Twenty-five University of Idaho undergraduate students shoot experimental capsules 90,000 feet into the atmosphere each semester — no big deal. But the student-led class broke ground this semester with its plan for a live payload.
Students enrolled in Near Space Engineering II spent months designing, testing and building equipment to launch unborn fish toward the stratosphere. The student-run experiment, called Fishnauts, involves aspects of biology, physics, engineering and other sciences.
Joshua Egan, a recent graduate in fisheries resources, said he serves as a biological consultant, more commonly the “fish guy.”
“Basically I tell them what they need to keep the fish alive,” Egan said. “It’s an exercise to get engineers to think about a biological component.”
The capsule’s 30 wriggling passengers may someday serve as a sustainable food source for astronauts living in space, Egan said. NASA and other research groups have been interested in flying fish into space for some time.
Egan said the Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, commonly known as the peacock cichlid, originates in Malawi and is a 3.5-inch “little brother to tilapia” that would make a plausible food source. The thermal barrier designed by the science team is an 8-ounce thermos customized to house a tube of fish eggs.
“It’s supposed to simulate the mouth of the female fish,” Egan said.
Ed Galindo, of UI’s Aquaculture Research Institute, is the project’s sub adviser and said eggs are preferable to older fish because launching fish at the most fragile stage of life will test the most extreme case NASA could encounter. After they land, Egan said the fish will mature in an incubator, just as they would in a hypothetical moon lab. Galindo said the crucial part of the experiment may be recovery, when researchers determine whether the mature fish grow and reproduce normally.
Changing pressure and temperature present the two greatest challenges to unborn fish and the budding scientists out to support them. Galindo said UI has strict guidelines for live payloads and Fishnauts is careful to observe them. Egan said the rules and regulations are numerous, and he has been sure to obey them.
“We have a plan to monitor conditions, a system to record the conditions and permission to have the species to begin with,” Egan said.
Kevin Ramus, a senior electrical engineering student and Fishnauts flight director, said the one-credit ENGR 206 is in its eighth or ninth year and has led a number of students to NASA internships. Even after so many years, Fishnauts presents unprecedented challenges this spring.
“This is the first time we’ve ever attempted to launch any living thing,” Ramus said.
Previous classes have worked with technology called “Snowflake,” designed to steer an apparatus to a specific landing point. The set-up for Fishnauts is similar, with a few custom tweaks, Ramus said.
A 7-foot, helium-filled latex balloon hovers above a foam- and duct tape-based capsule that houses GPS units, measurement devices, cameras and other technology monitored by a control and data handling team. A parachute deploys above the capsule toward the end of its two-and-a-half hour journey from Eastern Washington to farmland outside Colfax.
Powerful jet stream fluctuations canceled a launch scheduled for Saturday morning, Ramus announced to the class April 18 alongside co-leader Carlos Gonzalez. Near Space Engineering II students of varied age, major and interest agreed on a month-long postponement. The rescheduling also affected high school students enrolled in the course for dual credit at Genesee and Moscow high schools.
Galindo emphasized the value of an interdisciplinary science course.
“We blend fisheries and biology with engineering,” Galindo said. “I find that really a good thing.”
Fishnauts attracts an array of majors, and second-year architecture student Jacob Liddicoat said he values the hands-on aspect.
“We’re bringing the south side of campus to the north side,” Liddicoat said.
As a member of the imaging team, Liddicoat tracks the five video and two still cameras aboard Fishnauts. He plans to team up with a graphic design student after the launch and display some of the high-altitude photos as art.
Physics senior Kevin Baker and his wife Kathryn, a senior studying anthropology, said they enrolled together and enjoy the chance to explore topics outside their majors.
“I like science a lot,” Kathryn Baker said. “I wanted to try something outside anthropology that’s really fun.”
Kevin Baker said scientific fields overlap and Fishnauts allows students to practice working across disciplines.
“All aspects of it are pretty interesting,” he said. “It’s got biology, it’s got physics … of all levels.”
The Bakers are members of the structures team, which is led by sophomore mechanical engineering student Ingrid Kooda.
The capsule’s flat-topped-cone shape resembles NASA’s Apollo modules and Kooda said the design is the most stable of several tested during March in the Kibbie Dome.
“We dropped them from really high up and this one landed on the bottom best,” she said.
The capsule is designed around a gimbal system, which looks like a well-balanced gyroscope, and keeps the fish right-side up, Kooda said. The gimbal system is calibrated to keep the African cichlid eggs upright no matter how the hollow cone wobbles.
After months of Saturday work parties, students will rise before the sun to test fish, foam and fate against the atmosphere. High school, undergraduate and graduate students from across departments will find out hours later whether fish really can fly — and the answer may have interplanetary significance.
“It’s not often that (the College of Natural Resources) works with engineering,” Egan said. “…Today’s problems require interdisciplinary solutions.”
Victoria Hart can be reached at [email protected]