2008 Woodie Awards
UNH invades space with NASA mission
Michaela Christensen
Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: News
It's Friday afternoon and most students are out waiting for homecoming weekend to begin. Sophomore mechanical engineering major Kevin Perkins, on the other hand, is having his fun in the new laboratory of the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center.
On the ground floor of Morse Hall, he's working closely with research project engineer Stan Ellis. They're shuffling back and forth between the machinery and their worktable, both wearing blue jeans and T-shirts.
However casual the atmosphere may seem, Perkins isn't merely asking Ellis for help with his homework. The two are collaborating on a mission for NASA, which has given UNH a $61 million contribution to design, build, and launch four small satellites by the year 2014.
With this money, UNH opened this laboratory last Thursday in a small dedication ceremony that took place on the second floor of Morse Hall.
The new laboratory will be used by UNH space scientists, engineers, technicians, graduates and undergraduates to work on NASA's Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission. It includes a thermal-vacuum chamber, which will allow builders to test the satellites in a space-like environment.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sent the message NASA had plans to go ahead with the mission, which involves 12 different institutions, according to a press release by David Sims in UNH Media Relations.
The team includes NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Southwest Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University of Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Colorado, as well as international partners in Austria, Sweden, France, and Japan.
Representatives from the Sensor System Line of Business of BAE systems in Nashua also attended the dedication ceremony. They plan on using the laboratory for their own ventures. BAE is a private, global company that provides development, delivery, and support of advanced defense in over 100 hundred different nations, according to their website.
On the ground floor of Morse Hall, he's working closely with research project engineer Stan Ellis. They're shuffling back and forth between the machinery and their worktable, both wearing blue jeans and T-shirts.
However casual the atmosphere may seem, Perkins isn't merely asking Ellis for help with his homework. The two are collaborating on a mission for NASA, which has given UNH a $61 million contribution to design, build, and launch four small satellites by the year 2014.
With this money, UNH opened this laboratory last Thursday in a small dedication ceremony that took place on the second floor of Morse Hall.
The new laboratory will be used by UNH space scientists, engineers, technicians, graduates and undergraduates to work on NASA's Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission. It includes a thermal-vacuum chamber, which will allow builders to test the satellites in a space-like environment.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin sent the message NASA had plans to go ahead with the mission, which involves 12 different institutions, according to a press release by David Sims in UNH Media Relations.
The team includes NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Southwest Research Institute, Johns Hopkins University of Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Colorado, as well as international partners in Austria, Sweden, France, and Japan.
Representatives from the Sensor System Line of Business of BAE systems in Nashua also attended the dedication ceremony. They plan on using the laboratory for their own ventures. BAE is a private, global company that provides development, delivery, and support of advanced defense in over 100 hundred different nations, according to their website.
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