Reduced Gravity Experiment flew on the C-9B Zero Gravity Aircraft at Johnson Space Center
Written by Mike Melloch
Dr. Ron Reinfenberger's group continues to work on the Microcantilever Reduced Gravity Experiment. Because of their small size and low power consumption, microcantilevers form a promising test bed for low level sensing of targeted analytes in space craft cabin environments. Cantilever sensing in liquids in a zero gravity environment presents interesting challenges if small bubbles form on the cantilever surface. In zero gravity, the buoyant force acting on these bubbles will disappear; any changes in the acceleration vector of a spacecraft will therefore cause time-dependent buoyant forces that will affect the cantilever position. The purpose of the experiments underway is to assess the influence that nanobubbles, attached to cantilever surfaces will have on microcantilevers in zero gravity.
During the past quarter, four undergraduates from Purdue, Nicholas Vargo, Juliann Henderlong, Luis Moreno and John Melcher, have been working on the reduced-gravity project that flew during the week of August 7-11, 2006. The equipment rack has been constructed, the detection electronics have been designed, circuit boards have been fabricated, the computer acquisition system has been assembled and tested, and the microcantilever test cells have been designed and are now being fabricated. The entire system was tested in July before shipping to Houston for the August test flight.
For more information on this project please visit the Zero Gravity Project web site.