Portland State Magazine Fall 2015
FALL 2015 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE 13 proposing to do crazy bold things that were impossible to credibly think about 10 years ago.” THE COFFEE CUP demonstrated beyond doubt that liquids can be harnessed in space in a reliable way. This has huge implications for future space travel, according to Graf. The next step is to develop bigger systems that can remove and recycle carbon dioxide. Next might be a working toilet and vast improvements in refrigeration and air conditioning. “It sounds like very simple-minded, fundamental stuff,” Graf says. But astronauts in the space station spend inordinate amounts of time tending to these basic problems—time that could be better spent on research and exploration. “You can’t go to Mars with hardware that breaks,” Graf says. Weislogel went to work for NASA after getting his engineer- ing Ph.D. at Northwestern University. Entranced by videos he saw of water droplets moving in space, he developed exper- iments that included fun spinoffs, including popping water balloons during low-gravity flights to see what happens to the suspended liquid. After 10 years at the space agency, Weislogel went on to work for a Colorado tech firm, then took a job at Portland State, where he continued and refined his fluid movement examinations. He set up a program in which he and his stu- dents could monitor experiments on the International Space Station, talking to the astronauts in real time from a room in the Maseeh College of Engineering. NASA DEMANDS for Weislogel’s products have grown to the point that he has partnered with one of his former students to create a small aerospace company, IRPI. Ryan Jenson ’05, MS ’08, who studied engineering under Weislogel and helped design the cup, now works with him to design and market products for use in space and on the ground. IRPI, now seven employees strong, uses 3-D printers to manufacture their most complex components—another breakthrough that has enabled rapid advances in space hardware. Jenson credits Weislogel for putting PSU on the map when it comes to developing plumbing in space. “He won’t say this, but he’s really the best in the world in this area,” Jenson says. “You throw a problem at him in this realm, and it will get solved.” Harry Esteve is a staff member in the PSU Office of University Communications. INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ASTRONAUT SAMANTHA CRISTOFORETTI IS DRINKING ESPRESSO FROM A CUP CREATED IN A PORTLAND STATE ENGINEERING LAB. THE RESEARCH OF PROFESSOR MARK WEISLOGEL AND HIS STUDENT TEAM CONTRIBUTES TO NASA’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE MOVEMENT OF LIQUID IN THE UNFORGIVING CONDITIONS OF SPACE.
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