ISGC helps send ISU team on "vomit comet"

Andy Tekippe (left), John Yenac (flight director), and David Shoemaker during a weightless free fall on the KC-135A

The Iowa Space Grant Consortium helped to sponsor an Iowa State University team selected from 69 university groups to participate in NASA's 2004 Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. The team traveled to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in March for a nine-day session culminating in a flight on NASA's KC-135A aircraft, more commonly known as the "weightless wonder" or the "vomit comet."

The ISU team, consisting of four engineering students and one alternate, launched a spacecraft called CyCADET (Control and Attitude Determination Evaluation Testbed), which tested many of the systems to be used by CySat, a pico satellite they are building.

The ISU team members (l. to r.) pose in front of the KC135A: Mike Sparks, Tyler Rasmussen, Tom Calgaard, David Shoemaker and Andy Tekippe.

Members of the team were David Shoemaker, CyCADET project leader and mechanical engineering senior from West Des Moines, senior aerospace engineering majors Michael Sparks of Norwalk and Andrew Tekippe of Vinton, and sopohomore mechanical engineering major Tyler Rasmussen of Independence. Thomas Calgaard, a senior aerospace engineering major from Clear Lake, served as an alternate and traveled with the team to Houston.

All five men participated in rigorous training prior to the KC-135A launch. They heard lectures from NASA officials on the physiological effects of such travel and underwent intense instruction within a hypobaric chamber. Once aboard the KC-135A, team members experienced a weightless free-fall environment for about 25 seconds at a time on several occasions throughout the flight. Two members participated one day and the other two flew the following day.

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Michael Sparks (left), CyCADET and Tyler Rasmussen aboard the KC-135A

"Flying in the microgravity environment of the KC-135A is an experience like no other," said Shoemaker. "Having flown for the first time two years ago, it was great to have the sensation of weightlessness rush back into me. I think that flying the second time was even more fun because I did not have any anxieties about the flight and I was able to have more fun during the parabolas."

During the team's flights, CyCADET was put through a series of experiments to test CySat's ability to de-tumble itself from an initial, multi-axis spin as well as its ability to gauge which way the spacecraft is pointing, known as its attitude determination. The solar cells attached to CyCADET helped it detect the "sun" (actually, flashlights trained on it). Honing in on the sun's placement assists in the spacecraft's attitude determination.

The team successfully demonstrated the spacecraft's ability to autonomously de-spin itself, but the spacecraft had some difficulty tracking a source of light using its solar cells.

Overall, Shoemaker thought, testing for CySat went well. "We were able to accomplish two of our three objectives and collected valuable data that will be used to better understand the control systems for CySat."