Astronaut lands on campus
Bob Thirsk returns to debrief students, researchers on their space station experiment
Astronaut Bob Thirsk, right, was on campus last week for a debrief about a Ryerson experiment aboard the International Space Station. From left, Ziad Saghir, researcher and professor in mechanical and industrial engineering; Liping Fang, chair, mechanical and industrial engineering; Mohamed Lachemi, dean, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science; and Thirsk.
Astronaut Bob Thirsk landed at Ryerson last week to debrief a Ryerson research team on their experiment aboard the International Space Station.
During his record-breaking six months on the space station last year, Thirsk was responsible for assembling and managing the experiment of the team led by Ziad Saghir, researcher and professor in mechanical and industrial engineering.
Though the experiment was complicated "Ziad provided great training," Thirsk said, and the students have proven to be "active, energetic and talented."
"I set up a video camera so Ziad's team could look over my shoulder as I assembled the experiment, I thought it would be helpful for them to see," Thirsk said.
Saghir's team worked in collaboration with colleagues from Perm State University (Russia) and Universit� Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Funders include the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
The experiment, known as SODI-IVIDIL, is the first of two European experiments involving Saghir and his team of five graduate students and two research scientists. IVIDIL examines the influence of vibration on the diffusion of liquids in a weightless environment. It contributes to Saghir's research on the Soret coefficient in crude oil, important in evaluating underground oil reserves.
Gravity disturbs earth-bound experiments on the coefficient, and it's only in the weightlessness of space that it can be accurately measured. Saghir's goal is to find the Soret coefficient's true value, which would prove extremely valuable to the petroleum industry.
Thirsk's extensive debrief was helpful for Saghir's team. For example he described how astronauts would exercise near the experiment, creating vibration that the team saw reflected in the data. They can now better evaluate and understand the results they received.
For Saghir, the space experience is invaluable to his research.
"It means we get top quality, high-precision data that cannot be achieved on earth," he says.
Next up for the team is a launch of another phase of their experiment aboard a Russian rocket in 2011.