Beecken gets Air Force research contract

By Heather Schnese, originally posted on 10 May 2011 at this link. 

A satellite typically costs hundreds of millions of dollars to build and put into space. Physics Professor Brian Beecken will now help the Air Force Research Laboratory/Space Vehicles Directorate design satellites and other spacecraft, such as unmanned space probes to Jupiter, so that they are more resistant and last longer.

Thanks to a two-year award of $80,271 from the Department of the Air Force—Bethel’s first government contract—he will work to model on a computer, using relevant principles of physics, how charges build up on the insulators in satellites and try to predict when the insulators are likely to discharge.

Satellites, which can orbit the earth for years, high above the protective atmosphere and the earth’s magnetic field are hit by high-energy electrons, which then burrow into the satellite’s insulators. This causes charges to build up over time. “This effect is similar to the static charge build up on your body when you shuffle across the carpet during a Minnesota winter,” explains Beecken, who’s taught at Bethel for nearly 23 years. “Eventually the insulators have to discharge. Our bodies are insulators, and we feel the small shock when we touch a doorknob or something metal. When insulators in a satellite discharge, serious damage is caused.”

So, over the next two years, Beecken, who was a NASA Fellow during the summers of 1999 and 2000 working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will partner with Bethel students to combat this damage. Since 1999, he’s worked with 7 Bethel students on this research, and this summer will work fulltime with junior physics major Bryan Wallin. Beecken already presented some of his preliminary results at the 2010 International Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference in Albuquerque, N.M., and was recognized as having the ”Best Paper of the Session.”

“Dr. Beecken’s strong research record and involvement of students in his research makes it fitting that he should be awarded Bethel’s first federal contract. His commitment to both research and teaching courses in the physics major and in our general education curriculum are qualities that make Bethel such a great place for students to learn,” says Deb Sullivan-Trainor, Bethel’s associate dean of general education and faculty development for the College of Arts and Sciences and director of sponsored programs and research for the university. “I am pleased that this award will provide an opportunity for both Dr. Beecken and Bethel students to engage in research for the next two years.”