2008 Woodie Awards
May the poop be with you
Jeff Weiner
Issue date: 3/24/08 Section: News
A group of UCF students is designing a satellite that will likely be launched into outer space. But this is not just any satellite - this satellite is full of it.
"We're trying to find an easier method or a better way of decomposing human waste, either on the moon, on Mars or during spaceflight," said Thomas Byrd, the project leader and a senior aerospace engineering major. "That's the premise behind the payload and our purpose."
The group has decided to approach this problem on the grandest scale, by launching a satellite into space, complete with a payload of human fecal matter.
It started out as a senior engineering project. Byrd's team of UCF students designed a small "pico" satellite for launch as part of California Polytechnic State University's "CubeSat" project, designed to provide an affordable means for universities to conduct experiments in space.
With the satellite design underway, there was still the question of what material to use as their payload. Byrd's team decided to take proposals from local high school students for different payload options and to build their satellite around the best proposal.
The winning idea came from students at Titusville High School. Their payload of choice: human feces.
"Right now, we're working on the final design of the satellite itself," Byrd said, "as well as getting the ball rolling on the payload design so that we can find the best way to carry out this experiment and relay the information from space."
Once completed, the 10-centimeter cube will be transported, feces and all, to Russia for launch.
The launch system will use the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or P-POD system, developed at California Polytechnic.
In a 2007 report, Parin Patel, project manager for California Polytechnic's first CubeSat launch, explained that the P-POD uses a spring-loaded launcher to fling the CubeSat into space.
"The satellites come out like a simple jack-in-the-box," Patel said. "And then they end up being in orbit around the Earth."
"We're trying to find an easier method or a better way of decomposing human waste, either on the moon, on Mars or during spaceflight," said Thomas Byrd, the project leader and a senior aerospace engineering major. "That's the premise behind the payload and our purpose."
The group has decided to approach this problem on the grandest scale, by launching a satellite into space, complete with a payload of human fecal matter.
It started out as a senior engineering project. Byrd's team of UCF students designed a small "pico" satellite for launch as part of California Polytechnic State University's "CubeSat" project, designed to provide an affordable means for universities to conduct experiments in space.
With the satellite design underway, there was still the question of what material to use as their payload. Byrd's team decided to take proposals from local high school students for different payload options and to build their satellite around the best proposal.
The winning idea came from students at Titusville High School. Their payload of choice: human feces.
"Right now, we're working on the final design of the satellite itself," Byrd said, "as well as getting the ball rolling on the payload design so that we can find the best way to carry out this experiment and relay the information from space."
Once completed, the 10-centimeter cube will be transported, feces and all, to Russia for launch.
The launch system will use the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or P-POD system, developed at California Polytechnic.
In a 2007 report, Parin Patel, project manager for California Polytechnic's first CubeSat launch, explained that the P-POD uses a spring-loaded launcher to fling the CubeSat into space.
"The satellites come out like a simple jack-in-the-box," Patel said. "And then they end up being in orbit around the Earth."