Space weather - the final atmosphere!

February 21, 2015
An interactive session led by Dr. Ivan Galysh

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) engineer

We will be talking about two sets of satellites, FCAL, MAA, Pollux, Castor which I designed and built for the Navy that were deployed from space shuttles. These satellites were near perfect spheres with the purpose of measuring the drag effects of the earth's upper atmosphere so scientists and engineers can better predict satellite positions knowing how the atmosphere affects the orbits and how space weather changes the amount of drag on satellites. We will also discuss why we need satellites, what is an atmosphere and what is an orbit.

wiki link -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_Neutral_Density_Experiment

Ivan Galysh, a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) engineer, is working to support experiment integration for STP-H5 and on SpinsSat — designed to demonstrate and characterize the on-orbit performance of electrically controlled solid propellant technology in space. In 2013, the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) honored Galysh with the Howard Galloway Spacemodeling Service Award for contributions over the last decade focused on educating and motivating students in the technical disciplines of aerospace engineering. As a mentor and organizer for student teams in the NAR’s Team America Rocketry Challenge and NASA’s Student Launch Initiative national programs, Galysh has spent hundreds of hours each year providing direct hands-on instruction, supervision and motivation to multiple teams of students in grades seven through 12.

After the interactive session the students will be escorted by their parents to have lunch and then to the hands-on portion of the event. There the students will enjoy the experience of interacting with various exhibits from the Virginia Tech community.