Spaced out sensor

Aggie engineering students develop sensor technology that detects the smallest particle in space, even life on Mars

By: Melissa Appel Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News

Over the summer, a team of Aggies conducted an experiment aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's "Weightless Wonder" that could have results important to future space travel to Mars.

The Space Engineering Institute (SEI) Materials Team is a group of students and faculty from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at Texas A&M. In October 2007, they submitted a proposal to NASA's Microgravity University regarding their experiment, "Analyte Detection via Protein Nanopores in a Microgravity Environment." The team began the design process of their experiment in the fall semester before receiving confirmation by NASA in December 2007 that their team could fly on the "Weightless Wonder."

Inspiration for the design of the experiment came from the patent technology of the single-molecule nanopore sensor chip, developed by Xiaofeng Kang and Allison Ficht, professors in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine. Erin Bishop, a graduate student from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, led the student team in the experiment.

"The program of the SEI Materials Team is to work on a NASA-sponsored project in the development of the International Space Station," Kang said. "The purpose of the team is to design, fabricate, fly and evaluate the effects of gravity on a single-molecule nanopore sensor. This will lay a basement for the sensor as a space life exploration sensor."

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