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NASA’s
DC-8 (above) will not be UND’s only
research jet. Since 1979 a Cessna Citation
II operated by the Department of Atmospheric
Sciences has been a familiar sight in many
places on the globe. Research conducted aboard
the craft has contributed to new knowledge
about weather phenomena and modification.
The jet was recently featured in the magazine
UND Discovery. To read it, go to: www.und.edu/research/unddiscovery/issue2/
(NASA photograph by Jim
Ross) |
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UND
will be the new operator of the McDonnell Douglas DC-8
that serves as the premier “airborne laboratory”
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The Grand Forks Air Force Base made possible the University’s
acquisition by allowing the DC-8 to be housed on the
Base.
The huge jet now works out of NASA’s Dryden
Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base near
Lancaster, Calif. The move will occur in March 2005,
with its first research expedition from UND departing
for Costa Rica in June. That project, to study the formation
of hurricanes, involves 100 scientists, many of whom
will travel to Grand Forks to install and test their
instruments.
The DC-8’s extended range, prolonged flight
duration, large payload capability, and laboratory infrastructure
have made it the premier research aircraft available
to study the global environment in the gap between surface
and satellite observations. The aircraft will carry
experimenters and their instruments from NASA, other
federal agencies, universities from across the United
States, and others to conduct research wherever in the
world scientific needs dictate.
The five-year contract to care for the DC-8 and
manage its use will mean more than $30 million to UND
during that period, President Charles Kupchella said
at the news conference announcing the agreement. Additional
economic impact will be generated as teams of investigators
spend time in Grand Forks preparing for impending flights.
Moreover, the presence of NASA here will have
an enormous positive impact upon UND’s academic
missions, including new learning opportunities for undergraduate
and graduate students. Faculty, too, will benefit from
improved chances of success on funding proposals they
submit.
Past student involvement in projects involving
NASA was one of the factors that gave UND an edge in
the competition for the contract, said George Seielstad,
associate dean for research and innovative projects
at the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences
and director of the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium
(UMAC).
He cited as an example the “AgCam,”
a student- and faculty-created agricultural sensing
device that so impressed NASA that it is hoping to schedule
it for delivery to the International Space Station once
shuttle flights resume. Other factors that played a
role in landing the contract: the national reputation
of the Odegard School and the presence at UND of disciplines
such as earth system science and policy, atmospheric
sciences, space studies, and engineering. UND also has
a track record of collaborative work among academic
departments which, he said, mirrors the interdisciplinary
approach taken by NASA. And, Seielstad said, one must
also consider the impact of UMAC, the five-state consortium
operated by UND that has broken so much new ground in
the innovative use of remote sensing and related technologies.
UMAC has received more than $10 million in NASA grants
since 2000.
The contract would not be possible, he added,
without the full cooperation of the U.S. Air Force,
which embraced the project as an add-on to the Grand
Forks base’s tanker mission. It is providing hangar
space and support facilities, as well as providing the
long runway that is necessary for optimum operation
of a fully loaded DC-8. With the solid support of the
319th Air Refueling Wing, he said, the clearance process
was expedited in record time.
Kupchella credits Sen. Byron Dorgan for seeing
the possibilities early on and having the clout and
connections to tell the story to key decision-makers
in Washington. Many of those decision-makers, including
the two most recent NASA Administrators, Dan Goldin
and Sean O’Keefe, were persuaded by the senator
to visit Grand Forks to learn more of UND and its capabilities.
As the possibility of the DC-8 deal became apparent,
others weighed in, including Gov. John Hoeven and North
Dakota University System Chancellor Robert Potts.
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| Warren
Wambsganss discusses the AgCam with Karen
Nyberg, a 1994 mechanical engineering graduate
and the first UND alum to be named to NASA’s
astronaut corps. A graduate student in electrical
engineering, Wambsganss designed and built
the circuit board that will distribute power
to the entire system of the camera. Built
by UND students and faculty in computer science,
engineering, space studies, and business administration,
AgCam will be mounted in the International
Space Station to shoot satellite images of
land use in the Upper Midwest. |
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