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Summary of DIME 2005
The Dropping In a Microgravity Environment (DIME) high-school team competition conducted DIME Drop Days on April 19 - 21, 2005 at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) 2.2-Second Drop Tower. The four participating high-school student teams brought their experiments to GRC and operated them in the drop tower just as regular NASA and academic researchers accomplish their research goals.
The DIME 2005 selected experiments and their teams were:
Advisor: Chris Murray
All of the teams' experiments were operated in the drop tower. Similar to projects conducted by university and NASA researchers, there were surprises in the operations and results for all teams' experiments. Operational difficulties were experienced in each of the experiments but the teams analyzed the problem and developed corrective actions. Each team made modifications to their experiment and procedures over the course of the drops that each team accomplished.
The Drop Days activities in the drop tower were web-cast so the
sponsoring schools, the students' parents, and other interested people and organizations could observe the
activities of the teams in real time. The activities of installing the
experiment into the facility drag shield, preparing the facility
for the drop, the release of the experiment, and the fall down the drop tower
were web-cast. After the drop, the students, their advisor, and the team's
NASA mentor examined the video data.
During the DIME Drop Days, the students also participated in
microgravity workshops, a NASA GRC facility tour, and a SCUBA
training session at their hotel pool. The SCUBA session was
arranged as a simulation of astronaut neutral buoyancy training for
spaceflight extra-vehicular activity (EVA). Underwater, each DIME student team constructed a
PVC-pipe octagon which simulated a space station hatch opening. The
team members then swam through the opening
to accomplish the goals set by the SCUBA instructors.
DIME is a school-year-long activity where a team is formed to develop an experiment concept and write a proposal for accomplishing the experiment. GRC microgravity scientists and engineers select the top four proposals for those teams to further develop and build their experiment. When completed, the experiments are sent to GRC for operation in the drop tower. NASA provides travel funds for four student team members and one adult advisor from each team to visit GRC for the three-day DIME Drop Days and to operate their experiment. DIME 2005 was the fifth year for DIME and was the third year as a nation-wide program.
The DIME WWW page is located at this
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This page maintained by
Richard DeLombard, NASA Glenn Research Center.
Last Updated on August 19, 2005