A team of СAPP students designed and built a flower-shaped structure thatСAPPs caught the eye of NASA. The reason? Its potential to enhance scientific observation of planets outside EarthСAPPs solar system.
The five-member teamСAPPs small-scale starshade - coupled with extensive documentation about its construction and capabilities - placed third in NASAСAPPs recent Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets Starshade Challenge. The strong finish brought the team a $4,000 award that will help further its research.
The challenge was built around a NASA initiative to study the concept of СAPPhybrid observatories,СAPP where some of the worldСAPPs most powerful ground-based telescopes would work in tandem with orbiting starshades. When strategically aligned with such telescopes, starshades would increase scientistsСAPP ability to detect and study exoplanets, or those outside EarthСAPPs solar system.
Observing such planets among a sea of brighter stars is extremely difficult. Once deployed in space, however, starshades cast shadows over stars without blocking the light of their planets.
СAPPThe light from stars obscures what scientists actually want to see, so starshades block surrounding light and allow observation of whatСAPPs at their center,СAPP explained Dr. Michalis Charilaou, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics. Charilaou is the teamСAPPs adviser.
Competitions such as NASAСAPPs starshade challenge give college and university students chances to conduct space-related research. NASA benefits, too. Student concepts and designs assist and inform NASA technology development.
In this case, the space agency is developing lightweight, yet stable starshades that are large enough СAPP about 100 meters in diameter СAPP to perform capably, yet constructed so as to be able to be compactly stowed aboard rockets and launched into space.
СAPPNASA wants to make bigger starshades and is extrapolating existing designs for smaller starshades and scaling them up,СAPP explained physics major David Silva, the UL Lafayette teamСAPPs student leader.
The interdisciplinary team produced the Gas Inflated Rigid Starshade, which features an innovative inflatable truss system designed for several purposes. It serves as a deployment mechanism that supports a lightweight, yet rigid structure that СAPPfolds upСAPP inside a cylinder-like container during transport.
Such capabilities are important, Silva explained. Until starshades that can be aligned with ground-based telescopes are developed, observing planets outside the EarthСAPPs solar system will be like СAPPtrying to look at a speck of dust with a flashlight in your eyes,СAPP he said.
Along with Silva, team members for the СAPPСAPPs starshade project are Drew Davis, a geology major; Landon Degeytaire, a mechanical engineering major; Harley Hardy, a physics major; and Brianna Olalekan, a physics major.
The teamСAPPs collaboration on the starshade initiative was coordinated by the Society of Physics Students. Charilaou is the campus organizationСAPPs faculty adviser. Dr. Yasmeen Qudsi, a mechanical engineering instructor, also mentored students as the starshade projectСAPPs co-adviser.
Photo caption: The UL Lafayette student team of, from left, Harley Hardy; Drew Davis; Landon Degeytaire; Brianna Olalekan; David Silva have designed and built a structure with potential to the enhance scientific study of planets. The interdisciplinary team placed third in NASAСAPPs recent Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets Starshade Challenge. Submitted photo