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ESCAPE Results:
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ESCAPE II Overview What is ESCAPE
II? What is a
Get-Away-Special (GAS)? What is the Colorado Space Grant Consortium? The Colorado
Space Grant Consortium (CSGC) is a group of thirteen Colorado colleges
and universities funded by NASA for the express purpose of educating
students of all ages in the science and engineering aspects of exploring
and working in space. The programs range from introductory education
for K-12students, to design and development of actual space projects
for undergraduate and graduate students. How are students Involved? The ESCAPE II payload has been designed, managed, and built entirely by students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Graduate and undergraduate students from aerospace, mechanical, and electrical engineering, as well as physics and other scientific disciplines, have been involved since the project's inception. From project management to detailed performance analysis, the students go beyond textbooks and in the process build a sense of teamwork and professionalism.
By determining how much solar energy is absorbed, the ESCAPE II project hopes to add to the understanding of the effects of solar radiation on the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect. The payload's Far Ultraviolet Spectrometer (FARUS) will achieve this objective. The payload also has a digital imaging telescope to document solar surface activities, such as plages and filaments, in an attempt to establish some correlation between solar activity and Lyman-alpha radiation. Known as the Lyman-Alpha Solar Imaging Telescope (LASIT), this instrument will provide some of the first ultraviolet images of the sun since Skylab. ESCAPE II effectively proves that valuable science can be performed while maintaining the "better, faster, cheaper" method. With a budget of only $17,000 and a year and a half to produce the experiment, everyone must excel at quality engineering, teamwork, and obtaining large donations and cooperation from industry.
Flight: STS-66, Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Date: November 3, 1994 Weight: 160 pounds Power: 30 Volt Battery Bus Data Storage: Exabyte 4200 Digital Analog Tape Drive Data: Up to 2 Gigabytes of digital images and spectrometer scans, but power is limiting factor Instrumentation: FAR Ultraviolet Spectrometer (FARUS), Lyman Alpha Solar Imaging Telescope (LASIT) How is Industry involved? Many local Colorado
industries have generously contributed both expertise and equipment
to the ESCAPE II project. With professional experience to draw upon
during design reviews and daily work, students receive an invaluable
real-world education in designing for the harsh environment of space.
The equipment, testing facilities, and consultation donated by companies
such as Ball Aerospace, Martin Marietta, Motorola Corporation, Exabyte,
Fluke, Acton Research Corp., Gates Electronics, IBM, Hitachi Corporation,
NCR, Current Technologies Inc., TRW, Edmund Scientific, 3M, CID
Technologies, National Semiconductor, Hewlett Packard Corp., King
Electronics, Booker Electronics, and Eagle HI TECH Electronics have
allowed the ESCAPE II project to achieve far greater scientific
and educational goals than would have been possible in a strictly
internal university program. |
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©Copyright 2001
Colorado Space Grant
Consortium.
This site created and maintained
by Brad Hahn.
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Last updated June 14, 2001
