FOLLOW THE DAILY ON TWITTER
Check out @michigandaily to get updates on
Daily content throughout the day.
5
OPINION
Thursday, May 21, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The two coolest words in the
English language are not “syner-
gistic globalization” or “real-time”
or even “cellar door.” They may not
be the most poetically underused
or grammatically correct, but the
words “space tech” represent some
of the most exciting changes taking
place around us in laboratories, uni-
versities and even high above the
atmosphere, in outer space itself.
First, let’s talk about thrust. Most
of the useful energy of a rocket
launch goes toward putting the
hunk of metal and plastic in Earth’s
orbit — all the fire and explosions
that accompany a SpaceX rocket
aren’t present once you’re a few
hundred kilometers up. At that
point, satellites that intend to stick
around use more passive forms of
rocket propulsion powered not by
chemicals, but often by clean, quiet
electricity. Electric propulsion (EP
for short) is what keeps our TV and
communication satellites from fall-
ing out of their orbits with small
controlled thrusts here and there
carefully vectored through algo-
rithms. It isn’t very strong — exert-
ing forces comparable to the weight
of only a few ounces — but very effi-
cient, often an order of magnitude
more so than its chemical cousin.
As such, EP isn’t just for sup-
porting altitude — long range mis-
sions like the Voyager II, and more
recently NASA JPL’s Dawn mission,
use electric propulsion to traverse
long distances by slowly, steadily
building acceleration. Dawn uses
a state of the art, electrically pow-
ered ion engine to explore two of
the solar system’s largest asteroids:
Vesta and Ceres. It’s the first human
spacecraft to successfully orbit two
celestial bodies over the course of
one mission, and this feat was only
made possible through the use of
its specialized thruster. Here at the
University, we have the Plasmady-
namics and Electric Propulsion Lab
that is working on a number of EP
projects, including the adaptation
of electric propulsion to smaller and
smaller satellites.
On top of propulsion technolo-
gies, research happens all the time
in space. The International Space
Station is an internationally run
space station hanging in low Earth
orbit. One of the major uses of the
station is to study phenomena that
normally wouldn’t be possible on
Earth due to gravity. One of the
more
interesting
experiments
commonly performed involves the
behavior of liquids in zero-g: enter
the ISS espresso machine.
As any workaholic knows, caf-
feine is an essential part of staying
focused when working after hours.
Astronauts are no exception. The
recent SpaceX launch brought a
number of essential supplies to the
space station, including the ISS’s
very first espresso machine, which
according to NASA, “may lead to
new or improved brewing meth-
ods” when it is tested in micro-
gravity. The machine, referred to
as “ISSpresso” also allows NASA
to test their new beverage holder
termed the “Capillary Beverage
Study” which takes advantage
of surface tension and other liq-
uid fluid phenomena to improve
pouring in zero-g. (Try to imag-
ine pouring liquid into a cup when
there is no ‘down’ established
by gravity!)
Finally, let’s talk about the pas-
sion that the development of space
technology inspires, even if it never
makes it to orbit. Here at the Uni-
versity, a small team of students
led by Engineering junior Rob
Gitten is hard at work designing
for humanity’s future in space.
As part of NASA’s Revolution-
ary Aerospace Systems Concepts
- Academic Linkage (RASC-AL)
competition, this group has come
up with a plan to build a 24-per-
son town on Mars. The mission
relies on space tech both old and
new, utilizing both SpaceX’s reus-
able rocket technology and NASA’s
more conservative space launch
system. The RASC-AL team met
every year and recently presented
their proposal at a meeting of the
American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics. With the dedica-
tion of true Wolverines, they are
working for a day when humanity
has a new home in the sky.
Opportunities
like
RASC-AL
bring to light many of the positive
impacts space-oriented technol-
ogy has both on the scientists and
engineers who design it and the
people, like you or I, whose lives
are infinitely improved by it. Satel-
lites bring us pictures of our planet
and others, opening our eyes to the
splendor of the cosmos and our
place within it. Rockets by their
very nature inspire dreams, and
technology, such as electric propul-
sion, is the reality of those dreams
— the end product of what might
have started out merely as ‘what if.’
And coffee in space is pretty cool no
matter which way you spin it.
Arun Nagpal is a rising
Engineering junior.
Exploring space tech
ARUN NAGPAL | VIEWPOINT
advancing to the top sectors in
their field.
At the outset of their careers,
women are almost on par with
the men. Young women — as they
begin their professional careers
between the ages of 25 and 34 —
earn roughly 90 percent of what
their male counterparts earn.
Soon afterwards, the wage dispar-
ity between the sexes expands as
women age. This aggravation of
the gap leads to women between
the age of 45 and 54 earning only
around 76 per-
cent of what
their male col-
leagues
earn,
according
to
the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statis-
tics. As women
approach
motherhood,
the need for
flexibility and
reduced work hours increases.
Likewise, studies published in
both the Journal of Social Issues
and in the American Journal
of Sociology found that moth-
ers were perceived as possessing
lower levels of competence in the
workplace, a perception that can
hinder a woman’s progress in the
professional realm.
Negotiation between working
and caring for children is a deci-
sion women will likely consider as
they choose to begin having fami-
lies. However, one initial step to, at
the very least, reduce the possibil-
ity women will have to delay their
professional or financial ambi-
tions due to domestic obligations
is to improve the nation’s current
stance on paid maternity leave.
Pregnancy and maternity leave
are issues that may never affect
some women’s professional lives,
and at the moment, it’s a situa-
tion that’s extremely distant from
the mindsets of my friends and
me. However, as young women
enter the workforce and the topic
begins to enter the realm of pos-
sibility more and more, prospec-
tive maternity concerns become
an influential force on whether or
not specific career steps are taken.
Due to the fact the Family and
Medical Leave Act only requires
employers to offer 12 weeks of
unpaid leave once an employee has
worked at an institution for a full
year, many women may neglect
switching jobs, or even seeking a
promotion, if there’s the slight-
est possibility they could become
pregnant in the near future.
Currently, the United States
severely lags behind in the assis-
tance it offers to women who
recently gave birth. It’s the only
developed nation that neglects
to offer paid maternity leave to
new mothers, and the United
States and Papua New Guinea are
the only two
nations in the
world that fail
to do so. New
mothers — in
an attempt to
balance
both
caring
for
their child and
maintaining
their
profes-
sional
goals
— often try to aggregate a combi-
nation of sick days and vacation
days in addition to their limited
allotment of leave days to counter-
act this insufficiency.
By refusing to offer paid mater-
nity leave, the U.S. is neglecting a
widely accepted practice capable of
alleviating some of the financial and
professional constraints women
face as they become new mothers.
For women trying to plan their
futures, the desire to adequately
maintain their professional and
personal ambitions is a task that’s
bound to be met with a certain
degree of difficulty. While the cur-
rent outlook illustrates a promising
future where women can continue
to make significant contributions
to society even in the latter half of
their lives, potential motherhood
shouldn’t immediately signify a
regression in their careers. Yes,
the respective balancing act will
someday be very difficult for a mul-
titude of women, and it will be due
to a variety of factors, one of which
is the lack of paid maternity leave.
However, when one factor is known
to financially and professionally
constrain new mothers and has
been remedied time and time again
by numerous nations, why would
we not strive to change it?
— Melissa Scholke can be
reached at melikaye@umich.edu.
Currently, the United States
severely lags behind in the
assistance it offers to women
who recently gave birth.