Test Equipment Data Package Completed (February, 2002)
The Test Equipment Data Package has been finished and submitted to NASA for review.  During this time, the team is continuing work on the project and many sections are nearing a point of completion. A compression test has been run at low pressure and the chamber has been pressure tested to ensure stability for experimentation.  Much of the frame and pneumatic assembly is complete pending a few modifications.  The electronics group has many of the needed circuits working and is preparing to create the printed circuit board.  Experiment shakedown and first ground tests are expected to begin in 2 weeks.  More pictures will be posted shortly.

Project Work Continues (January, 2002)
With winter break over and second semester beginning, work on the project has continued. Several members of the team have continued to work on the project over break, making progress in the microcontroller circuitry, structural work, and pneumatics. Several more vital parts of the the assembly have been ordered and are on their way for construction.  The final set of team members to travel has been finalized and the business department is completing the travel plans.

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Testing and Construction Underway (November, 2001)
- The first chamber that was machined by the College of Engineering Machine Shop was rejected due to alignment and leak path problems.  The design was modified and a new chamber was machined by a student team member. The rapid compression device has been assembled and operated at 500 psi for preliminary testing (manual valve actuation limited the scope of the tests).  The chamber held pressure for the duration of the tests. 
- The ceramic lining has been partially fabricated by the COE Machine Shop.
-The windows and seals have been tested successfully; no changes to the design will be made.
-The droplet stabilizer has been tested and holds droplets well under 1-g.  Several new stabilizers with different shaft and bulb dimensions are presently being fabricated by a team member under the guidance of a faculty member in the Chemistry department.
-The pneumatic system has been partially assembled and tested.
-The reservoirs were tested with the rest of the pneumatic system last week and performed very well.  As expected, the reservoirs store enough high pressure gas so that line losses are not a problem.  Gas is delivered very rapidly through the large-diameter high-flow-rate ball valves to the cylinders.
-The camera has been tested in-situ with the backlight and a hexane droplet in place.  A test set of images were captured to provide samples to begin testing image analysis codes.

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Proposal Completed and Further Testing Underway (October, 2001)
The team has completed the proposal and it has been sent to the NASA RGSFOP headquarters for review.  The electronics group is currently in the process of purchasing parts for the first prototype to be built this week.  Thanks to a generous donation by the Mechanical Engineering department, professional machinist time has been available for the difficult processes involving ceramics and steel.  The chamber group is also manufacturing the chamber and associated parts for testing.  The business department has been active with various outreach projects including presentations to 100 EPD 101 students, and the ESTEAM project.  The business department has also recently secured funding from the Electrical Engineering department for parts in the experiment.  The pneumatics group has reached a final design and will be ordering parts soon. 

Proposal Writing in Progress (October, 2001)
The team is compiling all applicable work into the proposal to the RGSFOP program for the 2002 flight series.

Fabrication and Testing Underway (October, 2001)
The new test chamber has been fabricated professionally, and will be tested with the pistons very soon.  The droplet stabilizers have been tested with n-hexane for ability to hold various volumes.  They were successful in 1 G for our sample size.  Reformulations to increase the robustness of their ability are still being examined.  Droplet placement methods are being experimented with.  A new syringe system, using off-the-shelf parts, has been tested and shows vast improvement in parts lifetime.

Preliminary Designs Complete (October, 2001)
The preliminary designs for the chamber, syringe, droplet placement, carrying rack, pneumatic system, and electronic controls have been completed, and are ready to be implemented.

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New Team Members (September, 2001)
We have added 19 new members to the team, bringing our size up to 25 members, and vastly increasing our knowledge base.  New members are from chemistry, chemical engineering, electrical engneering, computer engineering, engineering mechanics and astronautics, and mechanical engineering.   Years in school range evenly across the board.

New Equipment (September, 2001)
The team recently received donations and loaned equipment from the College of Engineering and the Department of Engineering Physics.  This includes computers, tools, basic office supplies, and more desk space.

Expanding Program (September, 2001)
We are seeking new recruits for the team.  To learn more, view the announcement (Word 2000).

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Reservoir Test Successful (August, 2001)
A trial was successfully completed using a compact reservoir system to replace the built-in nitrogen tank.  They visibly better than the tank system.

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Pistons "broken in" (July, 2001)
An automated system was built to work the pistons.  This greatly reduced their friction, making for a much smoother and faster compression sequence.

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