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.

Timeline: 15 September 2010

Morning
Awoke at 7 AM to finish the Quantum Mechanics homework assigned two days before. Of course, the professor said it would be an elementary assignment, but it did give us some challenge. The problem was to find <x>, <p>, <p^2>, <E> of the Psi function:

Took some work but most answers came out to around the cube of the Sine function in some form.

Afternoon
Went to Quantum Mechanics, Planetarium Techniques, and Thermodynamics (in that order) and all classes went as one would come to expect. Nothing was really out of the ordinary, and most of the math seems somewhat manageable as opposed to the past few days where the most fundamental of the quantum theories were derived and physically explained (to the extent that was possible).


Colloquium was quite good, if not almost completely over my head. The speaker, Dr. Rudeger (Derek) Wilke, talked about his work at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State University. The topic was how he is using peizoelectric materials to correct the lenses on an upcoming X-Ray observatory satellite. Here is the description from the Lycoming College website:

Post-Doctoral Scholar and Visiting Scientist in the Materials Research Laboratory at The Pennsylvania State University, will discuss, “Piezoelectric Lead, Zirconium, Titanium (PZT) Films on Glass Substrates for Gen-X Imaging Systems.” This gala event will take place in the Academic Center Lecture Hall C-303. Students, faculty, staff, and the public are invited. 

Abstract: Gen-X is a next generation spaced based x-ray telescope that hopes to study distant, faint objects such as the formation of black holes, distant galaxies, and the early evolution of the universe. They key to achieving the desired goal of 0.1 arcsecond resolution is the implementation of an adaptive optics system that allows on flight corrections of structural or figure errors in the mirror and minor adjustments to alignment. The optics for the telescope consist of "bi-morph" mirrors on flexible glass substrates. These mirrors consist of an iridium/chromium (Ir/Cr) reflective surface on the front side and a piezoelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin film on the back side. With an active area of ~10,000 m², developing a scalable approach to depositing PZT of sufficient quality to achieve the necessary actuation presents several processing challenges. The glass chosen for the telescope slumps above 560 ^oC, far lower than the 700 ^oC typically used to crystallize PZT films. Additionally, the stresses induced in thin film deposition can significantly warp the substrates due to their flexible nature, potentially introducing more figure errors in the mirror than can be corrected by piezoelectric film. In this talk I will review the fundamentals of piezoelectricity and how piezoelectric films can be used in adaptive optics systems, as well as discussing the progress made to date.

It was interesting in I am quite intrigued by the electromagnetic properties involved in the process.  


Evening
Took a nap, missed dinner, and played some Mass Effect. I will be typing up a lab report tonight for Classical Mechanics and I think I have a Thermodynamics homework due tomorrow. Quite beat and cannot wait for the weekend to catch up on reading and recharge the batteries.