2008 Woodie Awards
Delaware researchers develop space shuttle experient
by Kathleen Hebblewaite
Issue date: 11/13/07 Section: News
The space shuttle Discovery launched Oct. 23, carrying with it new hardware and scientific samples for the InSPACE Project, led by Eric Furst, an associate professor of chemical engineering at the university.
Paula Vasquez, a postdoctoral fellow, said the samples recently sent via the Discovery were created at the university.
The launch was the first for a few members involved in the project, which started in 2003, stopped in 2005 and resumed in January 2007, according to Juan H. Agui, the project scientist for InSPACE.
Furst, the principal investigator of InSPACE, said the InSPACE-2 experiment will most likely occur in February 2008 and will be the second generation of the experiment.
"My role as the [principal investigator] is to guide the science that we're doing," Furst said. "That involves both analyzing the previous experiments and trying to determine the next set of experiments so that we can learn information that we didn't have before."
Vasquez is currently in the process of analyzing the data from the first generation of InSPACE.
Agui said both generations of experiments focus on the study of magnetorheological fluids. These fluids have a variety of practical commercial applications, such as acting in the suspension system of automobiles.
"We're using microscopic video imaging and looking at the internal structure of these fluids," he said.
Furst said researchers are trying to determine the percolation transition of these fluids. The percolation transition is when the material moves from a liquid to a solid.
The goal of the work he has done and plans to do with magnetorheological fluids, known as MR fluids, is to learn both practical and fundamental information about the properties of these substances, he said.
"There's a lot of really interesting underlying physics to this," Furst said. "They fluctuate basically, and their fluctuations are thought to result in an aggregation phenomenon. That is, they coalesce."
Paula Vasquez, a postdoctoral fellow, said the samples recently sent via the Discovery were created at the university.
The launch was the first for a few members involved in the project, which started in 2003, stopped in 2005 and resumed in January 2007, according to Juan H. Agui, the project scientist for InSPACE.
Furst, the principal investigator of InSPACE, said the InSPACE-2 experiment will most likely occur in February 2008 and will be the second generation of the experiment.
"My role as the [principal investigator] is to guide the science that we're doing," Furst said. "That involves both analyzing the previous experiments and trying to determine the next set of experiments so that we can learn information that we didn't have before."
Vasquez is currently in the process of analyzing the data from the first generation of InSPACE.
Agui said both generations of experiments focus on the study of magnetorheological fluids. These fluids have a variety of practical commercial applications, such as acting in the suspension system of automobiles.
"We're using microscopic video imaging and looking at the internal structure of these fluids," he said.
Furst said researchers are trying to determine the percolation transition of these fluids. The percolation transition is when the material moves from a liquid to a solid.
The goal of the work he has done and plans to do with magnetorheological fluids, known as MR fluids, is to learn both practical and fundamental information about the properties of these substances, he said.
"There's a lot of really interesting underlying physics to this," Furst said. "They fluctuate basically, and their fluctuations are thought to result in an aggregation phenomenon. That is, they coalesce."
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