With a space
shuttle mock-up as a backdrop, three top administrators held a signing ceremony
celebrating the establishment of the Post-Doctoral Aerospace Fellowship Program on
Wednesday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake.With a space
shuttle mock-up as a backdrop, three top administrators held a signing ceremony
celebrating the establishment of the Post-Doctoral Aerospace Fellowship Program on
Wednesday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake.
University of Houston President Glenn Goerke, UH-Clear Lake President William Staples and JSC Director George W.S. Abbey spoke of the program and its importance in upcoming NASA projects, including the international space station, the development of the crew rescue vehicle F-35 and robotic missions to Mars.
"We are very pleased with our partnership with the University of Houston and the University of Houston-Clear Lake," Abbey said.
NASA conducts the fellowship program with the Institute for Space Systems Operations, headquartered at UH. Since October 1995, the institute has teamed investigators from UH and UH-Clear Lake with investigators from JSC, where they work on projects ranging from the biological effects of space radiation, to food and lodging designs for long - range missions.
The Post-Doctoral Aerospace Fellows are selected jointly by the JSC and ISSO investigators.
The program, which is currently running 16 projects, is financed by Texas State Legislature special item funding. David Criswell, director of ISSO, noted that the university and the state of Texas win with the "huge leverage" gained by the use of NASA's facilities, people and resources.
Criswell said, "$50,000 put into a (post-doctoral program) gains us the equivalent ... in access and use of $1 million a year. And it gets us right there, we don't have to wait five years to build up the program."
One of the projects is the design of a mount for a lunar telescope using hybrid superconducting magnet bearings. Traditional bearings cannot be used on the moon because of freezing temperatures, near-negligible vapor pressure and lunar dust.
Wei-Kan Chu (UH) and Thomas L. Wilson (JSC) are the principal investigators and Eunjeong Lee is the post-doctoral fellow.
Another project is the design of agricultural systems and accompanying menus to support survival on long duration missions.
Clinton L. Rappole (UH) and Charles Bourland (JSC) are the principal investigators and Yael Vodovotz is the post-doctoral fellow.
by Craig Jones, Staff Writer 10-7-96 © 1996 The Daily
Cougar
Photo by Irving Rothman, © 1996 Institute for Space Systems Operations