It’s official: Cockroaches never die.
On December 6, 2008, a team of undergraduates launched 20 of the household pests into space. Upon returning to Earth, every one of them had survived the voyage, withstanding temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees, as well as the radiation and matter-less conditions in space.
The flight test was one of two hands-on design projects assigned last Fall Quarter in MAE 2 ‘mdash; an introductory course to aerospace engineering ‘mdash; by professors John Kosmatka and Keiko Nomura.
Every year, Kosmatka and Nomura include a technical design project on the course syllabus. Typically, it involves building small airplanes and flying them at campus locations such as RIMAC Field. But this year, Kosmatka and Nomura decided to include an additional project that would cater more to students’ interests.
‘There are about 120 students in this course, and a third of them are more interested in space than aircraft,’ Kosmatka said.
The class, a prerequisite for the aerospace engineering major, is largely composed of freshmen. While a lot of work is required for the new assignment, Kosmatka said the project was designed to press students into questioning their commitment to the field.
‘It’s a hard major, and we really want them to become motivated as freshmen,’ Kosmatka said. ‘If they are inspired, then they are on the right track.’
Kosmatka and Nomura said they gave students as much freedom as possible to design and study what they wanted within the project guidelines.
‘I’m sure they were tired of me telling them what I thought was going on,’ Kosmatka said. ‘I wanted them to figure out for themselves what was happening.’
Teaching assistants Andrew Cavendar and Zach Lovering also helped orchestrate the launch.
The faculty applied for sponsorship from the California Space Grant, which covered the total cost of the project ‘mdash; approximately $5,000. They also contacted the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure the project was within the FAA’s legal airspace limits.
The 40-foot balloon contraption was composed of a series of four payloads, or boxes, each with a different function. The compartment at the lowest level contained two cameras with software rewritten by students to take photographs every 30 seconds, from both horizontal and vertical perspectives. The boxes were
tethered to a large atmospheric weather balloon, 10 feet in diameter, with a deflated parachute dangling just beneath it.
As the balloon reached 85,000 feet ‘mdash; considered the edge of space ‘mdash; it expanded and eventually burst, at which point the parachute opened and gently brought the apparatus back down to the earth. The entire trip lasted two hours.
The 22 students selected for this project ‘mdash; chosen from a class of 113 based on interest and past experience in ballooning, electronics fabrication, and hands-on building ‘mdash; divided themselves into six teams, each focusing on a different task.
One team focused entirely on sending the weather balloon astronauts ‘mdash; cockroaches, planaria (small worms) and tardigrade, commonly known as water bears ‘mdash; into space. They wanted to test the creatures’ ability to cope with environmental stressors at extreme altitudes.
The students tested the resistance of each species by placing them in a capsule with a variation of environmental constraints: Some chambers included heaters or air-activated hand warmers to compensate for subzero temperatures, while others were equipped with oxygen.
Another task force measured wind speed, humidity, pressure and temperature with altitude. One of the goals of this task force was to see whether solar-powered airplanes flown at each altitude the balloon reached could be a viable option in the future, Kosmatka said.
This group was also in charge of predicting where the apparatus would be able to land ‘mdash; given wind speed, extreme weather and other environmental factors ‘mdash; while avoiding the Salton Sea, U.S. military territory and the Mexican desert.
Fortunately, the balloon landed in the Imperial Sand Dunes ‘mdash; about 65 miles east of the launch.
According to Thurgood Marshall College junior Casey Barrett, who was part of the team responsible for pre-testing the integrity of the containers for space flight and landing, most of the six-week project was completed outside of class. Much of her team’s work was crammed into the week preceding the launch.
‘[We] had to wait until all of the other teams figured out what they wanted to test and how they wanted to do it,’ Barrett said. ‘Then we had to design the structure and build the boxes. We had to work with everyone ‘hellip; It’s a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun as well. It was so rewarding to let go of the balloon.’
Eleanor Roosevelt College junior David Hernandez-Ibarra said the project was unlike any other he has been assigned.
‘This was a trial project, but I really hope [the professors] try it again in the future,’ he said.
The balloon apparatus will be reconstructed and exhibited in Price Center East for a month during Spring Quarter, with the parachute open above the payload boxes to symbolize the descent ‘mdash; and success ‘mdash; of the project.
Readers can contact Gloria Wu at [email protected].