UND, NASA, and the Air Force forge high-flying partnerships for discovery and education

Government and University leaders, military personnel, and media representatives turned out for the Nov. 7 opening of the National Suborbital Education and Research Center (NSERC).  The site was a hangar at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, where NASA’s premier research aircraft will be based for the next five years.

Partnerships:  It’s what this issue of UND Discovery is all about.  Creating partnerships, cultivating partnerships, nurturing partnerships, maintaining partnerships — they are all key to operating in today’s research environment, according to UND Vice President for Research Peter Alfonso.

This magazine is rife with examples:  public university and private industry partnerships; local, state, federal, and even foreign government partnerships; interuniversity partnerships; even interdepartmental partnerships. 

They come in all colors, shapes and sizes.  And each one is important, is critical, to the research enterprise at the University of North Dakota.

Perhaps there is no better example at UND than the Nov. 7 opening of the National Suborbital Education and Research Center (NSERC), involving partnerships between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and UND, and between UND and the United States Air Force, centering around NASA’s DC-8 “flying laboratory.” 

The DC-8 is NASA’s premier research aircraft.  The highly modified jet can carry 30,000 pounds of scientific instruments and equipment, plus the scientists to operate them, and fly at altitudes from 1,000 to 42,000 feet for up to 12 hours.  Data gathered by the DC-8 have been used for numerous scientific studies ranging from archaeology to atmospheric chemistry.  Under a cooperative agreement with NASA worth more than $30 million over a five-year period, UND will operate the DC-8, carrying international teams of scientists on global missions to conduct experiments and study changes in the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.

The partnership was the brainchild of George Seielstad, director of UND’s Northern Great Plains Center for People and the Environment, which oversees NSERC.  A radio astronomer who has worked closely with NASA for years, Seielstad has been the director of the Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium, a partnership of eight universities in five states.  UMAC, as it is called, was started when Sen. Byron Dorgan persuaded NASA that funding the consortium, which was charged with studying how to use satellite imagery and data to help farmers, ranchers, and other land managers better understand their land, would be a good investment for the space agency and the nation.

Project director Rick Shetter (left) reviews the features of one of the NASA DC-8’s scientific control panels with Sen. Byron Dorgan (center) and Rep. Earl Pomeroy.

UMAC was housed in Clifford Hall, the Earth Systems Science building and the first structure on the UND campus designed to stimulate interdisciplinary thinking and interaction.  The concept has worked wonders.  Just one example: UMAC and the UND School of Engineering and Mines collaborated on the development of AgCam, a special camera which will be installed on the International Space Station in late 2006 or early 2007.  The data collected by AgCam and transmitted back to Earth will help farmers and ranchers, particularly in the northern Great Plains, learn how to better manage their land for maximum yields and minimal environmental impact.  Another example, the development of the Mars spacesuit, is recounted on Page 6.

An interdisciplinarian by nature, as well as by virtue of the building he works in, Seielstad reasoned that the DC-8 could become an even more valuable national resource if NASA would agree to connect the plane’s research missions with educational opportunities for college students.  Under Seielstad’s proposal, the flying laboratory would become a flying learning lab.

NASA had never before explored that option with the DC-8, but officials liked what they saw in Seielstad’s proposal.  They also liked what they knew of UND’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, which has the best collegiate aviation program in the nation and the world’s first interdisciplinary graduate program in space studies, and which operated one of the nation’s two university-owned research jets designed to conduct atmospheric sciences research (see Page 6).  They were also impressed with the work on the AgCam, and with the fact UND counts astronauts among its alums. 

None of these things were new to the nation’s space agency.  Two NASA administrators, Daniel Goldin and Sean O’Keefe, had visited UND, thanks to the efforts of Sen. Dorgan.  In fact, O’Keefe gave the 2004 spring commencement address and arranged for an international first: greetings to the graduating class from an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut who were circling the Earth in the International Space Station.  Earlier, in 2001, astronaut Bonnie Dunbar’s commencement address inspired that year’s graduates to “think big.”

But there were lots of hurdles.  Not the least of them was this question:  Where do you park a DC-8 plane laden with scientific equipment?  Where do you find a runway long enough for the fully loaded plane to take off?

For UND, the answer was the Grand Forks Air Force Base. 

UND’s long, positive relationship with the Grand Forks Air Force Base really took off after the Flood of 1997.  UND leaders, principally President Charles E. Kupchella and his senior associate, Phil Harmeson, have developed strong friendships with the leadership at the Base.  Many of the Base leaders have gone on to key leadership roles within the U.S. Air Force.  They, along with the current Base leadership, were instrumental in forging a partnership that allows UND to store the DC-8 in a hangar at the Grand Forks Air Force Base and use the Base’s brand new runway.

The Nov. 7 event, featuring the “University of North Dakota” emblazoned DC-8, celebrated UND’s partnership with both NASA and the Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Paul Hertz, NASA assistant associate administrator for science, said this agreement will enhance educational opportunities for students and enable both partners “to do great science together.”

The partnership reflects NASA’s confidence in the university, said Sen. Dorgan.  “NASA and UND have had a great relationship over the years, but this is the ultimate partnership,” said Dorgan, who first teamed UND with NASA and has earmarked more than $10 million since 2000 for UND to work with the space agency. 

“I can’t think of a better place in the country to base the DC-8 flying laboratory than UND and the Grand Forks Air Force Base.  We have formed a unique partnership here that builds on the excellent aerospace program at UND and the research needs of NASA.  Basing NASA’s DC-8 is further evidence that the Red River Valley Research Corridor is thriving, and using federal funds to continue this growth is a wise investment for North Dakota and for the entire nation.”

“The partnership between UND and NASA provides excellent research opportunities for our students and brings new, high-paying jobs to Grand Forks,” said North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven.  Five DC-8 crew members, including Rick Shetter, NSERC director, have moved with the plane to Grand Forks, and UND expects to hire 15 more employees.  “This is exactly what our Centers of Excellence program is about.  We’re pleased and proud to be home to this remarkable mission and project.”

“I am ecstatic about the super partnership this project represents — between UND and both NASA and the world’s entire atmospheric science community,” said Kupchella. “Having my own academic roots in environmental science, I am even more proud to see my university involved in this direct way in stewardship of the global environment.”

“It’s a privilege to be entrusted with the operation of this national treasure,” said Seielstad.  “We intend to enable the nation’s best scientists to acquire new knowledge about Earth’s environment so that all of us will learn how to be better stewards of the planet that nurtures us.”

The first mission occurs in mid-January over the Nevada desert, where NASA’s comet-chasing spacecraft, Stardust, re-enters Earth’s atmosphere at a scorching speed.  Scientists want to study how well Stardust’s heat shield functions, information that can be used to help protect future space travelers.

During subsequent missions, teams from across the nation will arrive in Grand Forks.  NSERC Director Shetter said students will have opportunities to observe how scientists from various groups work together, and they’ll get a chance to view the projects up close.  Missions set for 2006 include global pollution studies and research on the origins of hurricanes.