\n<\/p>\n
Most undergraduate research projects never leave the lab. But the work of College of Charleston astrophysics majors Eva Godwin and Gael Gonzalez is heading a long way from campus: to the International Space Station. It will travel aboard a resupply flight for the Northrop Grumman Cygnus-24 cargo mission, which is scheduled to launch this week from the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n
The fourth-year students weren\u2019t just assistants on the project; for the past two years they\u2019ve been deeply embedded in every phase of the mission, from concept development and fundraising to modeling, testing and final integration ahead of the flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was honestly such a huge honor to be trusted with something that will eventually be handed off to NASA,\u201d Godwin said. \u201cNot a lot of undergraduates, especially in South Carolina, can say they\u2019ve done something of this magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research instruments were developed under the supervision of Joe Carson, professor of astrophysics, and Marcos D\u00edaz, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Universidad de Chile. The College of Charleston is the only institution in South Carolina with an undergraduate degree in astrophysics, and this project marks its first-ever contribution to a space-based mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great honor for us to be part of the college\u2019s first space-based mission and also part of South Carolina\u2019s first instrument demonstration in space,\u201d Gonzalez said, noting the accomplishment is especially meaningful to him as a first-generation college student. \u201cBeing undergraduates\u2014and seniors about to graduate\u2014that really puts us out there and helps people know our names in South Carolina for a big mission like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Student-designed equipment that will head to the International Space Station.<\/span><\/p>\n Instruments in orbit:<\/strong> The student-designed equipment includes a liquid lens-based optical camera designed to capture how biological samples respond to microgravity and an ultraviolet camera that tracks stellar activity among young stars. The research instruments will spend approximately six months in orbit before returning to Earth for analysis.<\/p>\n Gonzalez said he played a key role in developing the UV camera, particularly setting up the codes that will allow researchers to communicate with the instrument.<\/p>\n \u201cI was the one characterizing the UV instrument\u2014checking how good the images appeared and whether there was any distortion,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI was also simulating data that we would see once we\u2019re in space. For example, we\u2019ll use the UV camera to do photometry\u2014taking images of stars and measuring their brightness.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahead of the launch, Gonzalez traveled to Florida with the research group to watch the instruments be integrated and finalized.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an amazing feeling just being around professionals who are focused on that type of work,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI felt really exposed to another part of the project that not a lot of people see\u2014the behind the scenes\u2014and for me, that was a special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonzalez played a key role in developing the UV camera that will head to the International Space Station.<\/span><\/p>\n After the launch:<\/strong> Gonzalez said the experience has also helped him home in on which of the three basic areas of astrophysics\u2014theoretical, experimental or observational\u2014he wants to pursue.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter doing this project and having actual hands-on experience, I\u2019m pretty confident that I\u2019m not really interested in the theoretical side of things,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI\u2019m more interested in what I\u2019m doing currently, which is instrumentation and overlaps with observational and experimental work.\u201d<\/p>\n Godwin agreed, noting that the project has shaped how she and Gonzalez think about their future.<\/p>\n \u201cGael and I are both pretty confident that we want to pursue higher education in the form of graduate and doctoral programs, and doing this research project has really reinforced that,\u201d Godwin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve learned how to work together as a team, we\u2019ve learned how to work and communicate in groups, and we\u2019d love to continue applying our skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Get more content like this directly to your inbox. <\/em>Subscribe here.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most undergraduate research projects never leave the lab. But the work of College of Charleston astrophysics majors Eva Godwin and Gael Gonzalez is heading a long way from campus: to the International Space Station. It will travel aboard a resupply flight for the Northrop Grumman Cygnus-24 cargo mission, which is scheduled to launch this week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[23377,1101,24179],"class_list":{"0":"post-48187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-instruments","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-studentbuilt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}