Media Release | Aug. 6, 1997
UBC grad takes UBC-developed technology to the final frontier
A UBC graduate will boldly go where no UBC graduate has gone before
when astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason blasts off in the space shuttle
Discovery Aug. 7.
Tryggvason, a 1972 Engineering Physics grad, is a payload specialist
on Discovery for the 11-day scientific space mission. He was among
six Canadians selected for the astronaut program nearly 14 years
ago.
Tryggvason will take a UBC Engneering Physics cloth crest with
him, but he isn't the only UBC presence on the mission. The shuttle
is also carrying technology developed in the UBC lab of Electrical
Engineering Assoc. Prof. Tim Salcudean.
"It's exciting to see the technology our team has put so much effort
into developing being used and tested in zero gravity for a prolonged
period," says Salcudean, who is in Houston at Mission Control for
the duration of the flight.
Tryggvason first met with Salcudean in the early 1990s after hearing
about his research in magnetics from UBC Engineering Physics Lab
Director Harold Davis, with whom Tryggvason had been working on
large-motion vibration isolation. Tryggvason was trying to find
ways to prevent vibrations on the space shuttle from having an impact
on zero-gravity experiments, such as those involving fluid flow,
crystal growth and metal alloy development.
"Bjarni and I spent two or three hours discussing the application
of magnetic levitation technology, which I've been working on for
years, to vibration isolation. We were both extremely enthusiastic
about the prospects," Salcudean says.
"I suggested to him that the best solution would be to magnetically
suspend the entire payload," Salcudean says.
That initial meeting led Salcudean and former UBC research engineer
Niall Parker to a series of contracts with the Canadian Space Agency.
In collaboration with Tryggvason, they developed the basic design
of the motion isolating system, or Microgravity Isolation Mount
(MIM), now onboard the Discovery.
A prototype developed by Quebec-based MPB Technologies has been
tested on MIR, the Russian space station. The Canadian Space Agency
further refined the device on Discovery, Salcudean says.
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