KSU faculty, students aid NASA in project

NASA

KSU News Service

MANHATTAN --- What would it be like to live on Mars and how would the atmosphere differ from Earth? Someday, through research and the work of Kansas State University at Salina faculty and students, we just might find out.

Recently, a team of faculty and students from K-State at Salina traveled to NASA's Kennedy Space Center to report on their work with a chamber being created to simulate the environment on Mars.

The Mars Simulation Chamber is a large vacuum chamber being developed by researchers at Kennedy Space Center to simulate the environmental conditions at the surface of Mars. In addition to designing the control system for the chamber, the faculty and student team, lead by Randy Buchanan, associate professor of electronic engineering technology, reviewed and recommended design modifications in the existing chamber developed during the summer of 1999 by Buchanan and a student group from Pittsburg State University, where he formerly instructed.

Due in part to his past accomplishments, Buchanan was contracted to further develop the control system and various system designs within the chamber during the course of the year.

Environmental conditions experienced on Mars will be emulated in the chamber, including temperature, pressure, atmospheric gas content and solar radiation. Indirect effects to be simulated include seasons, dust storms, dust settlement, polar cap vaporization and sublimation, altitude and latitude variations, and wind. It will be comprised of six basic systems including vacuum, cooling, heating, lighting, gas replenishing and monitoring, and payload and data collection.

The current phase of the project includes the specification of the programmable controller for the control system. The programmable controller is a computer that collects data and applies the collected information to its programmed instructions. Because of irradiation at the surface of Mars, the controller will perform constant spectrum measurements to assure adequate power and electromagnetic wavelength production within the chamber.

The team's visit to Kennedy Space Center coincided with a Mars Simulation Chamber programmable controller training session for the Kennedy Space Center laboratory personnel, which was presented by the team and a representative from industry that is associated with the project. Buchanan and members of the team will return to Kennedy Space Center during the summer to continue their work on the project.

Buchanan, who joined the K-State at Salina staff in August, is assisted in the project by Raju Dandu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology; Aubri Barnett, junior in electronic engineering technology and student project manager from Iola; Steve Blick, senior in computer engineering technology and electronic engineering technology from Hutchinson; Jeff Mulder, junior in electronic engineering technology from Phillipsburg; Casper Bucl, senior in mechanical engineering technology from Sublette; and Lee McNabb, junior in electronic engineering technology from Waverly.

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