Kim Schultz, '12, and NASA researcher Rudy Werlink conduct their experiment in zero gravity.

Kim Schultz, '12, and NASA researcher Rudy Werlink conduct their experiment in zero gravity.

Carthage Microgravity Program

Five in a row: NASA chooses Carthage to fly again

December 8, 2011

Stephanie Finnvik, '12, aboard the zero-gravity aircraft in April 2011.

The Carthage Microgravity Team has been selected for the 2012 NASA Systems Engineering Educational Discovery program, NASA announced on their website Thursday.

SEED pairs undergraduate student teams with NASA researchers to design and build experiments essential to NASA goals. Students travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to fly their experiments aboard a zero-gravity aircraft.

NASA began the SEED program five years ago. Carthage is one of just two schools in the country selected to participate in the program all five years.

"We are very excited," said team leader Amber Bakkum, '12, a physics major from Winthrop Harbor, Ill. "It's such an honor to be one of the only schools selected to be a part of the program every year since its inception."

This year the Carthage team will continue last year's work with Kennedy Space Center engineer Rudy Werlink on a novel method of gauging the amount of propellant in a spacecraft's tanks. This problem has challenged engineers since the early years of the space age when it became clear that traditional methods of fuel gauging do not work in the weightless environment of space, said Prof. Kevin Crosby, faculty advisor for the Microgravity Team.

"Last year, we showed that our technique and methods are viable," Prof. Crosby said. "The focus this year is on developing the experiment into something that really has the potential to be a dramatic improvement in the way propellant gauging is carried out in spacecraft."

The members of the 2012 Carthage Microgravity Team are:

  • Team lead Amber Bakkum, '12, of Winthrop Harbor, Ill.
  • KelliAnn Anderson, '14, of Cumberland, Wis.
  • Kevin Lubick, '14, of DeForest, Wis.
  • Steven Mathe, '13, of Wauconda, Ill.
  • John Robinson, '13, of Kenosha
  • Danielle Weiland, '14, of Kenosha

The Carthage Microgravity Team was one of 10 teams nationwide chosen to participate this year. The other selected teams are: Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwest Nazarene University, Oklahoma State University, University of Houston-Clear Lake & San Jacinto College, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Wisconsin-Madison, Washington University in St. Louis, and Yale University.

"I think our selection for the SEED program says a lot about the Carthage physics program," Amber said. "We are not a big school, and we don't have an engineering department like all the other schools that compete. But Carthage turns out great engineers."

Read more about the Carthage Microgravity Team