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Hynes: Spaceport Must Be Used For Launch And Re-entry

  Commentary: On July 30, a team of New Mexico State students, faculty, staff and FLARE model rocket club members went out to the Jornada range to launch a large custom-made rocket containing a student experiment. NASA, through New Mexico Space Grant, funded this project.

The experiment is part of a research project assistant professor Krishna Kota is building at NMSU. Stephen Stochaj is also part of this group. We are adding to a growing list of space hardware focused on solving the challenges of living off Earth. This experiment is a heat exchanger.

Equipment has to be cooled in space differently than on Earth. Gravity affects fluid and gas flow on Earth. Water flows through your faucet and falls down into your sink. In space, water breaks up into balls and, if not contained, floats all over the place. You’ve probably seen pictures of astronauts on the space station playing with water bubbles to illustrate how surface tension and air currents in the pressurized station affect the behavior of water.

We use heat exchangers every day. Compressors use gas refrigerants under pressure in the air conditioning system. We use liquid antifreeze in our radiators to keep our engines cool in summer and operating in below-freezing conditions in winter. The heat exchanger we tested is different from the radiators or condensers used in cars, which are more like cells in a honey comb. Our wavy channel heat exchanger’s cells look more like the tilde we use in Spanish. The coolant flows between the lines to keep operating temperature.

Satellites must adapt to extreme temperatures; sometimes they face the sun, other times they're in complete darkness. So a satellite carries fuel on board to keep itself at operating temperature. The average cost of launching fuel is $10,000 per pound. If we can develop a more efficient, smaller, lighter heat exchanger for satellites or technologies on space stations, it will save millions of dollars and extend the life of a satellite. Will that bring our satellite TV charges down? If only!

Why use a wavy channel? Picture surfing on 10-foot wave. As you catch the wave, the surf board climbs. Energy from the wave is transferred to the surf board, and off you go. In space, as liquid coolant moves up the wave, heat energy is stripped off the sides of the channel, and transferred to the liquid. As the liquid flows down the wave it picks up even more energy, or heat. That’s the hypothesis. We are working to prove it is a viable solution to improving efficiency.

The biggest problem for the students before launch was to figure out how to seal the system. After numerous failed attempts at using a combination of solder and silicone rubber to seal the pump containment vessel, the subsystem was finally sealed using silicone rubber and Loctite super glue. This is why I insist on a flight for every project. Students and faculty learn. When they first pressurized the system, the students went home and came back to discover all the coolant gone. The first set of seals and tubing could not hold the volatile coolant.

Learning opportunity. They came over to my office frantic because the launch was less than a week away. There was no money for new coolant, which needed to be express shipped. And, they did not know what went wrong. GREAT! That is exactly why we fly. To learn. And this is why I do the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. So our students have something to talk about with the spacecraft designers and developers. They love to talk to students who have failed and succeeded with flight hardware.

The NASA grant was out of money, so we used the proceeds from the conference to pay for the new coolant, shipping, and a few other things like seals, tubing, and pressure sensors. But before I’d spend five more cents, the students, with faculty input, had to propose the solution. In writing.

After the flight, data and the experiment itself were examined, Kota confirmed that the launch supports the hypothesis that flow boiling is a viable option in variable gravity environments.

We will post the final results and analysis of the experiment post flight on Launchnm.com, which contains results from more than 120 flight experiments we have sent to space and near space.  We will keep flying. As the new director of the spaceport is chosen, we hope for one with a broad vision, the appropriate qualifications and understanding of why we developed a commercial launch site.

I work to provide increased access to space for students. They deserve to use this site. The state of New Mexico and our governor have an obligation to use this site as a launch and re-entry site. The other business diversification should also be supported, both are necessary.