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L. P. Johnson, S. A. Austin (Medgar Evers College of CUNY), G. A. Vaughn (St. Francis College), K. A. Brathwaite, K. Amoa, J. M. Flowers (Medgar Evers College of CUNY)
MECSAT is a scientific balloon project to stimulate student interest in Space Science and exploration. The project is based in an urban, minority-serving undergraduate institution and participating students are Computer Science, Physics/Space Science, Environmental Science and Mathematics majors. The project provides a hands-on end-to-end microscale view of NASA missions including instrument selection and/or construction, flight simulation and dynamics, tracking and communications, recovery, data validation and analysis, and project management. Initial student experiments included a Geiger counter (cosmic rays), dust/particle collector, ozonesonde, weather data loggers, flight computer and communications equipment. Student experiments are components of existing curriculum including courses in Space Science, Remote Sensing, Networks and Data Communications, and Scientific Computing. Student response to the project has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic and anecdotal evidence shows a significantly increased interest in NASA science among the participating students. MECSAT is partially supported by the following NASA programs: MUCERPI, MUSPIN and the New York State Space Grant Consortium.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://nrts.mec.cuny.edu/mecsat/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.