NanoBLUE Background

I'm creating this blog to document my trip to Houston, TX as part of the U of M Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) C-9 Microgravity team. My team (NanoBLUE)
is investigating the zero-G feasibility of the Nanoparticle Field Extraction Thruster (nanoFET). NanoFET is a new type of electric propulsion thruster conceived at the University of Michigan. Thrust is created by electrostatically charging and accelerating nanoparticles through a series of stacked electrodes.

As part of this team, we are trying to determine the threshold for when liquid instabilities occur and also investigate the feasibility of particle extraction in both air and from a liquid. Taylor cones are a form of liquid instabilities which are undesirable in this type of a thruster since they lead to liquid being pulled off the surface making it harder to control the thrust. It's been proven that particles can extract under Earth's gravity before Taylor cones are formed, however the effects of microgravity have not fully been investigated. Our team is hoping to quantify the threshold for Taylor cone formation and attempt particle extraction in the microgravity environment.

I've worked on this project throughout the 2007-2008 school year. While a similar experiment was flown last year, we've worked to create a semi-automated system that consists of a test cell array in which high-voltage is applied through a pin-switch mechanism activated by a LabVIEW code. Our basic experiment set-up is shown below.

We'll be spending about a week down here at NASA in Houston to fly our experiment on the C-9 "Weightless Wonder". This plane flies 30 different parabolas that provide 18-25 seconds of zero-gravity. We're given two days to fly our experiment and gather data. I'll be looking forward to seeing a successful mission!