Daily 49er

Issue date: 5/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Mike Yee Deepak Verma displays a replica four-feet-by-25-inch Prospector-14 rocket in front of the Walter Pyramid. Verma's creation gained NASA's interest because of its choice of fuel, methane.

From Martian space probes to experimental wind turbines, Thursday's All University Celebration of Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity featured notable research projects and study findings from Cal State Long Beach student and faculty.

In the front of the showcase were rockets launched by the engineering department. Deepak Verma, a senior aerospace major, talked about the preparation of the launch of a four-feet-by-25-inch Prospector-14 rocket with the help of Garvey Spacecraft Corporation. The rocket's propulsion system uses cryogenic methane fuel.

"Here the methane itself is largely [of interest to] NASA because there is methane on Mars," Verma said. "Theoretically you could produce methane on Mars. So if you could get a rocket that runs on methane, you don't really have to use a propellant. You could use the air."

However, the first time Verma's team tried to transport the methane, it evaporated in the tank.

"The tank itself was really large, and we only had about 20 gallons in there," Verma said. "So when you have a large surface like that, it heats up really quickly, and then it all evaporates.

"In this case, we bought a smaller tank... and you fill the whole thing up and it keeps itself cool," Verma said.

The P-14 rocket was funded by the Air Force Research Lab.

"They're different fundings, because the school doesn't have all that much to provide for such large projects" Verma said.

A miniaturization of a large wind turbine was also on display. Professor Hamid Rahai from the mechanical and aerospace engineering department finished the turbine in 2005 with a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

"We increased the power efficiency [of the wind turbine] from 24 percent to 36 percent," Rahai said. "If there is a wind velocity of up to six [mph] or higher, you have the potential for electricity generation."

The turbine is not a propeller, but a 30-foot cylinder-shaped tube on a vertical axis. Rahai said that birds can see it and they don't fly into it. The CEC has recently started to ask the engineering department to promote the use of these wind turbines.

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