SMU Mechanical Engineering Student Leads Winning Team in International
Space Station Design Contest
Courtney Fagg, a junior mechanical engineering and physics double major at SMU,
led the winning design team at the 50th annual American Astronautical Society
conference November 15-16, 2005 in League City, Texas. Fagg’s team, the
Medicine/Life Support Team, developed a biome to grow plants on the International
Space Station.
Fagg served as the Deputy of the Medicine/Life Support Team. The team’s
design for a biome included hexagonal piping used to feed mineral-rich water
to plants. Light was provided to the plants by a fiber/sheet optics system of
natural light collected by an outside reflector dish. This design decreased
the space required to grow plants and reduced the heat generated using artificial
lighting. Fagg’s team won a stipend to attend the 44th annual Robert H.
Goddard Memorial Symposium in Maryland on March 14-15, 2006, where they presented
their proposal.
Speakers at the American Astronautical Society conference included Mike Griffin,
NASA chief administrator, as well as speakers from Canadian Space Agency, European
Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In the first ever experimental
student session, university students were grouped into four teams: Robotics,
Habitability, Maintenance, and Medicine/Life Support. The objective of the session
was to develop a proposal to utilize the International Space Station as a testbed
for technology and research based on the team's focus. Proposals were judged
by a panel of two astronauts and one engineer.
Fagg has six years of experience in NASA programs including Texas Fly High
class of 2000, Texas High School Aerospace Scholars class of 2002, 4th Annual
Mars Settlement Design Competition, student internship, World Space Congress
Conference 2002, and the Protein Crystal Growth Experiment. Upon completion
of her degrees at SMU, Fagg hopes to pursue a career with the NASA Johnson Space
Center.
