About the Program
The Olin-NASA partnership was created by Dr. Steve Holt, former director of Space Sciences at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 2004. Dr. Holt is now a professor of physics at The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA.
Eight undergraduate Olin College engineering students hear about a variety of possible projects from NASA scientists. Students select four projects. Each student works in a four-student team on each of two different projects. The program provides an opportunity for students to apply their skills to real-world problems. The work done by students can be continued in a following summer or put into everyday use at Goddard and other NASA facilities.
Current Projects
There are four projects in progress this summer. Visit the list of all projects to read about past and present projects conducted by the Olin-NASA Research Group.
Cloud CubeSat Attitude Control System Testing Rig
The CubeSat Team hopes to create a housing that can test last year's CubeSat control system. The team hopes to replicate conditions realistic of space by using spherical capsule to hold the CubeSat and a water table to reduce rotational friction and simulate zero gravity.
Microscope
The Microscope Team seeks to create a relatively low cost compound microscope by adding a lens onto and existing webcam microscope. The microscope will transmit an image to the computer via USB. The microscope will include calibration for focus and magnification, and the magnification scale should display on the image. The final prduct must be able to resolve 1 u at a working distance of about 10 mm. In addition, the microscope team will provide documentation proving the optics and limitations of the microscope.
Multichannel Analyzer (MCA) for X-Ray Detectors
The output from X-ray detectors consists of short voltage pulses, with the voltage height corresponding to the photon energy level. The MCA team seeks to construct a USB peripheral device that can take an X-ray detector output, and determine the pulse height for each pulse event. The computer will record and display the flux data as well as a spectrum of pulse heights. The device will be cheap enough such that it can be manufactured and used by X-ray scientists in place of similar but much more expensive instruments.
XACT Sounding Rocket Alignment System
Sounding rockets serve as an excellent platform for testing equipment and conducting experiments without the cost or time associated with full spaceflight. However, in the case of precision x-ray telescopy equipment, the heat, vibrations, and other stresses of launch can give rise to misalignments, which can doom an experiment. As such, we are designing a system to measure misalignments in the x-ray astronomy payload for the XACT sounding rocket program.