TImeline: 06 October 2010

Morning
Rose at 8 AM to another dull, dreary day. I cannot fathom why it has been raining so much, I do however know I want it to stop. Breakfast, then attended the first class of the day. After Classical Mechanics, where we studied potential energies and the like, I started to build my model rocket which in a few weeks we will be shooting off. Hopefully I can post a picture of it before shooting it off and maybe OF shooting it off.

Afternoon
Quantum was interesting and put what we learned in Mathematica Methods of Physics to use. Planetarium Techniques was cut short because we are just working on scripts for our next planetarium show. Since I had some free time, I worked some more on my rocket, and it is coming along fine and near completion, I think.

Evening
Attended colloquium, which was presented by an alumnus. A brief description copied from the college website is provided below:

Katherine Pazamickas, Lycoming College 2009 alumnus and 2010 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intern at Goddard Space Flight Center associated with NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, will discuss, “Magnetospheric Research, Robotic Satellite Maintenance and NASA Academy." This gala event will take place in Lecture Hall C-303 of the Academic Center. Students, faculty, staff, and the public are invited. 

Abstract: Katie Pazamickas will speak about her involvement with the NASA Academy this past summer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  She will briefly introduce highlights of her own research involving sawtooth events in the earth’s magnetosphere, after which, she will focus on the Academy group project, “Investigating the Feasibility and Implementation of Orbit Robotic Satellite Maintenance.” Satellite lifetime typically ranges between 3 to 10 years, depending on the orbit and mission type. Considering the high costs involved in the manufacture and launch of such pieces of hardware, satellite servicing is an area that has generated substantial government and commercial attention in the past 25 years. This project explored a new robotic design to be ideally suited for satellite servicing, addressing the major problems satellites face as they degrade.

Rest of the night was given to finishing up the rocket and writing a lab report for Classical Mechanics.