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Humidity - Blog Posts
Sensing Mars: NASA Co-Op #2 Week Nine
Running trials with the new humidity on my fluid rig showed the fruits of my labor finally ripened. This week I ran three trials to collect data determining if a small business designed Humidity Sensor makes accurate measurements. NASA collaborates with small businesses to solve problems related to upcoming missions. The small business designed this Humidity Sensor so it could measure the humidity on Mars without corroding due to the planet’s chemistry.
Using sensors that NASA is familiar with I ran trial cases to get three different data points and compared those measurements to the new sensor. I created a low humidity environment with a desiccant (drier), created a moderate humidity with ambient air and a high humidity environment with a water bubbler. Using a National Instruments cDAQ (compact data acquisition) I collected data from a thermocouple, pressure gauge and a Vaisala humidity sensor that measures dew point (the temperature at which air can no longer “hold” all of the water vapor which is mixed with it) and mixing ratio (mass of water vapor over the mass of dry air). The new humidity sensor simply gives me the parts per million (ppm) of water using it’s ultrasensitive laser absorption spectroscopy. My other sensors don’t give me a ppm value so I have to calculate it using equations from my mentors “Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics” book.
Building this trial rig was a unique experience because it required knowledge in electronics to interpret the signals sent by the sensors, computer science to write the data acquisition program and VNC (Virtual Network Computing) and chemical engineering to interpret data reported and use correct thermodynamics principles and equations. Next week will be looking at the data and get tangible values about how accurate the new Humidity Sensor is.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Check out the AstrOlympics
See what NASA was up to this week
Apply for a NASA Co-Op
Apply for a NASA Internship
