The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) just announced that the experiment proposal of a Filipino student will be performed in the International Space Station (ISS).
Called as the “Rotation of ‘Dumbbell-shaped’ Objects in Space”, it is one of the six experiments that were chosen to be performed in the ISS for the Asian Try Zero-G (ATZG) 2022.
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The said experiment was submitted by Filipino student William Kevin L. Abran of the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
Abran’s entry was one of the ATZG competition’s 24 international finalists.
The ATZG 2022 competition was joined by eight Kibo-ABC-participating regions. It garnered 201 submissions from 480 students. The proposal was scanned based on scientific significance, safety, novelty, feasibility, and resource requirement.
You can check the winning expedient below:
These images show the procedures and predicted outcomes of the experiment proposed by William Kevin L. Abran. According to Mr. Abran’s proposal, a rigid object, like “dumbbell-shaped rotators”, could be spun about the longitudinal axis and along the transverse axis. It only has two distinct principal moments of inertia, therefore, a rotation along the principal axes must be stable and will not result in the Dzhanibekov effect. It is difficult to physically simulate these motions on the ground without pre-determining the center of mass or without the constant application of force. However, in a free environment, like in microgravity, rigid objects could rotate continuously for a fair amount of time, so it will be possible to observe the long-term stability of their rotations.
Im very proud to our filipino who have given chance to be one of people who contribute on science i wish in this opportunity government will support student who love science and use their imagination and learn in school to make our country productive and can make our own rocket facility and other that about science ♥️😊
What is the expected end result of this test? What benefit? How will it help mankind? Thank you.
We have a good guess on what will happen, though an actual experiment will confirm if the guess is true. I see two benefits:
1. Gather info from actual experiment that will be useful to others. After all, all scientific discoveries and inventions are built upon prior knowledges.
2. Encourage Filipinos, and youth in particular, to participate in the global scientific community.
The results of the stability experiment can be used in the design of new satellites, space stations, etc. Also since objects transition into minimum energy in stable states, the experiment can be used in the design of energy efficient space orbiting systems