OSU makes mark in NASA competition

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

While Oklahoma State University did not win the NASA competition to develop an inflatable space habitat for astronauts, the adviser of the OSU team is certain that its concept will make a difference for future space exploration.

“The astronauts who helped judge our concept were very impressed with the unique design our students came up with, including its robustness, flexibility and safety, and NASA has stated that it wants to explore our design elements for use in their manned space exploration program,” said Dr. Jamey Jacob, who traveled with the team to the Johnson Space Center in June.

OSU was one of three universities in the competition, which was won by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Regardless of the final selection, it was a fantastic experience for the student teams, getting to work both across Stillwater and Tulsa campuses and having two very different colleges work together on a single project: the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology and the College of Human Sciences,” added Jacob, associate professor, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at OSU.

“Interacting with NASA engineers, architects and astronauts on the project was a highlight for the students during the week we spent at Johnson Space Center integrating our concept with NASA's system,” said Jacob. “This year's effort gives us a great foundation for next year's competition and we look forward to doing it again. We're already working in the Space Habitat Laboratory this summer preparing for the coming challenge."

The OSU “Space Cowboys” team members include Alyssa Avery; Edmond; Zach Barbeau; The Woodlands, Texas; Zack Deck, Midland, Texas; Shea Fehrenbach; Piedmont; Sum Lee, Malaysia; Ben Loh, Malaysia; Akshay Khandekar, India; Kyle Klufa; Pilot Point, Texas, Khanh Lu, Vietnam; Kristin Nevels, Claremore; Trevor Ruffin, Tulsa; Robert Sonnenfeld, Tulsa; Cory Sudduth, Allen, Texas; Tonya Temple, Tulsa; and Elizabeth Webster, Ponca City.

For more details, go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=99887221 or http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/osu_xhab2011.html.