By Marli Kaufmann
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CONWAY, Ark. (Jan. 19, 2006) - As New Horizons spacecraft launched for Pluto today, it was carrying something truly ground-breaking: the first student-created instrument ever aboard a NASA spacecraft.
Hendrix alum Chelsey Bryant, 26, is part of a team at Colorado University-Boulder that designed a device aboard New Horizons that will count and monitor the density of dust grains as the craft makes its ten-year trek to the end of the galaxy.
"Students have never before built and flown a research, education and outreach device for a NASA deep space mission," said Alan Stern, chief scientist of New Horizons and one of the world's experts on Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
The device Bryant helped create will measure samples of dust that contain the ancient material used to form our solar system. The space dust could provide insight into the solar system's structure and early development.
Bryant, who grew up in Fort Smith, received a bachelor's degree in physics from Hendrix in 2001 and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from CU-Boulder in 2003.
While at CU-Boulder, Bryant said she "got very lucky" when she applied for research work as a graduate student, joining the team that would eventually design and build the space dust collector.
She credits research projects with Hendrix physics professors Dr. Robert Dunn and Dr. Ann Wright for helping her prepare for this project.
"Having research experience really gave me that bump ahead of the other people who applied [to work on the project]," she said.
Dr. Dunn remembers Bryant as an inquisitive and hardworking student. "We were very confident that she would do well in her future studies," he recalls.
With New Horizons' launch, Bryant will see the culmination of years of difficult yet rewarding work. She recognizes that as students, the work she and her colleagues produced is especially impressive.
"You wouldn't think as a college student you get to work hands on an instrument flying into outer space," she said, "especially one going somewhere that no one's ever gone before, so this was just an amazing opportunity for all of us."
Bryant currently works with larger spacecraft at CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics as a professional research assistant.
Leading up to the launch, Bryant was featured for her work on the project in numerous news stories, including coverage by the CBS affiliates in Denver, Colo., and Little Rock, Ark., and on KUAR/NPR and a feature in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"It's kind of exciting," she admits. "My family keeps making fun of me like I'm a movie star."
Liftoff for New Horizons occurred today at 2 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The craft is headed for a distant rendezvous with the planet Pluto almost a decade from now.
New Horizons is the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon, Charon. The mission is to unlock one of the solar system's last planetary secrets. The craft will cross the entire span of the solar system and conduct flyby studies of Pluto and Charon in 2015.
The seven science instruments on the piano-sized probe will shed light on the bodies' surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. Selected this year by the Princeton Review as the nation's No. 4 "best value" college, Hendrix is a member of Project Pericles®, an organization that promotes civic engagement among college students. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.
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Contact: Judy Williams, 501/450-1462, williamsj@hendrix.edu