By Gabriela Baron
A “zero-gravity” experiment by a University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) student has been performed on the International Space Station (ISS), according to the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).
ISS astronaut Dr. Koichi Wakata performed William Kevin Abran’s proposal on the behavior of rotating dumbbell-shaped objects in space.
“Maayos naman po ‘yung naging conduct ng experiment. Tama naman po yung inaasahan namin na mangyayari sa mga object na inobserve. Tinest po namin kung magiging stable po yung rotation ng mga object na ito [dumbbell shapes] sa space,” Abran said.
“Tinest po namin ito dahil may mga ilang hugis po ng bagay na kapag pinaikot sa space, bigla po silang bumabaliktad ng ikot nang hindi hinahawakan. Pero napakita po namin na stable naman po yung pag ikot ng dumbbell shapes na ito,” he added.
According to Abran, the study he made was just “simple,” but PhilSA hopes that his experiment would help in the designs of spacecraft.
Abran said he felt “honored” to have his experiment conducted by Koichi and was “satisfied” by the result.
“Hopefully, this initiative inspires more students to continue doing research and be curious about the world around us,” he added.
PhilSA said a scientific paper discussing the results of the experiment will also be published.
Abran’s experiment was among the six experiments, from over 200 submissions across the globe, chosen to be conducted on the ISS. -ag
