VU engineers participate in Columbia reflight
by Lew Harris
Two Vanderbilt University engineering professors will play a key role in
scientific experiments that will be performed on a reflight of the space
shuttle Columbia slated for July 1-17.
Professors Robert J. Bayuzick and William H. Hofmeister will serve as the
lead team for the United States scientific contingent, which also consists
of two teams from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and one
from the California Institute of Technology. Six teams of scientists from
Germany also will participate in experiments.
The scientists will conduct the experiments aboard Columbia from the ground
at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., using communications
capabilities developed by NASA and process modeling computer software designed
by Hofmeister.
The scientific experiments planned for an April flight by Columbia were
severely curtailed when the space shuttle was brought back 12 days early
because of a faulty fuel cell. NASA has replaced the fuel cell, kept the
scientific equipment on board the space shuttle and will use the same crew
of astronauts.
"Certainly the earlier flight set the stage for extraordinary success
on the reflight," said Bayuzick. "The plan is to carry out the
experiments and take them through to completion."
Bayuzick and Hofmeister have focused their research on the changes that
certain metals undergo as they are cooled from a liquid to a solid state
in a containerless environment. Specifically, they are examining the process
of "nucleation"-the formation of a solid nucleus from a liquid,
following which solidification of the entire material occurs.
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Document Created July 9, 1997
by Billy Kingsley