news release here. Some stories we're working on
-- Brandi Clark, a senior in chemistry, plans to test jars of baby food to see if, perhaps, they contain harmful levels of mercury. Clark, who plans to go on to study environmental engineering in graduate school, is working on the project with Dr. Jianmin Wang, an assistant professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at S&T. Similar studies have been conducted on products found to contain arsenic and lead. Clark and Wang will test fruits, rice and meats in different brands of baby food. Clark says she also wants to test organic baby food. The results should be available next semester. NOTE: If something bad does turn out to be in baby food, look for people to link the findings to the explosion in autism cases. But that's probably getting WAY ahead of ourselves (and we're not speaking for Clark or Wang here). Oh, and where is baby food produced? Where are the jars made? Where does the food come from? We've always wondered how the heck they make that stuff. -- Elsewhere, the S&T EcoCar Team just found out that they they have been selected to receive a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain as part of the Eco-Car Challenge. Missouri S&T is one of 17 universities chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in the three-year competition. Each team will re-engineer a new Saturn VUE so that it has improved fuel economy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, while retaining the car's performance and consumer appeal. The teams will incorporate lightweight materials into the vehicles, improve aerodynamics and utilize alternative fuels like ethanol and hydrogen. Strategies for each team will depend upon the specific task they are assigned. Only one other team in the competition, a team from the University of Waterloo in Canada, will be working with a hydrogen fuel cell solution. Other teams in the challenge will be working with fully electric, range-extended electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid propulsion systems. More later. |