UNR Faculty and Students Launch Experiments to Space on NASA Rocket

RockOn/RockSat participants pose in front of the launch pad at NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. NASA's Terrier Orion rocket lifts off with faculty and student experiments on board. Photos courtesy of Eric Wang

Nearly 100 university instructors and students from 21 states saw their experiments rise to the sky at 5:30 a.m. on the morning of June 26 with the successful launch of a NASA suborbital sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.  During the past week, the students have been at Wallops preparing their experiments through a week-long RockOn/RockSat workshop.

The two-stage Terrier-Orion rocket carried the experiments to an altitude of 73 miles, some 10 miles above the official definition of the edge of space.  The experiments were recovered and the students and faculty successfully retrieved data from their experiments.

Representing the University of Nevada, Reno were Gabriel Herz (junior in Mechanical Engineering), Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe (Materials Science and Engineering), and Dr. Eric Wang (Mechanical Engineering). The UNR team was sponsored by the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium. The team built and sent a payload containing of suite of sensors including a Geiger counter, 6 accelerometers, a temperature sensor and a pressure sensor.

The program is conducted in partnership with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia with support from NASA. The purpose of the workshop is to teach future scientists and engineers first hand-how to develop experiments for flight on sounding rockets. Faculty and students will carry their new-found knowledge back to their home campuses where they can work on future experiments for flight on subsequent launches.

For more information contact:

Mary Sandy, 757-218-4496; msandy@odu.edu
Eric Wang, 775-784-6094; eric.wang@unr.edu
Jeffrey LaCombe, 775-784-1797; lacomj@unr.edu

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See article by the Nevada Appeal for full details of the lecture.

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For links to some fantastic NASA opportunities click here.

Experience NASA

The Ames Education Associates Program is a unique experiential learning program that provides university students and faculty the opportunity to "experience NASA." As an Educational Associate, you will have the opportunity to participate in a project related to one or more of NASA's missions:

* Space Shuttle and International Space Station
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For more information about this program and who can participate, click here.

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